Russia held its parliamentary elections Monday, which attracted global attention, as it was treated as a forerunner to Vladimir Putin's presidential election next year.
The result of the election pleased many Western media. Putin's United Russia party did far worse than expectations, despite widespread accusations of vote-fixing and ballot-stuffing. Compared to the 64 percent of the vote achieved last time, United Russia received less than half of the vote this time. Some thus commented that Putin's invincible aura had been taken down a notch.
Many people in Western countries have not changed their doubtful attitudes toward Russia. They have already painted some dark colors for Russia's future in their own heads. But, no matter whether the Western countries can receive or tolerate a Russia with a different political stand to them, Russia will insist on its own road to revival, which will be decided by the history and cultural tradition of the country.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia suffered a period of downturn. The once-powerful Russia suddenly left the center of world economics and politics. In many areas, Russia's influence became smaller and smaller, and people began to forget about this country. This kind of situation was abnormal.
In recent years, Russia began to show the momentum of revival. This kept pace with its mighty government, as well as its steady economy and society. For such a large country as Russia, the meaning of stable development might be more profound and lasting.
Jim O'Neill, an economist who coined the term "BRIC," writes in his new book The Growth Map: Economic Opportunity in the BRICs and Beyond that Russia does not need rapid economic development and it only needs to avoid crisis. O'Neill holds that if Russia avoids crisis, its GDP will exceed Italy's in 2017, exceed France and the UK's during 2020-30, and finally exceed the GDP of Germany.
According to the prediction by related Russian organizations, the per-capita income of Russians will reach $29,400 before 2020. With another 12 years of stable development, the Russian economy will reach the level of the moderately developed countries. Russia will no doubt show its splendid revival at that time.
Generally speaking, a world power with leadership ability must have four basic qualities. It must have a certain scale of GDP and a decently-sized middle class. It must play an important role in global financial economy, and it must become a setter of standards in the international financial economic system. O'Neill mainly talks about the first two qualities of Russia. The latter two must be achieved through reform and opening-up.
If Russia is just satisfied with self-sufficiency, its target of becoming a great power will be hard to achieve. There is no free and stable development in the world. A country should keep forging ahead to avoid crisis and ensure stability. From this point of view, Russia needs not only the insistence on its particular way of development, but also innovation and reform to achieve its goals. Reform is indispensable for the rise of any power in the world.
The parliamentary election shows that no matter who the president of Russia in the future is, he will face many challenges in reform. The most important task is figuring out how to satisfy the desire for reform among normal people. Russian leaders must find a new motivation for the stable development of economy and society, instead of returning to the old road the Western countries walked in the past.
The age of blindly following the guidance of Western countries has passed. Russian citizens are concerned most about the stability and development of the country, instead of following democratic paths of other countries. A stable multi-polar world cannot be achieved without Russian revival. This is a key issue that some Westerners must understand.
What kind of reforms will Russia use to achieve its target of revival? This is the point the whole world should pay attention to.
The author is a senior editor with the People's Daily. dinggang@globaltimes.com.cn