Putin Out to Fix Russian Election
Russians head to the polls on Sunday to vote in their country's parliamentary elections. Kim Zigfeld warns that it won't be a fine moment for democracy because President Vladimir Putin is determined to manipulate the outcome.
Up to 110 million eligible Russian voters could head to the polls this Sunday to choose a new lower house of their legislature (though in the last election, 2003, there was just 56% turnout). Called the “Duma,” it is analogous to the U.S. House of Representatives except that its members serve four-year terms.
It doesn’t look, however, like it will be one of democracy’s finer moments.
Russians have plenty of reasons to favor change. Nadezhda Pitulova of Transitions Online, writing for Business Week, explains that Russia today is much the same as it was in both Tsarist and Bolshevik times — it has a tiny cadre of elite living high on the hog while a vast unwashed population languishes in amazing poverty. Old-age pensions hover around $60 per month while the minimum living wage published by the government is three times that figure. Five million are homeless, twenty-three million live below the poverty line, and the average monthly wage is only $400 — just $2.50 per hour for a full-time job. Meanwhile, rumors surfaced that Putin may have personally squirreled away over $40 billion in personal energy assets during his tenure. Russia isn’t in the top 100 nations in terms of healthcare quality as rated by the United Nations. The average lifespan of an adult male is less than sixty years.
But because of numerous new obstacles that have been created to block access to the Duma by opposition forces, it doesn’t look like many of these concerns will be very vividly expressed in the new parliament.
In the 1990s, before Vladimir Putin became Russia’s president, the upper house of Russia’s legislature (known as the Council of the Federation) was elected by the people and consisted of the governors of Russia’s version of states (the giant landmass has more than eighty of them).
Today, Putin himself appoints the governors, and hence the entire membership of the upper house (whose speaker routinely calls for Putin to serve as president for life).
Before Putin, individual candidates could run for a seat in the Duma regardless of party affiliation. Before Putin, a political party only needed to have 10,000 registered members in order to get its name on the ballot, and a party only needed to garner 5% of the vote to earn itself Duma seats; those below 5% could form coalitions in order to move up to power.
Today, individual candidates are banned from seeking Duma seats, voting coalitions have also been barred, and parties must have 50,000 members to get on the ballot and must win 7% of the vote to earn seats. A three-party coalition took fourth place in the 2003 elections; none of those parties are on the radar screen this time around.
Though daunting in and of themselves, these legal “reforms” were only the first set of obstacles Putin’s regime felt it needed to place in the path of those who would seek to challenge his authority in the legislature. The extremity of breadth of the restrictions indicates that Putin isn’t really as rock-solid popular as many claim him to be, and that it’s crucial for him that his party, United Russia, dominates the outcome. He’s indicated he may move from the presidency to a temporary stint as prime minister, enabling him to run for president in 2008 against the prime minister who would succeed him when he resigned. He cannot seek a third consecutive term under the current Constitution. To guarantee the prime ministry, his party needs to own the Duma. In a pre-recorded speech to the nation on Thursday, Putin appeared to imply that the nation could not survive voting against United Russia. He said that “we should not allow back into power the people who… want to change and muddle Russia’s development plans [and] return to a time of humiliation, dependency and disintegration.” He gave no further details about his post-election plans.
So, in a double-whammy, Putin then ordered United Russia not to engage in public debates with any rival party, and denied all the others access to state-owned television, radio and newspapers (which dominate the country’s market share). More recently, he instituted Soviet-style price controls on staple household goods, which had seen nosebleed-inducing levels of inflation, in order to undercut any attempt to whip up a grassroots backlash.
