WP,pg1: The Rollback of Democracy In Vladimir Putin's Russia

[DeepModem Mom]

Now we understand why Bush looked into Putin's soul, and liked what he saw?


The Rollback of Democracy In Vladimir Putin's Russia
Tenure Marked by Consolidation of Power

By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; A01

This article is adapted from "Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution," published t oday by Scribner.


....The power of paranoia had gripped the Kremlin. For four years, the men around Putin had done everything possible to guarantee that no one could challenge his authority. The government had taken over national television, emasculated the power of the country's governors, converted parliament into a rubber stamp, jailed the main financier of the political opposition and intimidated the most potent would-be challengers from entering the race.

The Kremlin had proved so successful in eliminating competition that Putin's token competitors were now plotting to drop out en masse to protest the manipulation. And Putin's aides feared such a move could result in turnout on election day falling below the legal minimum. If that happened, the prime minister would become president for a month before a new election, putting him potentially in a position to do to Putin what Putin had done to his rivals -- a remote prospect but still untenable for a leader who believed no detail of democracy was too small to be managed. "In his mentality," one senior Putin aide said later, "every risk should be minimized to zero."

The risk posed by (Prime Minister Mikhail) Kasyanov no longer seemed acceptable four years into Putin's rule. By now, the fledgling democracy of the post-Soviet era had been transformed into a system meant to serve one master. The revolution that Boris Yeltsin had started when he helped bring down the Soviet Union in 1991, however flawed, however unfinished, had been ended by his handpicked successor, a man drawn from the ranks of the old KGB. "The Russian people," Putin's chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, regularly told colleagues behind closed doors, "are not ready for democracy."

This account of Putin's rise to power and his campaign to consolidate authority in his Kremlin was drawn from interviews with dozens of Russian political figures, including Putin advisers who had rarely spoken to Western journalists before. Out of fear of retribution, many of them shared their insights on the condition that they not be named....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060601723_pf.html

[newswolf56]

1. Two Constants in the Internal History of Russia

It seems there are but two constants in the internal history of Russia: the profound (and profoundly humanitarian) longing of its intellectuals for liberty, and the profound (and profoundly vicious) obsession of its rulers with achieving absolute power. The outpouring of hope that began in 1917 with the toppling of the Czar and finally focused in the Bolshevik Revolution was betrayed by the self-serving schemes of the Stalinist cult, which in one of the greatest ironies of history ended up re-creating the same tyrannies Lenin and his comrades had overthrown. Now the outpouring of renewed Russian hope released by the collapse of the U.S.S.R. is itself foundering on the reefs of tyranny. How infinitely saddening this is, especially for a people whose literature and music is such an unprecedented window into the yearnings of the human spirit.

[Kagemusha]

2. Uh, tyranny's not the only problem when a state plummets

And this narrative between tyrants and intellectuals totally leaves out the, you know, people...

Let me put it in a simpler way: They want FDR's Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear, etc, and not the Freedom to be Plundered. Until Putin started being more of a 'tyrant' the petty tyrant oligarchs were doing a fine job of fighting for power by themselves. One probably would've ended up president.

But in all seriousness, let's not mourn the longing for freedom by intellectuals when the people are mourning for bread and protection from the upper classes. This tyranny only came after years of hardcore exploitation of the nation. Freedom was not strangled in the cradle by a tyrant. Freedom wandered the streets homeless and hungry before Putin put it in a strict orphanage.

[oscar111]

3. HOMELESS? hungry? Has putin helped them?

our MSM told us of that situation in R. till about '95, when suddenly all such news vanished from msm.

WHAT'S putin done lately for the homeless, if anything?

last i heard in MSM. lifespan over there was down ten years from '9O.
What's it now compared to then?

[Igel]

13. I could swear that Kagemusha was

referring to "freedom", in the abstract, metaphorically wandering the streets homeless and hungry.

I suspect the BOMZh problem's a bit decreased since the early/mid 90s. No evidence on it, though.

[newswolf56]

4. This Narrative between Tyrants and Intellectuals...

In Russia, particularly urban Russia, intellectuals are traditionally seen as the spokespersons of the People. This is the diametrical opposite of what obtains in America, where one of the most successful self-defense tactics of the establishment has been to create a now-forever-unbridgeable chasm of mutual hatred between intellectuals and everyone else.

