Domodedovo Airport
The English philosopher John Locke believed that the inviolability of private property was a crucial component of the social contract. A government, he wrote, “can not dispose of the estates of [its] subjects arbitrarily” without ceding its moral authority. This principle served as the bedrock of the American Declaration of Independence and still undergirds republican governments all over the world.
Russia’s leaders have traditionally adopted a different view of property—one in which governmental ownership is the foundation of power. Whether in the guise of a Tsar or a General Secretary, the ruler of the Russian state has always controlled its land as a form of personal patrimony. No one ever recognized any limitation on his/her absolute authority over the country’s territory or the population who lived on it.
The Putin regime continues several parts of this absolutist tradition. Although it does not make the same claim to be “owner of all Russian land and people” as Nicholas II did in the 1897 imperial census, it uses property as a tool of compulsion and control. Those who voice disagreement or offer a public challenge, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky or Boris Berezovsky, can be stripped of their possessions and forced into exile.
The latest manifestation of this tendency comes in the field of aviation. Members of the government decided last week to deny Moscow’s Domodedovo airport the right to expand its runway capacity to meet growing demand. This decision, which the Western media has largely ignored, may prompt several big carriers to defect to the new runways being built at the city’s two other airports. That, of course, will help the state which controls the other facilities and has long been embarrassed by its privately run competitor’s greater efficiency, innovation, and profitability. Chalk up another victory for Russia, Inc. and another defeat for Lockean property rights in the former communist world.
Russia’s leaders have traditionally adopted a different view of property—one in which governmental ownership is the foundation of power. Whether in the guise of a Tsar or a General Secretary, the ruler of the Russian state has always controlled its land as a form of personal patrimony. No one ever recognized any limitation on his/her absolute authority over the country’s territory or the population who lived on it.
The Putin regime continues several parts of this absolutist tradition. Although it does not make the same claim to be “owner of all Russian land and people” as Nicholas II did in the 1897 imperial census, it uses property as a tool of compulsion and control. Those who voice disagreement or offer a public challenge, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky or Boris Berezovsky, can be stripped of their possessions and forced into exile.
The latest manifestation of this tendency comes in the field of aviation. Members of the government decided last week to deny Moscow’s Domodedovo airport the right to expand its runway capacity to meet growing demand. This decision, which the Western media has largely ignored, may prompt several big carriers to defect to the new runways being built at the city’s two other airports. That, of course, will help the state which controls the other facilities and has long been embarrassed by its privately run competitor’s greater efficiency, innovation, and profitability. Chalk up another victory for Russia, Inc. and another defeat for Lockean property rights in the former communist world.