Next, Putin ratcheted up his anti-Western rhetoric, referring to opposition parties as “jackals” and warning the the U.S. State Department was seeking to undermine the legitimacy of the elections, and used this accusation as a pretext to ban virtually all foreign polling place observers from the country. After that, Putin started cracking down on domestic observers too. On Thursday, the Moscow Times reported that the offices of an NGO that engages in vote monitoring had been raided on allegations of using pirated software (the same allegations that were used weeks before to close down the local outpost of Anna Politkovskaya’s paper Novaya Gazeta) and its activities ground to a halt. Russia doesn’t have a reliable system of exit polling, making it that much easier to conceal fraud, and in another jolting announcement it was revealed that Putin’s youth cult “Nashi” would conduct its own exit polling, further muddying the waters. Thus freed from any type of oversight, his minions became amazingly bold in expressing their intention, should it be necessary, to stuff ballot boxes in order to guarantee that Putin’s party dominated the proceedings. Putin’s rhetoric became so intense that Leonid Sedov, senior researcher with pollster the Levada Centre, told Reuters that he “would describe Putin as a non-funny version of [infamous nationalist extremist Vladimir] Zhirinovsky. He borrowed a lot from Zhirinovsky in the way he operates, his anti-Western rhetoric, to say nothing of employing salty phrases. And this crudeness, this slightly mischievous behavior, also appeals to some voters.” Sedov speculated that, having stolen so much of Zhirinovsky’s thunder, the nationalist’s party might not make it past the 7% barrier and find itself, too, excluded from the race. Similar speculation was offered about Putin’s efforts to be more “communist” than the Communist Party, his leading challenger.
And finally, aggressive steps were taken to physically crush the last viable elements of the opposition parties. During the campaign cycle, Putin’s police seized millions of campaign brochures, already approved by elections officials, before a leading rival party could distribute them, and forced another party to take down hundreds of its campaign billboards. At campaign rallies the weekend before the vote Russia’s two most famous opposition party leaders, Boris Nemtsov and Garry Kasparov, were both arrested, as were a host of their followers, many preemptively (Kasparov’s book, due to be published in Russia during the election cycle, was suddenly squelched). Nemtsov was quickly released, but Kasparov was sentenced to five days in prison (Kasparov had been more quickly released after his first arrest months earlier, making it seem the Kremlin was probing the West to see how much it could get away with). It was as if George Bush had arrested John Kerry and John Edwards at a rally sponsored by Moveon.org right before he lost control of both houses of Congress, and world leaders condemned Putin’s actions with marked and appropriate severity in their language (even Bush let Putin have it, he who once infamously looked into the dictator’s eyes, saw his soul and found it “trustworthy”). That same week in Russia’s war-torn Chechnya region, two opposition political figures (including one candidate for the Duma) were assassinated. Police even threatened a local party organization with arrests because of jokes they were telling about Putin, and there were rumors of shakedown efforts by Putin’s party to coerce campaign contributions in the manner of la cosa nostra.
With all these obstacles in place, some speculated on the possibility that no party other than Putin’s would be allowed to pass the 7% barrier, leaving Russia with a formalized one-party state similar to China’s. Leading opposition party leader Grigori Yavlinksy told the BBC: “When you have no possibility for independent financing, no access to independent media, no access to independent justice, then by European standards there’s no possibility to become an opposition.” Party leader Nikita Belykh accused the Kremlin of adopting “totalitarian methods” and major opposition figure Vladimir Ryzhkov echoed him, saying the election would be “the first absolutely non-free election since the end of the Soviet Union” and adding: “It’s becoming more and more like Soviet political system, with one centre of power: [the] Kremlin and Kremlin administration, which controls everything – parliament, courts, the party system, media, regional authorities and local authorities. [It's] a pyramid of power headed by one man.”
The Christian Science Monitor called them “Potemkin elections.” Slate said that Putin arrests his rivals simply “because he can” and that the similarities between today and Soviet times were “more than merely visual.” An editorial in the Financial Times bluntly called the proceedings a “travesty” and observed: “Given such a foregone conclusion, it is hard to understand why the Russian authorities are fighting such a foul election campaign. Yet in the system of ‘managed democracy’ espoused by Mr Putin, nothing can be left to chance.” Indeed, even without these measures the parliament was already acting like a rubber stamp for Putin’s initiatives, so it was difficult to understand why Putin felt he needed so many draconian measures, which would surely alienate much of his Western support. Difficult, until you remember that these elections were key to Putin’s plan to remain in power after his second term ends next year.
