Articles continue to appear about the Magnitsky murder, and the authorities — specifically the "modernizing" wing of them — cannot avoid responding. Must-read. Oleg Tsyvinski and Sergei Guriev: Sergei Magnitsky’s Death Sends a Clear Signal: There Is No Modernization *We know that this death is no longer news. We know that over the past few days, Vedomosti readers have received exhaustive information about this case. But we cannot not write about it. Because without an article about Sergei’s death, it is absolutely pointless to talk about any other aspects of modernization. For Vedomosti readers — and for us personally — there is and can be nothing more important. What difference does it make whether the RTS index is rising or falling, what is happening to interest rates or the exchange rate, if our lives are worth nothing? Is there any point in talking about a professional elite that could support modernization? Is there any point in talking about contract enforcement if lawyers can be taken hostage by the opposing side? Is there any point in discussing how well property rights are protected if the owner has no right to life? *The thing is, all this modernization rhetoric is aimed precisely at people like Guriev and Tsyvinski. One is the rector of the New Economic School, the other a Yale professor. Both hold a more or less loyal political position. Both are ready to respond, both are ready to act. Guriev is even in the top hundred of the presidential кадровый резерв (personnel reserve). I won’t lavish them with compliments here, but as I understand it, Medvedev and Co. envisioned the modernization process precisely as Gurievs and Tsyvinskis joining forces to work for Russia’s benefit under new slogans. Their example would inspire new Gurievs and Tsyvinskis. The regions would produce their own Gurievs and Tsyvinskis. A new miracle elite would finally push out all these Komsomol-and-Party crooks and build nanotechnology for us, a Russian Silicon Valley, a people’s car, and a pill for every disease. The authorities understand that a new (modernized) Russia cannot be built by people whose ambitions fit entirely into this scheme: join United Russia, get into a lucrative state enterprise, siphon money out of it, buy a house in Marbella. You can build a virtual reality of power on such people, but modernization is as far away as the moon. Two months after the publication of Medvedev’s programmatic article, its main intended audience, speaking through Oleg Tsyvinski and Sergei Guriev, is saying: there is no modernization, nor is any intended. And Medvedev, who simply must state his position on the Magnitsky murder clearly and unambiguously, mumbles something vague. He mumbles something vague in response to a simple question: will there be a proper investigation into how lawless cops killed a lawyer because he was investigating their scheme to siphon off 5 billion rubles in budget funds? The new president adopts Putin’s favorite media line: if we react to all this screeching in newspapers and blogs, then the authorities will show weakness. This the authorities will show weakness line is a universal excuse for anything. Magnitsky is here, and Dymovsky, and Gunvor, and police Major General R. Kadyrov, and INTEKO, and flashing blue lights on officials’ cars, and Gazprom. Only there is no modernization. It remains to remind Comrade Medvedev that he and his ideologues did not invent all this commotion because life was good. They did it out of an understanding that the alternative to the modernization scenario is a revolutionary one. We await another article by Guriev and Tsyvinski in Vedomosti, in the Ratio economica section. Only this time under the title: "Torture and Hang, Hang and Torture."