Putin on the dictator act
posted at 10:07 pm on November 26, 2007 by Bryan
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His police arrested and reportedly beat chess master/political opponent Garry Kasparov on Saturday.
A judge ruled Monday that former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has to serve out the five-day jail sentence he received after leading a protest of President Vladimir Putin that ended in clashes with police.
Kasparov was convicted of organizing an unsanctioned procession, chanting anti-government slogans, and resisting arrest Saturday, eight days before parliamentary elections.
Chanting anti-government slogans is a crime? In this country, it’s the animating principle of the dominant political party. Anyway.
Several journalists have been shot over the past year or so, and last month the Russian government shut down a popular meeting place for journalists.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Saturday, October 27, condemned the closure by Russian fire authorities of the House of Journalists, a popular meeting place for reporters in central Moscow.
Russia’s parliamentary elections are coming up on Sunday, and while Putin isn’t on the ballot for another term, his party, United Russia, is on the ballot and is expected to win a landslide. Ahead of that Putin is running an advance game of slamming the US and strongly hinting that the bad days of the dangerous Russian bear are back.
President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. of pressuring respected international monitors to stay away from Sunday’s parliamentary elections, a decision that hurts the credibility of balloting that is expected to bolster his power.
The election monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had said that Russia has so severely restricted its ability to watch the elections that it could not monitor them.
But Putin blamed the State Department for persuading the OSCE not to send the monitors in order to delegitimize the vote, saying at a political meeting Monday that relations with Washington would be affected. He also warned that Russia was building up its military so that “no one puts his runny nose into our affairs.”
And he’s ripping off a page from Hugo Chavez.
On Sunday, the official state Rossiya television station broadcast a documentary describing Russia’s liberals as U.S. stooges. The documentary claimed Washington wanted a popular uprising in Russia similar to those that helped pro-Western leaders take office in Ukraine and Georgia.
We may be seeing the emergence of the Russian version of China’s Communist-capitalist one party style authoritarian government. The way the Russian system is set up, United Russia will dominate the next parliament and might be in a position to change the constitution to allow Putin to retain some or all of his power. That will be something to watch for. Chavez is attempting something similar right now, though the polls are starting to shift against him. Putin may learn from that experience and improve on Chavez’s move. Between now and Sunday the crackdown is likely to continue as Putin uses the power of the state to stifle and smear his opposition.
You can take the man out of the KGB, but you can’t take the KGB out of the man.
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I believe that this was already polled for in Russia, either to test or to prepare the waters. If I remember correctly, the majority said great idea! and Putin commented that he wasn’t going to do that. (A statement not to be taken seriously I’m sure).
Spirit of 1776 on November 26, 2007 at 10:14 PM
Paranoia, vodka and loud Tchaikovsky could put the whole Cold War thing back into play.
Hening on November 26, 2007 at 10:15 PM
Thug.
Zorro on November 26, 2007 at 10:16 PM
From Mobster Putin to Czar Vladimir, just a title change.
paulsur on November 26, 2007 at 10:17 PM
Every populace deserves its leader.
Entelechy on November 26, 2007 at 10:18 PM
That assumes, of course, that Putin hasn’t been rigging elections. The Russian people are wonderful, and I hate the thought of them falling under the rule of another dictator. They do not deserve it. Not at all.
Slublog on November 26, 2007 at 10:21 PM
We should not be surprised by this. Comrade Puti-Pute feels that Russia has been humiliated because it lost the cold war to America. He is STILL a KGB colonel, and will behave as such. He is not going away.
When the Kirsk sank, a relative of one of those unfortunate sailors (may they Rest In Peace), was loudly complaining and criticizing Puti-Pute during a “news conference” one of his agents jabbed her with a syringe filled with God-knows-what to knock her out.
Comrade Colonel Putin.
The False Dervish on November 26, 2007 at 10:25 PM
I love the sentiment Slublog. If they’d really wish to be free, they would be. They had all the chances and not much has happened. It’s easier to yearn for ‘lost power’ and feaux prestige than to work hard. I love the Russian people no less than any of you, perhaps even more. However, they disappoint me greatly for not getting rid of their thugs.