Ultimately, seven parties ended up making it valiantly onto the ballot despite the long odds, but only two other than Putin’s are currently at 7% or greater support in opinion polls — those being the Communists and Zhirinovsky. United Russia is currently polling at 60% or better (it won less than 40% of the party seats in the Duma four years ago); it only needs to improve on that marginally, by hook or crook, to seize control of virtually the entire body. It seems that Russian law requires that if only one party wins more than the requisite 7% then the highest runner-up will be awarded an automatic 7% share as the token opposition, but there are actually two parties in the race that are fanatically loyal to Putin, United Russia and Fair Russia (led by the Council Speaker). Fair Russia is currently polling around 5%, so it only needs a bit of goosing at the expense of the communists and the nationalists in order to supplant them and hand the entire body to the Putin cadre. Both of the two opposition groups to Putin that embrace Western democratic values, Grigori Yavlinsky’s Yabloko and Boris Nemtsov’s Union of Right Forces, are polling below 1% — and despite that Putin is still so afraid of them that he found it necessary to arrest them and crush their relatively feeble public demonstrations.
Kim Zigfeld is a New York City-based writer who blogs at the Pajamas Media Network blog Publius Pundit and publishes her own Russia specialty blog, La Russophobe. She also writes for Russia! magazine and is researching a book on the rise of dictatorship in Putin’s Russia.
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27 Comments
1. Jacko:Ah, the good old days mass arrest , mass murder , mass starvation . Good times .
Nov 30, 2007 - 6:49 am 2. Natalia:There is no real and constrictive alternative to Putin and his party in Russia. Just live with it! He is really popular, and no money from the West can help så called opposition. Kasparov only needs attention, because he cannot play chess anymore.
Dec 1, 2007 - 7:16 am 3. Josh:Proud Russian
Great article, Kim! You go, girl! Slap that inimical skimpy midget! Meanwhile, a call out to all patriotic peeps — let’s start sacrificing like our great forefathers did, rather than playing Neville Chamberlain, we need to boycott Venezuelan and Russian oil, boycott Sochi 2014, and let them know that we mean business and we will protect our way of life by whatever means necessary.
Dec 1, 2007 - 11:08 am 4. chuck:Natalia,
Those of us old enough to remember the national humiliation during the Carter years should be able to understand why you Russians like Putin. He gave you back your pride and honor. He is your Reagan.
if we expect every country to resemble us in political preferences we’re going to be in for a very disappointing and lonely existence. And to be perfectly selfish, we need a strong Russia, and equally Russia needs us.
Hopefully our next president and Mr Putin, in whatever office in the Kremlin he will occupy, will have the wisdom to see this.
Believe me, Natalia. When the USA and Russia quarrel, China laughs.
Dec 1, 2007 - 11:54 am 5. Josh:Chuck,
Dec 1, 2007 - 2:29 pm 6. colleen:If you hate democracy so much, why don’t you move to Russia and see how wonderful life is under Putin. Hey, maybe you can get killed like a journalist, wouldn’t that be wonderful? It’s a shame that America has to tolerate people like you. Yes, we tolerate you, but we will fight you to the last to make sure that you do not spread your poison rot into anyone else’s mind, you comatose freak!
josh, why do you sound so desperate?
Dec 1, 2007 - 3:51 pm 7. Josh:Colleen,
You’re right, I am desperate to save my country from surrender monkeys who would undermine democracy at home and abroad. In case no one told you, we’re in World War Three. Instead of making excuses for inimical skimpy midgets like Putin, we should be working on ways of rolling back Russia, and pushing it into the abyss.
