A more pressing problem for the Kremlin is the growing estrangement between Russia’s western and eastern halves. Resentment of Moscow and its far-away bureaucrats is rising. There have been grassroots protests in Khabarovsk and in Vladivostok after Moscow raised duties on second-hand Japanese cars late last year, killing off a major regional business. Anti-Kremlin protests are continuing.
In May, Medvedev dropped into Khabarovsk for an EU-Russia summit. The venue — 10 hours’ flight from Brussels — was apparently chosen by Russia to punish the EU’s pampered representatives, several of whom fell asleep during sessions.
Medvedev flatteringly described the far east as his “favorite part” of Russia, and expressed sympathy with students too broke to travel to Moscow. This summer, the Kremlin has introduced a scheme offering discounted tickets to the under-23s.
It remains to be seen whether the scheme will make much difference. In reality, though, successive governments in Moscow have done little to develop the far east — making the region susceptible to civic unrest and discontent. The region suffers from “long-term neglect by Moscow” and “appalling corruption and misgovernment at regional level,” Bobo Lo says.
Despite last week’s show of unity during military maneuvers, the relationship between Beijing and Moscow is no longer one of equals. Russia may see China as an important strategic counterweight to the US — with whom it is currently in conflict over a range of issues, including the planned US missile defense shield in central Europe.
But the Chinese know that it is they, and not Putin’s Russia, who are destined to become the world’s newest superpower. And according to Bobo Lo, China is not interested in allowing strategic accommodation with Moscow to disrupt Beijing’s more important partnership with Washington.
“Washington is still the world’s only indispensable partner,” he says.
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