It is with much regret and sadness that I repeat that every populace deserves its leaders. If the Russians don’t act now, it might be nearly impossible later. Some people just like ‘benevolent’ dictators. It’s a very corrupt society, ruled by a form of the mafia.
Entelechy on November 26, 2007 at 10:35 PM
This is troubling, to be sure, but the fact remains that there is little fertile ground for democracy in Russia. Those protesters are a vast minority.
Russia has always been a culture whose people look to strong leadership. They do not have a “cowboy” culture of independence. The people do not believe in deliberation with a loyal opponent, for the most part. Leadership requires crushing your enemies, having near total control, and doing what you will. The idea of checks and balances is fundamentally absurd to them.
It’s not just Putin, it’s the people. Yes, there was an uprising over Communism, but because it failed. As long as the people are reasonably well fed, Putin could stay in office forever. And that’s not counting on his pandering to Russian nationalism, which is always a big thing for them.
Sydney Carton on November 26, 2007 at 10:38 PM
Listen to Entelechy on this, guys. She has personal experience living in a country ruled by the likes of Putin. None of the rest of us do.
Bryan on November 26, 2007 at 10:38 PM
Also, never forget that soldiers of any state are the children, siblings, and other relations of that populace – therefore they must be ‘bought’ to suppress their own.
Entelechy on November 26, 2007 at 10:39 PM
We have no enemies.
Everything is fine.
Just don’t look back.
JellyToast on November 26, 2007 at 10:39 PM
Yes, I know how you feel. I wonder why they are so unwilling to embrace true freedom. It’s frustrating.
Slublog on November 26, 2007 at 10:47 PM
I looked into Vladimirs eyes and I saw….. …Stalin!
Scary.
JayHaw Phrenzie on November 26, 2007 at 10:48 PM
Describing Russia’s Liberals as US stooges.
Not so much the US part,but Russia’s Liberal’s
as stooges,we got them in Canada,the United States,
and now they’ve got them in Russia,(sarc)good lord
it looks like there coming out of the woodwork,and
right under the nose’s of the KGB.
They tried a good PR campaign,but Putin wants
Russia to stay as communist Russia.
canopfor on November 26, 2007 at 10:49 PM
YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO MAINE!
Just kidding. I understand how she feels. I just hate the thought of my Russian friends falling under the iron grip of a new Soviet-style dictatorship.
Slublog on November 26, 2007 at 10:49 PM
Mr. Putin’s government is unique in history. This Kremlin is part oligarchy, with a small, tightly connected gang of wealthy rulers. It is partly a feudal system, broken down into semi-autonomous fiefdoms in which payments are collected from the serfs, who have no rights. Over this there is a democratic coat of paint, just thick enough to gain entry into the G-8 and keep the oligarchy’s money safe in Western banks.
But if you really wish to understand the Putin regime in depth, I can recommend some reading. Go directly to the fiction department and take home everything you can find by Mario Puzo. If you are in a real hurry to become an expert on the Russian government, you may prefer the DVD section, where you can find Mr. Puzo’s works on film. “The Godfather” trilogy is a good place to start, but do not leave out “The Last Don,” “Omerta” and “The Sicilian.”
The web of betrayals, the secrecy, the blurred lines between what is business, what is government, and what is criminal–it’s all there in Mr. Puzo’s books. A historian looks at the Kremlin today and sees elements of Mussolini’s “corporate state,” Latin American juntas and Mexico’s pseudo-democratic PRI machine. A Puzo fan sees the Putin government more accurately: the strict hierarchy, the extortion, the intimidation, the code of secrecy and, above all, the mandate to keep the revenue flowing. In other words, a mafia.
- Gary Kasparov
Hum, kind of reminds me of someone here on the U.S. scene.