Dec 2, 2007 - 1:28 am 8. chuck:“we”. joshiykins, who is this “we”? Maybe you live in in some imaginary peoples democratic republic of moronia and possess the authority to exile and worse. Me? I live in the USA, a federal constitutional republic, whose founders went to considerable trouble not to establish a “democracy”. Study our history, you little fool. Of course you’ll have to learn to read first.
Now if I may talk to any adults here, the world is not a very nice place and to preserve our little patch of law and decency we’re going to have to find “business partners” out there. We may not like them, or they us, but necessity can make good bedfellows.
Our enemies are China and Islam. They are Russia’s too, who has them for neighbors. .
Dec 2, 2007 - 5:43 am 9. chuck:“we”. joshiykins, who is this “we”? Much as I would like to visit Russia someday, I don’t thing arranging it is entirely your call. Maybe you live in in some imaginary peoples democratic republic of moronia and possess the authority to exile and worse. Me? I live in the USA, a federal constitutional republic, whose founders went to considerable trouble not to establish a “democracy”. Study our history, you little fool. Of course you’ll have to learn to read first.
Now if I may talk to the adults here, the world is not a very nice place and to preserve our little patch of law and decency we’re going to have to find “business partners” out there. We may not like them, or they us, but necessity can make good bedfellows.
Our enemies are China and Islam. Small world. They are Russia’s too, who has them for neighbors. Additionally, we need Russian oil to free us of the mid east loonocrats. Russia, demographically challenged, needs us to help her keep Siberia and its oil fields, which are easy pickings for China.
Cold-eyed self interest, instead of hysterics, would pay both nations richly. Energy. Natural resources. Trade. Investment. Prosperity. Mutual security. Overwhelming military power. The US and Russia in fair and equal partnership could make the world safe for themselves. And the rest of the world? They can rip each others’ throats out for all I care.
We really have to stop the Russia bashing. No good will come from it.
Dec 2, 2007 - 6:05 am 10. Dan:“We” need a strong Russia?
Only a catastrophically ignorant person such as yourself, Chuck, or a typical Russian droid like Natalia, could possibly imagine that. The world needs a weak Russia. Whatever virtues as individuals Russians may have, and I would never deny them, these are incidental to their national culture: collectively, they are a thug nation, and one can only hope that long-term US/West European policy is to reduce Russia to Great Russia, entangled with the excitable Islamic principalities/khagantes around its periphery, as Putin’s strategists fantasize. This, of course, is probably not happening, not least because of its impracticability.
Nevertheless, for at least a century it has been common for the West to misunderstand Russia as a European power with a messy Siberian appendage, probably because it’s inhabited most publicly by white people. The truth is rather the opposite of that: Russia is a typical Asiatic conquest society that adapted Orthodox civilization in order to “be like big men to South which have buildink and chanties like what prettier than KEEV.” That’s pretty much it. Suck it up, you deluded Russophiles.
Dec 2, 2007 - 7:50 am 11. colleen:it has been said recently that if there is a world war iii, the role that the nazis played in world war ii will probably be played by the neocons.
the majority of americans are against them but unfortunately they have hijacked our country and, well, brought it to ruin. they have alienated our allies, cursed on international law, invaded helpless (yet strategically-vital or natural resource-rich) countries (on false pretenses no less), curtailed our freedoms in every possible way, and brought us to the brink of total economic collapse due to their fiscal incapability and overseas military engagements.
the way i see things playing out, russia’s rise will humble the neocons. they will realize that the ideas of an “american empire” are hopeless and act more prudently, bringing stability and order to the world.
only russia can play this role of balancer because it has the teeth to back-up the bark. and not just because it was a former superpower and possesses the largest nuclear weapons stockpile on the planet, but also because it has a history of defeating, in miraculous fashions, the two most recent names in the conquering realm, hitler and napoleon.
i know that the world has totally changed since then, but, still, hitler’s and napoleon’s fates, are very much in the mind of cheney and mccain.
russia’s rise and its increasing alliance with other powers like china, india, france, germany, italy, and israel will probably be enough to bring the age of american hegemony to an end on peaceful terms, without a bullet being fired.
that is why “we” need a strong russia.
