Deep State in Russia - Reality or Utopia?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The deep state is the political core of the ruling class that has developed historically in a particular state. The defining criterion here is the nature of the political system. The Russian imperial project is a historical inevitability, which means that a Russian deep state is inevitable. Its founding fathers are now working at their best, and the fruits of these labors will be seen in the next generation of politicians.

Exploring the theme of the essence of the deep state, as well as its Russian version, first of all, one needs to switch to another political language in order to understand the essence of the phenomenon.

The deep state is the political core of the ruling class that has developed historically in a particular state. The defining criterion here is the nature of the political system. The Deep State is a political roof of officials fed by big business. The absence of an economic basis for such feeding in the form of a socialist system of state property eliminates the basis for the creation of a deep state.

That is, the deep state is where private or feudal property dominates. State (state) property does not lead to the emergence of a deep state, since there the bureaucracy is consolidated only according to the ideological criterion and the criterion of economic interest is completely absent there.

State property creates a situation where the bureaucracy does not identify itself with the state, but is alienated from it, surrendering its interests at the first opportunity to personally enrich itself. Private or feudal property creates a situation where, according to Marx, "the bureaucracy privatizes the state." That is, the success of the state becomes the personal success of the bureaucracy. However, such a motive requires special conditions, the creation of which the deep state is busy with.

Gustav Dore. Gargantua's food. 1854

Take the US military expansion into the Dominican Republic in 1960-1965 as an example. The official reason is to protect American citizens. But before more than ten thousand American soldiers landed on the island, all American citizens had already been taken out.

The unofficial reason is the prevention of communism in order to prevent the Cuban scenario. However, the real reason is the large number of government officials in the United States who have been feeding off the sugar industry complex on the East Coast of the Dominican Republic.

The feeding of officials by corporations is expressed in various forms of financing their lives and activities. Direct bribery and bribery, introduction of shareholders, various grants, payment for lectures, books, speeches, financing of political activities - there are many channels through which the bureaucracy sucks money from big business. So the interests of business become the interests of officials, and politics turns into business with the creation of an ideology of covering up commercial interests.

That is, the deep state is the political servants of big business, which not only serves capital, not only plows its way, but also actively directs its expansion in one direction or another. Calculates risks and develops ways to neutralize them. The deep state is an expert-political core serving the interests of big business. The merger of business and government is so deep here that the border is not visible, and it is impossible to understand who is in charge of whom.

In Russia, the problem with the deep state is that Russian capitalism is very weak. His strength is enough to buy up lobbyists for the sake of forcing internal laws, but all this concerns benefits and protection from the state. Historically, Russian capital has not matured to a political order for servicing external expansion to penetrate foreign markets. He has not yet captured the inner space of Russia, what can we say about moving outward?

The need for a deep state arises when capital rested on the limits of growth within its state. When the cup is full and starts looking for where to pour it next. But when the bowl is half empty, talking about it is premature. First you have to think about how to fill the bowl to the brim.

Victor Denis. Capital. 1920 (fragment)

The presence of Gazprom and Rosneft, which have managed to create a circle of political lobbyists claiming to be the deep state, cannot be considered sufficient for the emergence of a full-fledged deep state a la russe. All other economic actors of Russian capitalism are too backward. The emergence of a deep state in Russia requires the emergence of large corporations in the technology sector. We need our own General Motors and General Electric.

Remember? "What's good for General Motors is good for the United States." This is the instruction of the customer to the performer. That is, at least both of them already exist. This is a sign of readiness to create a deep state. Our Franco-Japanese AvtoVAZ or the Perm Engine Plant are not yet ripe for such a declaration.

All this does not mean that a circle of political protection of big business has not developed in Russia. It exists, but so far it looks more like a racketeer than a deep state. Russia also has the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, but it is more of a protective trade union than a powerful customer. The RUIE is still too weak to formulate requirements for ensuring global expansion. Although it is quite possible that from the depths of the RUIE, State Duma deputies, veterans of the intelligence community and an expert pool of analysts, a Russian version of the deep state will eventually grow.

The specificity of the moment in Russia is such that capitalism, born 30 years ago, realizes its national interest. He has already passed the stages of birth and growth and is now entering the stage of maturation. To create conditions, he needs control over the financial system. Now the specificity of Russian capitalism is such that national finances are in the hands of external control. This completely changes the motivation of both business and the bureaucracy that protects it.

The deep state in such circumstances would be either a branch of a foreign deep state, or a split community, where sovereigns are at war with the compradors. It is in this struggle that the deep state is emerging, which desperately needs both a sovereign financial system, and its work for its technological growth, and the presence of satellite states that reduce it to a sphere of influence and control.

Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs

Kremlin.ru

Another specificity is the impossibility of directly separating the financial system from the external circuit. Such a break in a weak state, depending on the calculations for exports and imports, will lead not to amplification, but to disaster. Consequently, such strategies will be required (and they are possible) when the sovereignization of the financial system will be carried out in a state of maintaining integration into the international financial system.

These are the tasks by solving which the Russian deep state is capable of emerging as a self-sufficient phenomenon and serving the goals of national development. All these processes are now underway, they are already visible to the naked eye, but their crystallization will take the coming years and decades.

The Russian imperial project is a historical inevitability, which means that a Russian deep state is inevitable. Its founding fathers are now working at their best, and the fruits of these labors will be seen in the next generation of politicians. In fact, the transfer itself is the process of creating a deep state. There are simply stages that take time to complete, but the movement itself is in this direction.