MB4 on November 26, 2007 at 10:51 PM
Bryan is correct. However, I don’t aim to earn an “absolute moral authority card” on HA. It just makes my skin crawl, having been suppressed by a communist regime, having witnessed the exhilarating 1989, and all which followed, at the loss of lives, and the risk of so many more lives, only to see Russia revert to such thuggery, while the lambs just roll over.
Why is this not happening in any of the other satellites?
Venezuela infuriates me.
Russia makes me sick to my stomach. Once gained, freedoms s/b retained with all forces and resources. How can a free people, after what they’ve been through, give that up? Inexplicable, and unpardonable. Where are the young? Where is Gorbachev? Or is he also afraid to be killed? Or is he too busy making speeches for millions of dollars?
Yes, what Slublog says is true in China, North Korea, Cuba, Burma, Iran. Those are existing pure dictatorships (don’t claim any exception for China, please).
Entelechy on November 26, 2007 at 10:51 PM
Now, now…Hillary isn’t that bad. :-)
Slublog on November 26, 2007 at 10:52 PM
Wouldn’t you agree that that is a factor of history? I mean the great democracies of the world have common roots. Just from the British Isle you have America, Canada, India, Australia, etc. Didn’t go from the Magna Carta to the D.o.Independence in one weekend seminar. It might just take some time.
Spirit of 1776 on November 26, 2007 at 10:58 PM
Indeed there are many criminal enterprises who have assumed the mantle of political legitimacy. Like so many Mussolini and Tojo. Then it was oil now it’s Nuclear Rights. Seems to me that there are parallels to pre WWII geopolitics but squared. We like to think we could have stopped WWII if we had only had the will. We will say the same of the next conflagration. I think many of us see the spiraling down to chaos and see also it cannot be stopped any more than it could be stopped then. I used to think “how could they have let it happen?” Well now I see. We want to rely on reason and compromise and cooperation between nations. Unfortunately, with criminal regimes our idealism is our weakness that becomes their strength. It takes a great deal of treachery and grief and destruction and blood and sorrow to convince us that hope is lost and blood and steel can only be met with blood and steel.
ronsfi on November 26, 2007 at 10:59 PM
Beatings will continue until morale improves. A winning strategy, no doubt. For the people of Russia – who have become jaded to a corrupt government and police system – they will vote their “mob mentality” and choose whatever system profits them. It’s unfortunate, but true.
thedecider on November 26, 2007 at 11:08 PM
We had 20 years to help Russia transition into a great ally of ours. During that time, our state department basically thumbed our noses at them and said, ‘haha, we WON, we WON, we WON’ and did nothing to improve relations between the only two scary countries on the planet.
We should have made deals with them and their nuclear arsenal. Instead, Russia has done what it has had to because they had no help. Now this is the result of neglect from the world. They have to have someone to lead them. The previous leaders were waiting for help from the good ole US of A. Putin ain’t waitin no more.
The US State department could have avoided this as much as the taser cop traffic stop guy could have avoided his jacka$$ery.
ThackerAgency on November 26, 2007 at 11:25 PM
ThackerAgency, the U.S. have extended more hands than is possible to list here. Such cooperation, howerver, doesn’t garner as many votes for ‘nationalism’. Also, an extended hand into thin air, is just that, an extended hand. Another one actually has to grab it.
It’s like this – Putin could have gone in history as a great man. Instaed he’ll go in history as a thug. The Russian people let him.
Entelechy on November 26, 2007 at 11:30 PM
Its depressing to see Russia backsliding like this. You see much of the former Soviet Bloc progressing and improving, and you wish the Russians would do the same.
Bad Candy on November 26, 2007 at 11:35 PM
Fire up the gulag fires, it’s going to be another long winter.
And don’t forget to bring your blanket.
Dusty on November 26, 2007 at 11:39 PM
Well, looks like the next ten years will be long. Propping up the Afghan govt, the Pakistani govt, the Iraqi govt, kicking Iran’s butt, and now we may have to have another arms race with Russia and once again destroy their economy. Sheesh you would think some folks would learn.
boomer on November 27, 2007 at 12:06 AM
By now it is too late. Our state department has done NOTHING to help them. You say we have done ‘too many to count’, please count ONE thing that the US has done to help Russia.
