Representatives of the Russian elite, it seems, did not experience the disaster in a randomly dropped phrases in the style of “no money” or “it seems ridiculous, but people buy”.
At the end of Putin’s zero fat Victor Pelevin wrote a short absurdist story, which in metaphorical form captures the relationship of a new class of the Russian elite and their wealth. Reaching a certain level of extra income, a government official or close to the state capitalist seems to have lost touch with the real world cease to hear and understand the incoming information, while remaining confident that it is still able to view expert’s talk “for a wide range of topics – from football to business.” People that fall into this situation, referred to as the author of “balanuta” and his brave new world – “Space Friedman. To leave this space alone is not the power of anyone, however, and realize that you are already pleased. It seems that the recent increase in scandals with representatives of the Russian elite – from shoes to Dmitry Medvedev’s obviously not a 20-metre apartments Igor Shuvalov show very similar “inter-class” gap.
The scandals associated with luxury and opulent lifestyle of the Russian officials actually introduced the fashion of the Alexei Navalny and his Fund of struggle against corruption. It all started with “shubohranilisch”, hours and the reproof hidden in the West of the assets, and then gradually turned into a real hunt with raids on suburban houses-the palaces of officials and attempts to capture their possession from the height of bird flight. However, the latest investigations seem to be different from the previous one not only by their scale, to indicate alert Runet, as the reaction and attitude the characters themselves. And the apartment of Igor Shuvalov, and Dmitry Medvedev shoes have more in common with the conspicuous consumer behavior of graduates of the FSB on the Gelandewagen or release of Russian players in the Monte Carlo than a honeymoon Dmitry Peskov.
Press Secretary of the President is obviously part of the inner circle of Vladimir Putin, was forced to justify himself to society, and a yacht cruise in the Mediterranean, and for allegedly donated by the wife of the multimillion watch. Igor Shuvalov, who comes from the liberal camp of the Russian elite, is unlikely to have the same direct contact with the President, Dmitry Peskov, to disown the buying of apartments in the Stalinist skyscraper was not in a hurry. On the contrary, managing the family assets of the official Sergey Kotlyarenko emphasizes that legal claims to the Deputy Prime Minister can not be, and therefore public morality are not violated.
Similar situation with expensive shoes the Prime Minister: the problem is not that nobody knew that almost every clothes and shoes the higher bureaucracy is far beyond a few tens of thousands rubles, and that this bureaucrat does not even know how those status things now irritate sharply impoverished electorate
If earlier, for fear of licheni and later the people’s wrath, the representative of the Russian elite has sought to hide its own windfall, or at least excuses, to explain their presence, now knowing that all this must be done with great care, is not happening. Caught in the same “Space Friedman” officials may not feel the heightened public demand for social justice. They do not feel disaster in a randomly dropped phrases in the style of “no money” or “it seems ridiculous, but people buy”.
Attitudes towards inequality in society becomes even more tender, taking into account not only the decline in living standards, but also the proximity to the election. When the money in your pocket is getting smaller, you start to wonder how and who the money out of your pocket takes, increasingly looking up. Voters want to expect from the first issue in the list of the ruling party at least some human solidarity in difficult times, the demonstration close to the people, the very “people”, which, they say, the regime derives its legitimacy. Society, though silently, but in his silence he hoped for the demonstration of greater respect for themselves, their requirements and problems for a couple of months before election day. As if the voter appeals to the conscience of the elite: “Yes, we know that you have the right and do not dispute that right, but guess at least now we don’t show”. However, mere neglect, already overexposed anticorruptionist with the participation of governors and defiant and sassy moves beginners Russian security forces.
Heightened public demand for justice felt by the opposition, but it does not go in her favor. The publication of the FBC about the shoes Medvedev does seem strange that reduce the level of both the previous and future anti-corruption investigations. After liliputskaya protest, it seems, is liliputskaya his agenda, especially noticeable on the background of large-scale journalistic investigations of the Panamanian offshore.
However, the Russian elite are unlikely to be able to abandon the status of consumption even in hard times. Yachts, watches, huge apartments and expensive cars is not the pursuit of a new level of comfort and valeriansee symbols of class status, proof of entitlement, the “elite”. Clans, the towers of the Kremlin and their representatives argue with each other and to themselves that they are not former St. Petersburg or Moscow hooligans and the carriers of the high status of “the new nobility”. Buy historic apartments not only in Moscow but also in other countries, Igor Shuvalov, apparently wants to appear as a real aristocrat, heir to the famous name, thereby legitimise for themselves their own situation and giving the “state service” new conceptual meaning. Thus, the Space of Friedman ” in the face of the Deputy Prime Minister has already successfully reproduces itself.
But especially the amazing “friedmanesque” the behavior of the Russian elite is, if you compare it with the manners of Western politicians and bureaucrats. In developed countries the elite for several decades, proves his “chosen” not luxury items, and, for example, amounts donated to charity. Here and has already become a classic bill gates, and a new generation of American businessmen in the person of Elon musk or Mark Zuckerberg, and beating the record for proximity to the people Barack Obama.
Sociology finds the reason for such altruistic behavior at the origin and surrounded by the current of the rich. If you become the owner of wealth only in the first generation, as most of the current Russian elite, conspicuous consumption in the form of hours and the yacht is element of your old “grass-roots” culture. To get rid of it, if only for your new environment all of these characters already mean little in comparison with reputation, symbolic capital and intellectual influence. Continuing plevinsky logic – it is “antiretrovirai” space, which gradually transformed the most developed Western societies.
However, the existing regime in Russia has no such antidote, and so to meet the second-generation of conditional or Sand Shuvalov, something different from the behaviors of their fathers is unlikely. The spirit of state capitalism and its offspring will spawn all new and new palaces, shubohranilischa and increase the already enormous gap between the public and the elite.
