October 25, 2006
The Russia of Vladimir Putin
Jack Matlock
Former Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Minutes of the Seventh Meeting of the 65th Year
The meeting was called to order at 10:15 AM by President Joseph Giordmaine. The invocation was led by John Marks. The minutes of the previous week were ably given by Dick Jesser. John Hamel introduced his guest, Max Hartshorne. Visitors included John Fleming, Joan’s husband, Liz Morgan, Perry's wife, Dick Hansen's wife, Carol and Phil Cruickshank's wife, Natalie.
The recent deaths of Harry Anderson and Don Young were noted with a period of silent reflection.
Our treasurer, Tom Cawley's to the point announcement is summarized as "Where's the money" addressed to old and new members in arrears.
Rosemary O'Brien introduced our speaker, Ambassador Jack Matlock. His resume is impressive and long. The title of his talk is "The Russia of Vladimir Putin" Mr. Matlock renamed the talk to "How Things are Moving Under Putin" Because it was wide ranging I have taken the liberty of grouping items.
The segment on External Politics/Economics began with the bad press resultant from the multiple high profile assassinations, all unsolved. The Ukrainian elections were not to Putin's liking. Gazprom therefore turned down the flow of natural gas to punish but the Ukraine siphoned off its need and the ones who suffered were those in western Europe at the end of the pipeline. Obviously the PR was negative. Other external matters involved Georgia and Chechnya and the presence of United States' military forces not only at Russia's margins but in several of its former republics. And the conflicts with the U.S. over the nuclear and political activities of Iran and North Korea are serious. Nuclear weapons do not remain outside of Russia; weapon's grade material are being reprocessed and sold as fuel. Russia feels the U.S. has not kept its promise to reduce its weapons stock. The North Korean nuclear detonation took place only a few hundred miles from Russia. Putin's external problems are real and serious.
Turning to internal politics/economics, the speaker talked first of the troubles converting a command economy to a market one. The price was the creation of the oligarchs and the theft of vast wealth, much of which was exported out of Russia. Prosecutions, jail, and vast fines corrected things a bit. Do not expect corruption to cease as it has always been there and in view of ourselves, we should not criticize Russia. Russian statistics are quite reliable and Mr. Matlock recited the facts of increasing payroll, household incomes and savings all in the range of the high teens to the twenties in percentages per year.
Polls show support for Putin's strong actions and pressures for him to remain in power after his term as President ends. He, so far, is committed not to extend his term, setting a good precedent. And he announced in the past several weeks his intention to remain active in the public arena. The speakership of parliament and the chairmanship of Gazprom both have been mentioned in the media.
Next our speaker assumed the persona of a Russian. Speaking as a Russian, he said we had done what you wished and you had rewarded us by trying to sideline us. You try to control the world and this converted an 80% favorable view of the United States to an 80% unfavorable one. You, the US,. has invaded our space in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and several of our former Asian republics in which your troops are stationed. There is a certain similarity to our presence in Cuba and why should we not respond as you did. The more you try to control, the more we will push back. And you move the goal posts as when you create different rules for us and China to join the WTO or when your Senator Biden uses the Jackson- Vanic Amendment to pressure us toimport more chickens!
The Ambassador then switched to commonalities we have. We are both threatened by Islamic jihadism, by North Korea's and Iran's nuclear and other policies. There is a shared danger from pollution and Russia's is far worse. A less spoken of one is disease. Russia is far more at risk of epidemics and pandemics. One thing not shared is the 38 Russian republics from western Europe to the Pacific.
Ambassador Matlock gave us a thorough and quite positive review of how he felt things are moving in Putin' s Russia.
The meeting adjourned at 11:34 AM.
Respectfully submitted,
Jerome K. Freedman, M.D.
The recent deaths of Harry Anderson and Don Young were noted with a period of silent reflection.
Our treasurer, Tom Cawley's to the point announcement is summarized as "Where's the money" addressed to old and new members in arrears.
Rosemary O'Brien introduced our speaker, Ambassador Jack Matlock. His resume is impressive and long. The title of his talk is "The Russia of Vladimir Putin" Mr. Matlock renamed the talk to "How Things are Moving Under Putin" Because it was wide ranging I have taken the liberty of grouping items.
The segment on External Politics/Economics began with the bad press resultant from the multiple high profile assassinations, all unsolved. The Ukrainian elections were not to Putin's liking. Gazprom therefore turned down the flow of natural gas to punish but the Ukraine siphoned off its need and the ones who suffered were those in western Europe at the end of the pipeline. Obviously the PR was negative. Other external matters involved Georgia and Chechnya and the presence of United States' military forces not only at Russia's margins but in several of its former republics. And the conflicts with the U.S. over the nuclear and political activities of Iran and North Korea are serious. Nuclear weapons do not remain outside of Russia; weapon's grade material are being reprocessed and sold as fuel. Russia feels the U.S. has not kept its promise to reduce its weapons stock. The North Korean nuclear detonation took place only a few hundred miles from Russia. Putin's external problems are real and serious.
Turning to internal politics/economics, the speaker talked first of the troubles converting a command economy to a market one. The price was the creation of the oligarchs and the theft of vast wealth, much of which was exported out of Russia. Prosecutions, jail, and vast fines corrected things a bit. Do not expect corruption to cease as it has always been there and in view of ourselves, we should not criticize Russia. Russian statistics are quite reliable and Mr. Matlock recited the facts of increasing payroll, household incomes and savings all in the range of the high teens to the twenties in percentages per year.
Polls show support for Putin's strong actions and pressures for him to remain in power after his term as President ends. He, so far, is committed not to extend his term, setting a good precedent. And he announced in the past several weeks his intention to remain active in the public arena. The speakership of parliament and the chairmanship of Gazprom both have been mentioned in the media.
Next our speaker assumed the persona of a Russian. Speaking as a Russian, he said we had done what you wished and you had rewarded us by trying to sideline us. You try to control the world and this converted an 80% favorable view of the United States to an 80% unfavorable one. You, the US,. has invaded our space in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and several of our former Asian republics in which your troops are stationed. There is a certain similarity to our presence in Cuba and why should we not respond as you did. The more you try to control, the more we will push back. And you move the goal posts as when you create different rules for us and China to join the WTO or when your Senator Biden uses the Jackson- Vanic Amendment to pressure us toimport more chickens!
The Ambassador then switched to commonalities we have. We are both threatened by Islamic jihadism, by North Korea's and Iran's nuclear and other policies. There is a shared danger from pollution and Russia's is far worse. A less spoken of one is disease. Russia is far more at risk of epidemics and pandemics. One thing not shared is the 38 Russian republics from western Europe to the Pacific.
Ambassador Matlock gave us a thorough and quite positive review of how he felt things are moving in Putin' s Russia.
The meeting adjourned at 11:34 AM.
Respectfully submitted,
Jerome K. Freedman, M.D.