The Stalinists betrayed the traditional Russian function of intellectuals (and protected themselves in the Great Purge of the late 1930s), but it is so deeply entrenched in Russian society that it reasserted itself soon after Stalin's death.

So when I spoke of Russian intellectuals, I did so in this singularly Russian sense -- "the People" included: not a great conceptual leap when one is writing about a society in which the average eighth grader is more literate (and knowledgeable of history) than the average American college graduate. But I should have made my point more clear, and I therefore stand corrected.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. Welcome to DU, newswolf56

:) :hi:

[HereSince1628]

7. The plundering of Russian was not just "new Russians"

but western business as well. In the bank collapse in Russia in the late 90's, western companies pulled out and took out of Russia many of the common peoples' life savings (even the cavings weren't very much at that point).

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Very interesting posts, newswolf -- welcome to DU!

Your real name isn't Blitzer, is it?
(Just kidding.):)

[salin]

6. I continue to be surprised that the former coldwarriors

backing bush haven't grown nervous by Putin's exceptional record of concentrating power in such a rapid fashion. I would think that folks like Condi - who made careers around "fighting evil soviet communists" (hers done academically - others done in other policy and intelligence areas) would be alarmed by Putin and his moves.

Oh, its no longer the best way to exploit US public fears... so move along - Putin's our buddy....

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Very good point -- an interesting about-face. nt

[emad]

9. Russia is now ripe for freedom revolution, warns Solzhenitsyn

Russia is now ripe for freedom revolution, warns Solzhenitsyn
From Jeremy Page in Moscow

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: "We have nothing that resembles democracy. An Orange Revolution may take place if tensions between public and authorities flare up"


THE former dissident author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has emerged from three years in obscurity with a warning that Russia could face a Ukrainian-style revolution.

The 86-year-old Nobel laureate, who spent ten years in the Soviet gulag, said in his first television interview since 2002 that Russia was not backsliding on democracy because it had never been truly democratic.

“It is often said that democracy is being taken away from us and that there is a threat to our democracy. What democracy is threatened? Power of the people? We don’t have it,” he told Rossiya, the state-run channel.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-1643602,00.html

[plasticsundance]

10. Putin out maneuvers Bush everytime.

Putin will consolodate his power to keep Western influence from encroaching too much into Russia's concerns. Russia sees the threat of US hegemony, with the US in Georgia and the various "stans." Russia is also well aware that the "orange revolution" came about through the auspices of powers in the West, being aware of the West's cynical intentions.

Russia is becoming a major player in the world of oil, and there is a major power struggle over control of existing and new oil pipelines. The US is intensively interested in the Caspin Sea region. This is one reason for the development of the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya. It boasts such fine members as Elliot Abrams, Alexander Haig, Richard Perle, and Casper Weinberger. We all know how dedicated these gentlemen are to global peace and stability. :sarcasm:

Have a look see:

http://www.peaceinchechnya.org/about_members.htm">The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya

Many in Russia suspect the US is fostering Chechnya militants/rebels to disrupt Dagestan. Why? Have another look see:

Dagestan is a Muslim republic, home to more than 36 nationalities in addition to Russians transplanted during the Soviet era. The Republic is mostly mountainous, and although its mineral and oil potential remains untapped, it has strategic importance due to its location on the oil-rich Caspian Sea and its close proximity to Azerbaijan, a main conduit for Caspian oil.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/dagestan1.html">Crisis in the Caucasus

In response to the rebels —who have declared Dagestan's independence and a holy war against Russia— Chechen Prime Minister and former separatist Aslan Maskhadov has announced a state of emergency in Chechnya, increasing the Chechen army's ability to monitor the rebels. Dagestan's Islamic leaders have called the rebels traitors to Islam, while the government has begun to evacuate the Botlikh district where the fighting erupted.

[brentspeak]

12. There's about 2 million homeless children in Moscow alone

A common sight on Moscow streets is to see children as young as 8 years old begging for food.

There is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions in both Russia and the Ukraine.

[Igel]

14. Wouldn't that pretty much be all of them? n/t