Dec 2, 2007 - 9:58 am 12. Candide:Dan,
I understand you personally would be very pleased to see Russia reduced “to Great Russia, entangled with the excitable Islamic principalities/khagantes around its periphery”.
What I can’t understand is how that would benefit “US/West Europe”? And what would happen to all the lands east of Ural mountains?
Please elaborate.
Dec 2, 2007 - 10:35 am 13. Candide:colleen,
You said, “russia’s rise and its increasing alliance with other powers like china, india, france, germany, italy, and israel will probably be enough to bring the age of american hegemony to an end on peaceful terms, without a bullet being fired.”
That was a parody, right? Please tell me it was a parody of ‘Josh’ and ‘Dan’. Otherwise you need mental help even more than they do.
Dec 2, 2007 - 10:49 am 14. Jay:Dan said: “Nevertheless, for at least a century it has been common for the West to misunderstand Russia as a European power with a messy Siberian appendage, probably because it’s inhabited most publicly by white people. The truth is rather the opposite of that: Russia is a typical Asiatic conquest society that adapted Orthodox civilization in order to “be like big men to South which have buildink and chanties like what prettier than KEEV.” That’s pretty much it. Suck it up, you deluded Russophiles.”
First of all, as an Asian myself I think that you are trying to use the connotation of being “Asian” as a sort of derogatory remark. It is not and you are a racist.
Second of all, there is no question that the continent that has unleashed the most “conquering” and the more blood and carnage onto the world has been the continent of Europe. Fighting themselves to the death, killing millions and millions of Africans or Native Americans or Pacific islanders, spreading their predatory claws anywhere anyhow – you name it the Europeans, and now the Americans, have done it.
Finally, you ought to know that Hitler himself called Russians “semi-Asiatic” and “sub-human barbarians” While giving orders to his men to aim to arrest and imprison the French, for example, he ordered that it would be preferential to kill the Russian “sub-humans” (soldiers and civilians) instead of holding them captive. That is why Soviet deathtolls in W.W. II reached 27 million.
So, Dan, you and your buddy Adolf can suck it.
Dec 2, 2007 - 11:41 am 15. Natalia:I am in shock about the level of discussion. In 5 to 10 years Russia will be the 3-4 biggest economy in the world. Russia is in interesting process of developing democratic institutions and traditions, which never exists before and after the revolution. Average russian is about 25 times richer, than person from China, and vi are much better educated, than americans. Thank you for being interested in my country. Visit us. This is much easier, than to get through Dulles International.
Dec 2, 2007 - 12:02 pm 16. Dan:Well, I don’t have all day to expain it, so I suppose I’ll just direct your attention back to my previous comment, and ask how a nation with such a character could possibly be better if it were stronger – keeping in mind such specific actual examples as, say, the Russian responsibility for Iranian nuclear “program.” I don’t pretend to know all the consequences of Russia’s reduction to its Great Russia heartland, but presumably it would monopolize all industry and military installations in territory previously under its control (recall that Russia could give much, much less of a sh&t what the international community says than the USA). Without any oil and nuclear weapons, the Muslim steppe people would be just as they are – roamin’, sheepin’, ululatin’, beatin’ their b&tches, arguing about whether Muhammad ate with his left hand or his right hand on Sundays when the moon was half full and goat was being served cold rather than hot, and so on. Moreover the little petrol-station states of the Arab and Islamic “world” would be forced to punch more at their weight – which is to say, not at all. There would be no Uzbek/Kyrgyz/Tatar position vs. the USA against which to triangulate and impose their idiot little quarrels on our need to monitor the loathesome tribes of Swat. In short, the entire Asiatic landmass would be far far more interested in beating each other into deeper idiocies, as has been their timehonored traditions. We need these people to NOT be able to project their tribal ambitions out into the rest of the world – and this includes, foremost, Russians.
