Leadership Quote by Alexander Rutskoy

Democracy, in Rutskoy's framing, is less a lofty ideal than a blunt instrument: elect, then police. The sentence is built like a mandate, not a meditation. "Must" does the heavy lifting, turning participation into obligation; "power" is repeated as both premise and prize. Even the plainness reads as strategic. In a political environment where institutions are contested and loyalties volatile, the safest rhetoric is the kind that sounds like common sense.

The intent is twofold. Publicly, it plants a flag for popular sovereignty: leaders derive legitimacy from voters and can be disciplined by them. Quietly, it’s a warning to incumbents and a hedge for the speaker. Accountability talk is rarely neutral coming from a sitting vice president in a turbulent state. It can function as a pressure tactic against rivals in government, a way to frame opponents as afraid of scrutiny, or a preemptive defense against being scapegoated when the system breaks down. "Hold them accountable for their actions" avoids naming mechanisms (courts, parliament, independent media) because naming would invite immediate conflict over who controls them. Vagueness is a political shield.

Context matters: post-Soviet politics made "elections" aspirational and "accountability" contested. In that setting, the line reads less like civic instruction and more like a claim over who gets to define legitimacy. It’s democratic language with a survivalist edge: if the people are sovereign, then whoever stands closest to "the people" gets to challenge the state.