There were reports in the 90’s that they were paying their teachers with vodka because they did not have the money to pay them with (oil was about 10 dollars a barrel then too).
AT THAT POINT the USA should have done something to try to prop up their economy as a good will gesture. . . and in return possibly get some agreement on their nuclear arsenal. Just because they didn’t have any money and their government collapsed didn’t mean we ‘won’. As long as they have their nuclear arsenal, they are as powerful as they ever were. . . even though guys like Cheney and Rumsfeld love to laugh about how we ‘won’.
The Pentagon and State Department did NOTHING to help them. We even derided them for their internal War On Terror in Chechnya. . . how’s that for ‘friendship’. When we want them on our side for our little ‘War On Terror’, do you think they forget how we treated them for Chechnya?
Our state department dropped the ball concerning Russia because ‘we won’. Now we will pay the price for a long time to come.
ThackerAgency on November 27, 2007 at 12:27 AM
This is actually my biggest gripe against the Clinton administration. I don’t care about his sexual misconduct because it wasn’t against the law. The lying was why he was impeached, but just showed his poor character.
His lack of handling Russia (with full support of the state department and Pentagon) was the most dangerous aspect of his administration for our national security. Of course, Bush hasn’t done anything to help them either.
Now, with Putin, the chickens are coming home to roost. Blame Putin all you want, but his government is strong now and their economy is better than it has been in a long time. . . no thanks to the USA.
ThackerAgency on November 27, 2007 at 12:31 AM
I just thought of this, so it isn’t much help now, but maybe we could have purchased some of their nuclear weapons from them when they needed money. I don’t know if they would have allowed that. . . but I doubt we asked. That would have solved two things. . . helped their economy and reduced their nuclear arsenal.
ThackerAgency on November 27, 2007 at 12:36 AM
(Tasteless Big Blue joke omitted)
I’ll bet we did. I’m not sure what more Clinton could have done with such a huge, proud, militarized country. If we can’t “handle” North Korea, Iran, or Iraq, what hope do we have for Russia?
Good luck Garry. You’ll need it.
calbear on November 27, 2007 at 1:50 AM
Clinton and Yeltsin were almost evenly matched. Both were asleep at the wheel: Clinton was too busy chasing skirts all over DC, and Yeltsin too preoccupied with chasing his next round of Vodka.
When Putin came into office, Russia had been broke, atrophied, and demoralized for years. Putin kissed Bush’s a$$ early in his presidency because he had no other option. And I believe Bush so desperately wanted us to be “best friends” with Russia that he ignored Vladimr’s past.
Fast forward seven years: oil prices are at historic highs, Russia is exporting more oil onto the world market than ever before, and Bush is politically weakened by the Long War. Putin sees that stoking the fires of nationalism is a means to an end, so he starts feeding the homeboys full of trash talk against the USA, all while he continues to suck up to the USA and Europe for membership in the G-8.
Nationalism on the home front secures Putin’s political future just as much as his stoking trouble in the Middle East secures Russia’s financial future. The Russian Bear is feeling its oats and wants its place back at the center of the world stage.
Finally, Russia’s youth are like China’s youth: both have been bought off by promises of wealth to be sought. As long as the youth are relatively well off, they will not challenge the system, until it threatens them.
Russia was a democracy for about five minutes after Yeltsin challenged the tanks in 1991. Then it went from a democracy to being ruled by the Russian Mafia. When Putin came along, all he did was tell the mafia in so many words, “you don’t have to love me, you just have to fall in line…”
Wanderlust on November 27, 2007 at 3:43 AM
Yeltsin was their Carter, years of humiliation and disgrace. Putin is their Reagan. And just as Reagan bankrupted the USSR in an arms race, Putin just might return the favor, this time with oil.
But Russia and the USA are two very large and very brittle entities. If they collide it will be China and Islam that will pick up the pieces. On the other hand, if Russia and the USA were to agree to disagree on the democracy thing, mutual self-interest might make for a beautiful friendship.
