Putin has killed democracy in the name of stability. How the tragedy of the latest election will haunt Russia in the years ahead.
Comment: Russia like some other countries need a strongman like Putin running the government. Here in American too often the government and some people fail to realize that our brand of democracy is not necessarily the best type of government for other countries. Look what happened to Iraq ofter Saddam? kaos!
Comment: I find it very sad when I encounter an American citizen (Blackula) who is not willing to defend the idea of free and fair elections, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and an impartial judiciary.
None of those things exist in Russia in the way that we know them in the West. I'm not embarrassed to defend our system. There is no question that Russia would be better off if these things existed here. The big problem that will hold Russia back over the long term is corruption. I have never seen a country that had one party government that was not inherently corrupt and I have never seen a corrupt country that had a dynamic economy. It isn't an accident that the US and most Western democracies tend to have good economies. Our political system shapes our economic system. Russia is rich with natural resources and rich with human capital but lacks a system in place to effectively exploit those. Connections still count for more than ability here and until that changes, progress may be limited.
Comment: Here in America our government and most of our citizens are so obsessed with the notion of "manifest destiny" that we continue to think that every country in the world must follow our form of democracy to work. This self obsorbed feeling of superiority seems to blind people like the author of this blog to the fact that some countries cannot function without a strongman, a dictator. Putin is one example,Musharaff and Chavez are others. Look what happened to Iraq after the US got rid of Saddam?
Comment: Anyone who is expressing the opinion that there is some danger of Russia overtaking the West hasn't spent much time in Russia. The whole country has plumbing that you can't even flush toilet paper down without creating a catastrophe. I was down in Saint Petersburg this weekend and when you go out to the outlying areas there are construction cranes everywhere. The amusing part is that all of these new (and I imagine expensive) new apartments are being built using the same construction techniques that has resulted in the present stock of crappy housing. Russians from here go to Finland and marvel at how efficiently everything runs and then go home and continue to do things in the same stupid way they have been doing them for the last fifty years. I like Russians and would like to see them do well. But I fear that there is something in the Russian mentality that is going to make progress very difficult. Oil prices and government spending have created better living conditions for most Russians, especially in the cities. Unfortunately, most of their new disposable income is used to buy foreign products because the quality of Russian products is still dismal.
Comment: Matthews is a canndy ass.If the kremlin calls it "managed democracy" then thats what it is.It's none of the west's bissness what or who the peopel of Russia voteing for.Politics are not an open disscussion for all.They are the will of the peopel .The will of the peopel to be governed. So I say ,sorry to be redundent;but personaly if your goimg to atemped some type of govermantal watchdog deal,watch your own f%$# country.If you can pry your selvs from your bank wholdings and remember that peopel suffered in the eastern bloc whel the west went on a oustentaious drug inducsed rampage of retarded capitalistic spending.That was to be the beganimg of the now world order.
Comment: Anon: Interesting! Every Russian I've ever met has been passionate, musical, insightful, and able to play chess with one hand while doing calculus with the other. Of course, in the US we only meet the cream of the crop, those lucky enough to emigrate, but still I'm always impressed. I personally think that if they set themselves to a less daunting task (IE ruling from the Baltic to the Pacific) they'd do better. No culture, no matter how energetic, is able to rule such a gigantic piece of land without straining themselves beyond the breaking point. That's why the US removed itself from the Phillipines, Panama, and Cuba. The grandiosity of Russia's leaders' expansive vision has been used to drug the Russian people with a vision of them ruling half the earth. As a result, nothing ever gets done.
Greg: You're one of those people who demands everything be perfect. Of course, under that kind of worldview, nothing ever gets done. There is a substantial difference between the parties in this country. The Republicans are running on a platform that celebrates the shredding of basic constitutional protections and fundamental American values. The Dems are trying to return us to a national life not unlike the one we've always lived.
Comment: Gregwk, you can't spell. I go to Russia several times per year. The new Russian educates himself, and prides himself in his achievements. We, as Americans, should start to take the same pride, we are getting too lazy. Globalization will catch up to us and the rest of the world would only love to spank us. The Russians take themselves seriously, and try to be perfectionists. One is amazed at the amount of wealth in that country. If we take ourselves seriously and bide our time, we will outlast this current political disaster in Russia and stay ahead of them. Think of what you wish to write, then write it, then check it. Take pride in EVERYTHING you do, personally.
