After All, Man Is A Complicated Being,

Truth Seldom Is Pleasant; It Is Almost Invariably Bitter.

I Think The Gap Between The Rich And The Poor Is A Dangerous Phenomenon In Russia And It Needs The Attention Of The State. The Only Reasonable Way To Correct The Situation Today Is Not To Go After Big Businesses, But To Give Breathing Room To Medium And Small Businesses. That Means Protecting Citizens And Small Entrepreneurs From Arbitrary Rule And From Corruption. It Means Investing The Revenues From The National Natural Resources Into The National Infrastructure, Education And Health Care. And We Must Learn To Do So Without Shameful Theft And Embezzlement.

The Perception Of The West As Mostly A "knight Of Democracy" Has Been Replaced With The Disappointed Belief That Pragmatism, Often Cynical And Selfish, Lies At The Core Of Western Policies. For Many Russians It Was A Grave Disillusion, A Crushing Of Ideals.

I Was Always Optimistic. And I Held To And Was Guided By My Views.

Voting For Impersonal Parties And Their Programmes Is A False Substitute For The Only True Way To Elect People's Representatives: Voting By An Actual Person For An Actual Candidate.