Energy. Wealth. Overwhelming military superiority. A belt of security and prosperity around the entire Northern hemisphere. Washington-Moscow Inc could have it all, if only they’d shut up and think.
But I have every confidence that our stupidity and their blind resentment will prevail.
dhimwit on November 27, 2007 at 6:07 AM
I hope you’re watching this, Bryan.
Ugly on November 27, 2007 at 6:55 AM
Bush needs to take another look into Putin’s soul. This guy is not a friend of the west.
He’s been escalating his military probes of northern Europe, too.
flipflop on November 27, 2007 at 9:40 AM
That link you pointed to was about a Congressional plan during Bush Sr. Something as massive and important as this needs leadership from the top, not Congress. And I’ll bet that the program was ignored once El Clintone got in office and started slashing the military.
We needed leadership, we got politics. Putin is doing what he has to because nobody else is interested in helping his country (other than Iran – who they sell nuclear material to – and China).
Why is it that Russia has become friends with China during that time and not us? Why couldn’t we have offered them what China did and more? China is more of a threat to Russia than the USA is. They are closer and they have a larger population with a bigger army. . .and nuclear weapons.
ThackerAgency on November 27, 2007 at 9:48 AM
At the same time, many on this blog talk about how we need to ’support Mushy’ who is doing things MUCH WORSE than Putin. AND the USA has done EVERYTHING to help his country including giving him money, giving him military hardware, helping out rescue efforts after the huge earthquake there.
Why is it that people will condemn Putin for his actions, but give Musharraf a pass for his? When ‘Mushy’ ‘goes after terrorists’, people here say, ‘aren’t we lucky he is on our side’. When Putin goes after terrorists in Chechnya it’s, ‘I can’t believe he’s acting like such a thug’.
The double standard is pretty ridiculous, and I don’t think people even recognize that they are doing it.
ThackerAgency on November 27, 2007 at 9:56 AM
The dramatic escalation of oil and gas prices has provided Russia and her satellites with a renewed economic power that saved them from disaster. And now we see what Putin would do with relative prosperity.
He’s a thug and an enemy of Democracy, and this is now evident. And for all of our handwringing for the wonderful Russian people, they have consistently supported politicians that we would have tried and hanged. Entelechy has it exactly right — we get the government we deserve.
Jaibones on November 27, 2007 at 10:03 AM
I haven’t seen a whole lot of complaining here about Putin’s actions in Chechnya. It’s usually been about his crushing of dissent, offing opposition journalists, and the like.
flipflop on November 27, 2007 at 10:06 AM
This thug suprises anyone? Isn’t this what you’d expect from the head of the KGB or whatever they’re called now. Pootbutt Putin is the Devil – The Beast – come to life on Earth. It’s Lenin, Stalin & the boys all wrapped in one, all over again. He knows Ronnie is gone and he’d better try the world domination thing again before the thug-muslims beat him to it.
countywolf on November 27, 2007 at 10:33 AM
What’s democracy got to do with anything? The USA got along pretty well with the Czars; Alexander II (I think) was supportive of the Union side during our Civil War, and shame on us blockheads that we didn’t reciprocate during the Chechnyan Wars. A strong and proud and OK I’ll say it Orthodox Russia could have been the best news ever for the USA, which in case you haven’t noticed has no friends among the major players. But we blew it. And still are blowing it.
Crikes, we’re stupid.
dhimwit on November 27, 2007 at 10:34 AM
Life is improving in Russia. My co-worker who goes to Russia every few years says that there are visible signs of improved prosperity with every visit she makes. Of course, she only visits Moscow and not the rest of the country, but why else is Putin so popular?
On the one hand he is, and has been, doing wonderful things for Russia. Stabilizing Yeltsin’s mess and improving economic prosperity is not easy in that country. One of my relatives knows him personally, and says that Putin is doing the right things.