Comment: gregwk, you can't spell.
Comment: One can almost here Putin as he reads this musing something about the pot calling the kettle black. While I'd certainly agree that America is *more* democratic than Russia, America --intentionally or not -- creates the same "protect the status qou" via the staggering cost of its elections. . And really, how many of us really believe that out of *all* the candidates in the Republican and Democratic primaries, that *any* of these candidates pay more than lip service to the electoriate. The mainstram media srves the same purpose in the US as it does in Russia. So while it's OK to live in a glass house and throw stones, let's not kid ourselves about the current state of our own democracy.
Comment: One can almost here Putin as he reads this musing something about the pot calling the kettle black. While I'd certainly agree that America is *more* democratic than Russia, America --intentionally or not -- creates the same "protect the status qou" via the staggering cost of its elections. . And really, how many of us really believe that out of *all* the candidates in the Republican and Democratic primaries, that *any* of these candidates pay more than lip service to the electoriate. The mainstram media srves the same purpose in the US as it does in Russia. So while it's OK to live in a glass house and throw stones, let's not kid ourselves about the current state of our own democracy.
Comment: Flowerdude: It's no wonder that we generally support Putin's goverment - the unprecedent, spectacular bull ran durind the last years tremendously lifted the living standards for the majority of population. it's remain unclear however to what extent the current boom related with only gas and oil. You might see the similar boom in Ukraine the country that doesn't have much energy resourses...
As far as democracy is concerned - the situation is very simply - in the country where the handful of companies generate the bulk of state revenue there is always a limited room for democracy. The US struggle for independence started from slogan - no taxation without representation - in Russia currently we have a negligible tax, just13% flat tax rate regardless of income plus regressive social tax (the more you earn the less you pay). So it's no wonder that the goverment doesn't feel the need to be accountable before people. In effect we effectivly don't have taxation, so how we could demand representation i.e democracy????????
Comment: As usual, there is a lot of BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) going on here. A lot of people reading an article about Russia and jumping at the chance to say "well Bush is worse." I suggest you do some actual critical thinking and research and study rather than jumping on the bandwagon of heresay. The latest release of our intelligence estimate of Iran's nuclear activities is a case in point. That report was released transparently to the American public for us to critique and use for our own evaluations even though it was widely percieved as damaging to the Bush Administration's stance on Iran (although it was not in reality). Would that have happened in Russia, where they have reverted to controlling the media, where they have no political opposition? The article mentions the phenomenon of "useful idiots" during Stalin's time. Perhaps we need te re-visit that concept as there seems to be a new generation of useful idiots here in America.
Comment: In response to RWaters,
Bush's opponents did not release that intelligence report on Iran. It was our national intelligence organizations, who released so as to stop Bush from doing something like he did in Iraq, when there is no justifcation for it. So they bypassed the President and released it to the media. And the release of that report shows how even the intelligence organizations are fed up with Bush. So there's really no way to compare what happened here with what is going on in Russia.
Russia seeks to become a world power and be taken seriously again. Who are we to interfere or criticize them? It would be nice to have world balance by having more than one superpower again.
Comment: Russia's natural resource policy has always entailed leaving the resources in the ground until they're valuable enough that foreign countries will pay for the lifting infrastructure. It's a cunning and profitable policy. Don't sell cheap.
People who advocated expanded drilling in the US want to do the exact opposite thing. They want to encourage energy wastage for short-term economic benefit (or for the avoidence of a little near-term inconvenience.) This is a dangerous policy which will undermine America's energy security and damage our economy in the long run. We must treat our native resources as a savings account balance, to be handled with care, and we should limit as much as possible any extraction of that resource. We must beat Russia ant their own game.
Our liquid petroleum supplies are negilbile and won't really repay the cost of extraction (including the cost of enviornmental risk) right now, so they're gonna stay in the ground. The US has enough coal to last us for a century or more, all we need is to carefully husband it's extraction and use, through higher energy taxes. These taxes will fund clean and efficient technologies like closed-cycle, which will allow us to exploit the resource without pumping harmful CO2 into the air. Nuclear, of course,, is far too expensive, when you figure in the risk to life and property, to be economically feasible in our lifetime, especially if Congress mandates energy cuts and realistic mileage and utility standards..
