Conclusion

One final question requiring a short answer. Looking back, you said when you were an academic specialist in the Soviet Union, one of the enlightening experiences for you was seeing the contradictions in Soviet policy, what you knew and what was not known, and so on. Now, as a parliamentarian in a democracy, there must be a great deal of satisfaction on your part as you do the work of democracy in your own country to bring to life problems in foreign policy, to have a public discussion, and to use that platform, both within your own country and internationally, to raise issues. Talk a little about the satisfactions there and what you've learned.

As a matter of principle, certainly, I'm very much satisfied by being "present at the creation," so to speak. We in Russia are still a very young democracy, and we have a lot of illnesses and deviations, distortions which accompany a young, growing system. We are not a well-established democracy like Western European countries or the United States. So being present at the creation of a new Russia is certainly a great challenge and a great opportunity. But we do not think about such things every day. Every day in our work, we're up to our ears in all the controversies and contradictions, and the process of practical implementation of those noble principles. So the amount of frustration from everyday work is really very big, very large.

There are serious problems in Russia. In particular, during the last few years there were important and very negative changes with respect to curtailment of some of the democratic principles -- the freedom of mass media; the freedom and fair conduct of elections; the fair allocation of powers between executive, legislative, and judicial branches between the federal level and the regional level; there were spy cases conducted against a number of scientists by security agencies. And, of course, the war in Chechnya, and the terrorist acts which happened in Moscow, in other cities, in the capital of Chechnya, Grozny. And since I have to deal with that directly on an everyday basis, that brings a lot of frustration. But I accept it as a necessary payment for participating in such an important enterprise, which is building Russian democracy, in general, and what relates to meÑdirectly developing, elaborating, and implementing reasonable and consistent military reformÐin particular.

Alexey, I want to thank you very much for this very informative discussion of your intellectual journey and your journey into politics, trying to shape Russia's future. Thank you very much.

Thank you, that was a great pleasure for me.

Thank you. And thank you very much for joining us for this Conversation with History.

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