Grand Inquisitor Vladimir Vladimirovich

David Ignatius, of whom I am a great fan, had an interesting column this week previewing Obama’s trip to Moscow and begging the the question “what does Russia want?”

Ignatius recently visited a conference of Russia-based think tanks under the title “What Does Russia Think” — a question equally unanswerable. The conversation of course centered on Putin. Is he good or bad for Russia?

Just like the immortal chapter in the Brother’s Karamazov, the question remains if Russia’s Grand Inquisitor has truly granted a gift to the people — taking their freedom and returning them security.

There’s a palpable sense here that Putin has brought “miracle, mystery and authority” to a Russia that was severely traumatized by the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The country is certainly less free than it was under Boris Yeltsin, but Putin is immensely popular — and nobody wants to return to the crazy, freewheeling time of transition.

The Russia that Obama will encounter is proud and prickly. The country’s leaders aren’t sure what they want from America, other than to be respected and taken seriously. U.S. analysts talk about a new strategic partnership, but Russian officials are mistrustful of large American designs. They think the United States took advantage of them during their years of weakness, and they’re still licking their wounds.

I think that’s a fair analysis. The conference itself yielded many interesting bits to chew on that add depth to the pros and cons discussion of Mr. Putin.

Putin is the tough guy who put a wounded country back together after the fall of communism. “Russia emerged from the chaos of 1991 with disproportionately large political and socio-psychological scars,” explained Alexey Chesnakov, a former Putin adviser who is director of the Center for Current Policy. When Putin became president in 1999, he brought “authoritarianism by consensus,” said the head of another Russian think tank.

Modern Russia is still anxious, even though it’s more orderly. Russians worry about the jumble of nationalities within their borders and assertive neighbors such as Georgia and Ukraine. It’s an “overheated, overloaded society,” said a prominent anthropologist who, like some of his colleagues, was speaking on background. Nervous Russians are “running away from their freedom,” offered a leading sociologist. With the loss of its empire, Russia is “like an amputated body,” ventured Vyacheslav Glazychev, an urban planning professor who heads several institutes. It has a “horror vacui, a fear of empty spaces,” he added.

What is interesting about this discussion is that Putin’s politics are seen as a representation of the personality of the nation. In some ways he is the anti-Yeltsin. 

At the end of the day, the only answer to these questions is that there is no answer.

“We want equality. We want our interests recognized — to have them considered as significant,” said one Russian panelist. But when Americans attending the meeting asked for specifics, another Russian who is a prominent politician suggested: “The real problem is that we don’t understand what we want.”

And therein lies the problem. Enter the Grand Inquisitor. He will find the way.