Quite fitting that the BBC posted two articles about Russia indicative that Russia is bound for more of same rather than possible change.
While the now elected Medvedev was portrayed as the man to steer clear of the hard handed Kremlin-Konsensus under the rule of one man, his victory speech was littered with outright statements of keeping in line with Putin's policy directives. To that end, he is quoted as saying that he will work in an "effective tandem" with Putin as his soon to be appointed Prime Minister.
Onward Russia, Inc.
1 comment:
The entire election was a joke. It's actually funny to think about how much the country has changed in only a few years. Or maybe the country hadn't changed, but we had just been deluding ourselves into thinking that it was possibly democratic. Only one year ago, I was genuinely ambiguous as to whether I believed that Russia was a democracy or not. True that Putin had severely limited or crushed anything resembling free speech, but he had pleased the middle class by propping Russia back up on the competitive global market. He enjoyed, what was it, almost 90% approval ratings? And I think those were real approval ratings--I don't think they were fabricated or reflected a sense of "brainwashing" in the public. The people really do love Putin, for the most part.
Now, however, Putin and his cronies have removed all ambiguity for me. From claiming the arctic to running for Prime Minister, to barring any semblance of a free and fair election, I really think there is no way we can call the regime "Democratic" in any sense of the word. And public opinion doesn't cut the mustard this time. Many people genuinely liked Stalin back in the day.
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