But on the other hand there is clearly some mafia-type criminality going on. I suspect it isn’t entirely Putin’s doing. The people in the different government apparatuses might take it upon themselves, with out anyone’s permission, to “defend Russia” against “Amerikanskiye agenti”. You could say it’s a “organizational culture” problem.
I don’t like Putin’s foreign policy what so ever. But domestically, at least on the economic front, IMHO, he’s doing alright.
AlexB on November 27, 2007 at 11:14 AM
So when does GWB call them the “evil empire”, forget it!
Cold war round two coming up.
conservnut on November 27, 2007 at 11:16 AM
A nation of peasants with an inferiority complex, yearning for an iron fist to tell them what to do, while making them stronger than everyone else.
Frozen Tex on November 27, 2007 at 11:32 AM
Well, we can alwyas send Obama over to reason with him.
jeanie on November 27, 2007 at 12:12 PM
A nation of peasants with an inferiority complex, yearning for an iron fist to tell them what to do, while making them stronger than everyone else.
[Frozen Tex on November 27, 2007 at 11:32 AM]
It would be more accurate to compare them to a nation of fleas most of whom have not jumped for so long that when the jar top was removed, even if they knew they could jump, they didn’t know how to do it. So, for the most part they still needed to be taken care of than a semblance of democracy would allow.
I kind of like the cowboys metaphor though. The many who did jump out were cowboys, all independently inclined. But too few wore white hats. Those white hatted ones are the cowboys Sydney Carton is inferring — the ones also having a respect for others’ freedom and the willingness to defend it. If you look back at who our greatest “cowboys” were, it was not their own independence we admired but their willingness to put their lives and with it the possible loss of it, thus that independence, too, on the line for others.
These two make up the lifespring of our nation and as a result the US exists for its people. This, it seems to me, is just the reverse for Russia, where there its people exist for their nation. This is not to say there aren’t white hatted cowboys in Russia, but their existence and the ideas that fuel this dual concept are insufficient to sustain it in the whole of Russia, as Russia, currently.
Personally, I think it is pretty clear by now whether Putin is trying to save Russia or its people but there is still some small room for doubt despite his clear lack of finesse. The latter choice is his only hope to save the former and if it is, in fact, the latter then I don’t envy his task of rowing against the great tide of Russian history to prove it to his people.
Dusty on November 27, 2007 at 1:15 PM
A favorite of Stalinist times – “Anti-Soviet agitation” – which, of course, could mean anything. But, when used, it only meant one thing – the Gulag. I always feared that, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia would again descend into dictatorship and communism. I fear that the Gulag was only on a hiatus.
OhEssYouCowboys on November 27, 2007 at 1:23 PM
Dictators often improve economic conditions, which increases support for them. Mussolini famously made the trains run on time.
Under Hitler, Germany, which had had abysmal levels of poverty in the late twenties, upgraded its infrastructure and expanded its military capabilities to a level where, having occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, the Benelux, Denmark and France, it posed a serious threat to the UK less than a decade after the Nazi takeover.
Stalin improved productivity by having people shot as saboteurs for being late to work. When he took power, building a nationwide electric grid was a distant goal. When he checked out thirty-one years later, the major Soviet cities had modern subway systems, the country had thermonuclear weapons and they were less than a decade away from putting a man in space.
Even today, countries like China and Singapore are able to provide vastly improved living conditions under the leadership of competent but unelected leaders.
Me, I prefer our pluralistic democracy with the economic ups and downs, occasional recessions and subprime implosions.
factoid on November 27, 2007 at 1:43 PM
Anybody else think Putin is beginning to look more and more like Grand Moff Tarkin?
Putin
Tarkin
Lone Star on November 27, 2007 at 2:08 PM
I grow tired of asking this, so it will be the last time; where is the secret political opposition base?
Frozen Tex on November 27, 2007 at 2:59 PM
Actually, he looks and acts more like someone out of central casting to be the next villain in a James Bond film.
Captain Scarlet on November 27, 2007 at 9:16 PM
I don’t have figures at hand, but Defense Secretary Perry touted the program as something they did right, so it certainly wasn’t ignored. