Why!

VVP

gov level

...reforms – from the notorious "monetization" to reforms in education, healthcare, and housing and communal services. Based on our negative experience of working with the Government on the law on "monetization," when it did not listen to the public and experts, did not take into account the results of the Council's public expertise on this issue, and, in fact, discredited the very idea of monetization in the eyes of the population, the Council intends to present to the President the results of the public expertise of all announced reforms that affect the interests of the country's population. We hope that this will help, even at the preparation stage, to involve independent experts in the discussion, place the reforms being prepared under public control, and prevent their possible negative consequences for the population. Unfortunately, our high-ranking government officials have not learned any lessons from the negative experience of their predecessors. They have still not learned to reckon with people's opinions when carrying out reforms, do not consider it necessary to explain in detail what they are doing and for what purpose, and have not learned to think about people. Considering themselves democratic, liberal people, they, at the same time, are trying to literally by force impose the liberalization of the economy and the social sphere using crude Bolshevik methods, without reckoning with people. It is this that causes mass protests and rejection among people, and not the reforms themselves or democratic values.

Public Opinion

This is also evidenced by recent public opinion polls. According to the Public Opinion Foundation, the majority of Russian residents associate democracy, first and foremost, with freedom and the rights of citizens, popular rule, and law and order; at the same time, 34% believe that there is still not enough democracy in the country. Incidentally, the majority of Russians – 29% – consider the current times, under President Putin, to be the most democratic. The times of Mikhail Gorbachev's stay in power are considered democratic by no more than 11%, and the years of Boris Yeltsin's presidency are assessed as democracy by only 9% of those surveyed.

Civil Society

All this testifies to the fact that we have a civil society, and it is developing rapidly; people are learning to defend their interests, and the Council's task is to facilitate this. That is why, together with the Human Rights Commissioner in the Russian Federation, the Council is developing a state program for civic education and the cultivation of democratic character.