Life in Putin's Russia: "The right to commit crime has become part of official privilege."

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Life in Putin's Russia
By Julia Latynina
Sunday, June 22, 2008; B01

(NOTE: The author of this piece includes many examples of violent, and nonviolent, crimes which I have not included in the posted excerpt. Click the link for details.)

....The most striking thing about everyday life in the Russia of Vladimir Putin (and make no mistake, it is Putin's Russia, despite the election of a new president, hand-picked by the great man) is the incredible corruption of the courts, the police, the special forces -- all the institutions that are supposed to uphold law and order in a democracy and that in Russia today have been transformed into a cancer that's devouring the state. Consider these further examples....

***

Strange but true: It's not only ministers, their wives and their children -- as well as their lovers -- who are going unpunished, but also high-priced prostitutes, high on cocaine, with important addresses in their little black books. Crime in Russia is hardly being investigated....

***

Is this the legacy of the Soviet past? Not at all. In the Soviet Union, criminals were thrown into prison along with the dissidents. Is it the legacy of former president Boris Yeltsin? There was nothing like this under Yeltsin. This is the distinctive nature of the Putin regime....

The right to commit crime has become part of official privilege. If the victim doesn't raise a fuss, no one is punished. If the victim appeals to the public, he or she is harshly punished. The very fact of appealing to the public is perceived as a challenge to the regime. But who laid down these rules of the game? Who never punishes his friends? Putin....

***

In the West, people read that Putin has restored Russia's power and strengthened the ruling hierarchy. This is the image that the PR agencies he has hired are trying to project. There may not be democracy in Putin's Russia, they say, but there is order. Don't buy it. The Russian authorities aren't in control of the country -- unless we consider their ability to throw any businessman in prison and seize his company to be control. And yet these guys really think they're strong -- and that the measure of a ruler's strength is the amount of cash in his bank accounts.

(Julia Latynina is a Russian journalist, novelist and radio host. This article was translated from the Russian by Outlook assistant editor Zofia Smardz.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/20/AR2008062002596_pf.html

[katmondoo]

1. No wonder Bush saw his soul mate in Putin

Two of a kind

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Russia's caught on to how capitalism works.

Welcome to the free market, comrades.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. You're not supposed to think like that.

[DBoon]

4. If Mussolini's regime had survived...

it would look a lot like Putin's Russia - a corporate state, run by criminals, where opponents are brutally murdered

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. Yep, the hegemony of the Mafia, which Mussolini all but obliterated, was effectively usurped

by Mussolini's cronies.

However, the Mafia had become as American as Mom and apple pie in the eyes of the far right in the US, so they freed Lucky Luciano and appointed him to high office, I think, in Sicily - and, of course, restored the Italian Mafia to its former glory.

[Igel]

6. "Julia Latynina is a Russian journalist, novelist and radio host."

I can't comment on her journalism or radio work, but her novels are usually best sellers. Not necessarily with the proletariat (although they sell well among that group, too), but among more educated Russians.

For some reason, I'm tempted to search Yandex to see if she's on Radio Ekho Moskvy. (Ah, I did, and she is. It's about the only thing close to an independent Russian radio station on the net that's not cuckoo, whackadoo a la Pravda.)

She writes political and economic thrillers, with the occasional anti-terrorist novel, and usually does a lot of research to make them seem realistic.

I have some of her novels on my shelf.

Now, it's been noted that while the media have been cooked al dente covered in Putinesca sauce, the arts have not. Novels are still easily brimming over with wild-eyed anti-communist, anti-Putinite ideas, songs are still easily out of step with the feverish Putinalia that forms the basis of modern Russian political culture.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Thanks so much for this info! I was curious about her, but...

got distracted with other things and didn't get back to following up. It did occur to me that she must be a brave woman.

I remember in another article I posted that the point was made that TV is left alone pretty much, except for the nightly news watched by almost everyone -- which is strictly controlled by the government.

[Tutonic]

8. Ok. I think that I'd think carefully about going outside after denouncing Putin

He is a game changer--if you get my drift.