MOSCOW, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Kremlin's top strategist onFeb. 15said Russia must maintain tight political control if it is to successfully modernise its economy and compete with China and the United States.
Deputy Chief of Staff Vladislav Surkov, a key architect of Russia’s political system, rejected calls for political liberalisation to foster innovation.
"We have a school that teaches that political modernisation — by which is meant political debauchery, ‘anything goes’ — is the key to economic modernization," Surkov told the Vedomosti business daily.
"There is a different concept, to which I hold, which considers the consolidated state as a transitional instrument, a tool for modernization," he said. "Some call it authoritarian modernization. I do not care what it is called."
Surkov, who heads a commission to boost the high-tech sector, said Russia was also under external pressure from China, the United States and Europe to move quickly from dependence on natural resources to high-value manufacturing.
"We are in a vacuum between three growing giants," he said.
Liberal critics say the Kremlin will be unable to build an innovative economy without easing political controls established during Vladimir Putin’s 2000-2008 presidency.
But Surkov insisted the Kremlin’s tight grip was vital.
"The 1990s in Russia showed that splitting society does not create any positive energy.
"If we again have discord, disorder … it will not occur to anyone that there would be investment and growth in Russia."
Russia’s economy contracted by 7.9 percent last year as the global economic crisis destroyed demand for key exports such as oil, gas and metals, ending a decade-long boom. Surkov said modernisation was essential.
"The old economy cannot seriously improve the lives of people. We are at the limits of our capacity to address social problems," Surkov said.
There have been relatively few protests in Russia since the start of the economic crisis, but Russian media reported that an opposition rally of 10,000 people in the western region of Kaliningrad last month had alarmed the Kremlin leadership.
President Dmitry Medvedev has called for efforts to boost Russian civil society and root out corruption in the court system, but Surkov made clear the changes would not happen overnight.
"You can’t create democracy in three days … you can’t turn a child into an adult just like that," he said.