Dec 2, 2007 - 4:30 pm 17. jay:Dan said: “Nevertheless, for at least a century it has been common for the West to misunderstand Russia as a European power with a messy Siberian appendage, probably because it’s inhabited most publicly by white people. The truth is rather the opposite of that: Russia is a typical Asiatic conquest society that adapted Orthodox civilization in order to “be like big men to South which have buildink and chanties like what prettier than KEEV.” That’s pretty much it. Suck it up, you deluded Russophiles.”
Dan said: “In short, the entire Asiatic landmass would be far far more interested in beating each other into deeper idiocies, as has been their timehonored traditions. We need these people to NOT be able to project their tribal ambitions out into the rest of the world – and this includes, foremost, Russians.”
Dan, you apparently have a problem with Asians and as an Asian-American I must say that I find your comments completely lacking in an historical basis and, frankly, racist.
I think that I can count the number of Asian conquerers in one hand. 14th century Mongolia and 20th century Japan are the key examples (with Japan, it was all inter-Asian conquests, except for Pearl Harbor). I can also give you the Persians who faced the 300 Spartans in B.C. times and the Muslim empire that conquered North Africa and southern Europe up until the 15th Century.
At the same time, Europeans have killed each other en masse. When they weren’t killing each other, they were colonizing, “civilizing, or enslaving Africa. And what they did in Africa they also did in the Western Hemisphere, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific. Europeans have tried to invade Russia and ruled India. Of late, the baton has passed to the United States, which has bombed Japan and Vietnam; and invaded Afghanistan.
You are joking yourself by thinking that Asians are any sort of “conquerers.” Compared to the Europeans, Asians are isolationists.
By describing Russians as Asians, which they may or may not be, you are also repeating exactly what Adolf Hitler said. He called Russians “sub-human” barbarians and “semi-Asiatic” to justify his invasion and project to his people an easy victory (lol). While ordering his army to hold captive French soldiers, the order was to kill “semi-Asiatic” Russians. That is why the Russian death toll in World War II was so great, at over 20 million.
Obviously your mind is worped, so you and your friend Adolf could suck it.
Dec 2, 2007 - 7:54 pm 18. Candide:Natalia,
Stop dreaming and get back to reality.
I’ve visited Russia last year. There are significant improvements, especially in comparison with Soviet times. However, there are still many problems: criminality, corruption, dysfunctional body politic.
There is nothing particularly interesting about Russian ‘process of developing democratic institutions’. Russia is going through the same steps as Spain, Portugal and Chile went before. That’s where Russia is politically: twenty years behind Chile. And I hope they will be able to follow the example.
This is not all bad. Spain, Portugal and Chile did develop into prosperous democratic states eventually. I hope with all my heart that 10 years from now Russia will be able to join them and other developed nations. But there is lots of hard political work ahead. And knowing Russian history, it’s very easy to feel apprehensive about the chances of Russia making it. Again, I hope I’m wrong.
Also, please stop saying ‘vi are much better educated, than americans’. That is just silly.
Dec 2, 2007 - 8:43 pm 19. Josh:I’ll tell you what country is really behind another. Venezuela voted down Chavez’s referendum, while Russians voted in favor of Putin’s neo-Soviet party. What this proves is that Russians are 20 years behind Venezuela. We Americans should pat ourselves on our backs for our referendum victory in Venezuela, the vote reflects our tireless efforts to promote democracy there. Now we should turn all of our attention to Russia, the source of much evil, to make sure that the people there are also made to understand that if they do not choose the path of democracy, that they will pay dearly for it.
Dec 2, 2007 - 10:33 pm 20. Natalia:Wellcome to “pajamas univers”!
Dec 3, 2007 - 1:20 am 21. Chatty Kathy with the Salt Water Taffy:Busy destroying potential enemies and ..creating a lot of new!
For yous information: Russia is the member og G8. The result of USA pressure on Iran was iranian revolution. People in Russia don´t want the revolution igen Рthey want peace and evolution.
Use semiotic analyse, if you anderstand, what I mean.
By the way, congratulation for bringing “democracy” to Irak.
Can anyone deny that Putin would be the hot Russian lit professor at a liberal arts campus near u?
Dec 3, 2007 - 9:10 am 22. chuck:Natalia,
I don’t understand your kind of government, but it seems to suit you Russians and that’s good enough for me.
The USA has been very foolish and wasteful of its good fortune. Dark days ahead, I’m afraid.
But, Natalia, even though Russia is on the mend, it is still weak and fragile. It will take decades to rebuild your population. But don’t be sure you will have decades, not with China and Islam for next door neighbors. Don’t make the mistake the USA did, and alienate your natural allies, which, despite everything, Russsia and the US are. You need us. We need you. Hopefully, your President? Prime Minister? NarKom? Czar? Putin will have the wisdom to see this.
Lastly, I’d love to visit Russia sometime, but it’s best to wait until tempers cool and our poor dollar recovers.
Dec 3, 2007 - 3:38 pm 23. Natalia:Russians choose not ideology (we don’t have any now) or Tsar Putin, but Stability and Economical growth. Some of you: you are thinking old fashion.
Dec 4, 2007 - 2:15 am 24. chuck,:NY is a sleepy town in comparisson to Moscow now. The best time to go is from may. And I suggest russian style hotel National with Kremlin view. It wiil be fun eating breakfast will blinis and caviar and have this view.
Natalia,
Do you get to see much of the USA or only NY? Just curious.
Dec 4, 2007 - 7:41 am 25. Candide:Natalia,
You are absolutely right to emphasize the lack of ideology in new Russia. Most people just can’t appreciate how important it is.
Strong Central Power, Stability and Economic Growth are very good for Russia, just like they are good for the US and any other country. Anybody saying otherwise is either a fool or a liar.
So you have solved one part of the equation. Now you need a strong legitimate democratic opposition. There will be no progress without it. So there is a lot of work to be done.
Dec 4, 2007 - 7:57 am 26. Josh:Natalia, what you (ie Russia) really need is a democracy life-coach. We in the West are willing to help. Russians must stop acting like petulant evil children, and start accepting the fact that they need to learn from us in the West FOR YOUR OWN GOOD and not because we’re trying to control you. We want to make your country beter, when are you going to stop “rebelling” and start listening to us? I use the child analogy loosely because in this case, the child has his hand on the nuclear button, and as we all know, sometimes to protect other people’s freedoms, if a child behaves too inimically and poses too much of a threat to his neighbors, then he can be tried as an adult. And punished as a adult. Even if that means the ultimate punishment. Ponimaesh?
Dec 4, 2007 - 2:54 pm 27. Maria:I’m so lost… I didn’t know there is so much hostility towards Russia in the minds of Americans. “We-need-weak-Russia”-blah type of thing. Also, where are those paternalistic attitudes coming from? “We need to teach you”, “learn from us”, etc… First of all, there’s no such a thing as a universal formula, democracy is 1)multifaceted and 2) not necessarily the best solution, and to assume that “American values are universal” (as Condoleezza Rice once said) is at best ambitious.
Dec 6, 2007 - 3:13 amEach time I go back to Russia, to my home town I’m most pleased to see how it develops… I guess, what I’m trying to say is that this is what matters most for us Russians at this point. Putin IS popular among the population, and for good reasons. And seriously, it is very possible that we will figure out our own way. To impose a model that successfully worked for someone else is not necessarily a good strategy.
Thanks!