Comment: If ever there was a time for the US to drill more of our own oil and to get other energy sources up and running to get more energy independence , it is now. With energy prices high as they are and with the implications of so much of our money going out to these other countries like Venezula etc. I am tired of our politicians playing politics and doing nothing except messing around when we could be lowering prices and helping ourselves and our allies be more energy secure. US oil and energy could help the US, lower prices, keep more of our money in the US, and give allies like Japan, Britain and Taiwan a better energy supply. We should not keep prices up, pay through the nose to send money out to places that might not like us too much,a nd have our "energy switch" controlled by them. The left should stop kissing up to the weenies and have more oil drilling in Alaska and elsewhere, and the right should stop playing "perhaps" with solar and hydrogen... and they should BOTH get behind nuclear, allow nuclear fuel reprocessing (which would eliminate a lot of the US nuclear waste problem within a few years by turning spent rods nto fuel as is done in Japan, France etc.) and also allow burning of old tires, which are more efficient and less polluting than coal. Those would be real steps the US could take to cover ourselves and our allies in the new political landscape and to get energy prices down for the american people.
Comment: If ever there was reason for the US to drill her own oil and build more independent energy sources it is now. Much better than letting the dictators of the world hold the switch for all the energy and giving them money. I am tired with oil so high and money going to Putin an dVenezuela everyone still plays politics instead of getting America more energy independent. More and or other diverse power sources in the US would help our allies like Japan and Britain and Taiwan who could buy US oil too.
Comment: Dear Sir,
A small comment on "Nashi" and other youth groups portrayed. These groups are not as numbered and active as one may observe over press reports. The vast majority of youths matching along the streets prior to election were students of no political views or power. They were forced to go on these demonstrations
by schools, colleges, etc.
On the other hand, a sharp decline in education standards in our country will inevitably lead to dangerous trends such as nationalism and political blindness of future generation. It is for the people themselves to educate themselves and their children to eliminate adverse effects of the environment.
Time will tell whether stability alone can work to shape up future enlightenment. My view is that In our age mass media diversity is a prerequisite for morally healthy generation to come.
Comment: The west is wallowing in envy over Russia's Resurgence. President Vladimir V Putin has undoubtedly restored the former Superpower to her former greatness. The Russian people acknowledge this and that's why Mr. Putin remains so incredibly popular. Like Reagan was to America, so is Putin to Russia. He is the father of the Nation and he will defend its soverignty and interests at all costs. Western analysis on Russia has always been pessimistic and utterly self serving and more often than not have proven to be wrong. Who could predict that Russia would be where it is today after the great woes and Ecomonic collapse of the 90s under Boris Yeltsin's western style democracy. The Russians equate Yeltsin with chaos and shame and Putin with Stability and Pride in the same way that Americans contrast Carter and Reagan. If the people want a Czar let them have their Czar. The fact is Russia is on a roll and their is no stopping her.
Comment: You shut up!!!! This article is not about America, so stop worrying about Russia, you retard!
Comment: aa
Comment: It's right, Putin set up power for long time, till his end. He will be dictator like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler. They are her cult figures, idols. He want be idol also. Most dangeros that these idols murdered billions of innocent people (not only in their contry). Reason may be not only war but alcoholism, medicine, hunger, pollution. Russia has first place in military spent, and last place (as Zimbabve) in the life interval of people, already.
Comment: It's right, Putin set up power for long time, till his end. He will be dictator like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler. They are her cult figures, idols. He want be idol also. Most dangeros that these idols murdered billions of innocent people (not only in their contry). Reason may be not only war but alcoholism, medicine, hunger, pollution. Russia has first place in military spent, and last place (as Zimbabve) in the life interval of people, already.
Comment: OK I couldn't finish before so I'll finish now. Yes, shut up non-Americans. Before you criticize our country look at your own and for that matter look at your own comments. There is more arrogance and ignorance coming from your own anti-US comments then there is coming from the average US citizen.
Comment: American citizen here, and no one has to leave because they do not support endless oil wars. Did you write this on your government computer? Has Bush already pardoned you? Or will you be left to suffer for the war crimes and wars of agression? Are you a member of AIPAC/PNAC? Got your visas and passport handy?
Comment: Wow, we have some retards here don't we. We have a mad to be dictator in Russia, fixing elections and killing off his opposition and here we have people claiming Bush is worse and that conservatives want to start another cold war. People grow up. This is just another example of blind hatred torwards Bush overshawdowing your ability to think using logic. First off do some reaserch about Bush and his buddies. (BTW, going on CNN and reading a biased story and believing it before you think about it isn't reaserch. Huge surprise for the most of you.) You'll find that most things you acuse Bush of doing is false. Thats if you have any brian cells left (I doubt that considering the things you say now).
Second, the majority supported the Communists and look what happended to the USSR. Just because alot of people support him doesn't mean he is good.
Further more shut up non-Americans. Hypocrytes.
Comment: Russia's business is her business. If majority of Russians like putin why should they vote for someone else? If the most popular leader gets elected thats democracy. What the west dont like is Russia developing a spine after the 90s. And it Americas disaster in Iraq thats enriching Russkies Iranians Saudis while driving the US Dollar to the toilet.
Comment: Russia???s government is emerging as a sinister fraternity of gangsters, but how can we criticize Russia about rigged elections when we have a record of rigged elections ourselves? Consider the election of 2000, which Gore actually won, but was rigged by Florida, governed by Bush???s brother Jeb. According to Gregory Pallast in Armed Madhouse, 5 to 6 million people were wrongfully deprived of their right to vote in 2004, - or their votes weren???t counted. Most of these voters were African-American or Latino. The entire controversy over the firings of US Attorneys revolved around the desire of President Bush to rig voting in key contested areas, again by profiling and excluding African American voters. We still have done little to ensure that voting machines have paper trails - or that elections are in the hands of non-partisan electoral commissions rather than local political hacks. Republicans are singling out California for a split electoral vote initiative (Not Texas, not Florida, ONLY California.) Why? Because they want to pull the same electoral college fiat in 2008 that they did in 2000. In addition, Newsweek???s own columnist Fahreed Zakaria argues that democracy can only catch on in an economically developed country and that Chile and South Korea only embarced democracy after a period of authoritarian rule. Couldn???t Putin justify his ???authoritarian??? rule for the same reasons? Putin wins my vote for creep-of-the-year, but where did he get his election-rigging inspiration? From US? By failing to govern ourselves like a model democracy, we have set a horrible precedent for everyone else.
Comment: Oh how pure and clean and white as snow America is as it knows how bad Putin is? Yes is always takes a corrupt nation to discover other corrupt nations may I suggest?
Comment: Oh America the pure and clean and white as snow, country, wasting time condemning others! Of vourse birds of the same plumage flock together! It takesa corrupt nation to find other corrupt nations! Example: America loves Communist China and Communist China seem to love America as it is the willing Banker of America!
Comment: There has been a campaign in this country to vilify Russia and is part of the neocon agenda to restart the cold war. That would be the real tragedy.
Comment: That is why the Neo Cons want to stick the missiles in Eastern Europe. Cheney doesn't control Russian Oil. AIPAC/PNAC. Putin beat the Oligarchs, and we should follow his lead.
Comment: This is a fine comment. The "neo-con" agenda, which could also be called the neo-communist or neo-zionist agenda is in direct conflict with any nation or culture of significant power or resources that challenges zionist supremacism. Russia is outside of the western domain i.e. zionist domain and so doesn't have to play along becuase of its massive natural resources wealth and dominant military power. Since the zionists couldn't manage to steal them they use their dominace in the American media to discredite them. I have traveled to Russia many times and its problems are far older than Putin, and to deep for him to really fix, but he is right to value stability over democracy. Hitler and Stalin and the like came to power becuase of bread lines and gripping poverty not the lack of "egalitarian demoracy".
Also Aryan peoples will always follow a figure of power and energy over some sniveling, greasy politician even if the politician claims he came to power in ways that are "fair" and every creed ,color and every dullard ,pervert,or retard got a chance to vote. This is why main stream whites in our country have been "disillusioned" with politics for years. As long as every idiot gets to vote we will keep electing idiots.If a man of intense energy and intellect who loved his own people were in charge of a country with the ecomic might of the us he would shake the world. This is the true nightmare for the "neos". Just becuase the US has a much better stand of living than Russia doen't mean we are currently well governed.
Comment: Mikhail Khodorkovsky! He is a criminal. What about tax evasion and the fact he got his company illegally. The west is always holding up Russian criminals as champions of democracy because they are against Putin. We are talking about stuffing the ballot box not the "fall of Russian democracy", remember the Bush 2000 election.
Comment: It's all relative. It;s a new democracy and some Newsweek commentator is expecting perfection. We don't have perfection here, far from it, and we are over 230 years into it, taking backward steps the last 30 years.
Yeltsin was a complete disaster, and compared to that Putin has done very well. How it plays out later remains to be seen, and he's trying to hang onto power too much, but Russia is in the process of development and finally they have a structure to move forward. Yes, thanks to Russia's oil as well as stability, the average Russian is doing far far better than they did under Yeltsin. Russians voting for Putin know what they are doing.
Comment: "One-party systems are inherently unstable"... right... How many decades has China's Communist Party been stable? That stability has enabled the longest, sustained economic growth the world has ever witnessed.
Comment: It's all relative. It;s a new democracy and some Newsweek commentator is expecting perfection. We don't have perfection here, far from it, and we are over 230 years into it, taking backward steps the last 30 years.
Yeltsin was a complete disaster, and compared to that Putin has done very well. How it plays out later remains to be seen, and he's trying to hang onto power too much, but Russia is in the process of development and finally they have a structure to move forward. Yes, thanks to Russia's oil as well as stability, the average Russian is doing far far better than they did under Yeltsin. Russians voting for Putin know what they are doing.
Comment: Amen, Amerika needs to solve it's Shrub problem. Bush is the Dictator, the Unitary executive. He and Cheney should be impeached. Putin did restore Russia who still has a mafia problem, and Afghani opium killing 80,000 of his people a year. Some Americans have no shame and blinders on as to their support of our problems. Others just use their military computers to pump Bush propaganda into forums and destabilize the opposition. After the last election, Halliburton left the USA. After the next one, I would expect that more traitors and Oligarchs will leave. The remainder, the minions, will be left to stand trial for torture, secret prisons, unlawful wars, and war crimes. Putin at least cares for his country.
Comment: Sounds like Bush is in good company
Comment: Look at Putin's roots. . . .he was, after all, a former KGB officer. Electing him President of Russia was indeed like "asking the fox to guard the hen house". Another good analogy would be "putting a vampire in charge of a blood bank". What do you expect?
Comment: The difference is to be elected president in our country, even if it is Bush-as bad a leader he is, it is for a bound number of years. Not to mention when Bush or any other candidate was running for president peacful protests and opposition was not forcefully broken up nor was there any intmidation involved. When you voted were you forced to vote for a certian party by your state controlled bosses? With this "election" (which by the way is questionable if international vote monitoring services can't even do their jobs) Putin has successfully reinstated despotism in Russia. And a our country is blasting him since he's against US hegemony? Don't make me laugh, the US is agaisnt him because he's destorying democracy in the name of life long power.
Comment: Bush is no where near as corrupt as Putin. Bush has not had his opposition killed, and he has not decided to simply run for a third term regardless of the laws of the country. Putin is going to be the next Stalin.
Comment: Bush is no where near as corrupt as Putin. Bush has not had his opposition killed, and he has not decided to simply run for a third term regardless of the laws of the country. Putin is going to be the next Stalin.
Comment: What has happened in Russia is our fault. we promised support,andonce again dropped the ball and turned our backs..... Left them no choice
autodeskmanager@yahoo.com
Comment: Brilliant article, and bang on the mark. Tsar Putin may fool his own people, but for the rest of the world, they will not so easily be fooled. Welcome to Cold War II with his KGB style tactics, and TU-5 Bear bombers once again intruding into western air space.
The only thing I disagree with this article is that Putin learned well from his training, and a dictatorial Russia is likely to last for many decades as the high price of commodities (oil, minerals etc) will support this regime for a long time after the prices fall. Forget Iran, its Russia where our ballastic missile radar sites will be once again aimed at in the not too distant future.
Comment: I sincerely doubt Russia's election with haunt it any worse than the last two presidential elections here in the States.
Comment: So because a country and it's leader are against US hegemony, they are deemed as undemocratic and corrupt. There are much more corrupt leaders and regimes but they are all submissive to the demands of the US and the Bush administration so we dont criticize them. George W. Bush and his corrupt group of cronies have altered democracy to keep the rich elite wealthy, so how can you criticize Putin? At least more Putin has the support of a large majority whereas Bush has lost almost all support from Americans.
Comment: I love Russia, but I hate Putin... He is a corrupt figure just like George Bush and his inside idiots.
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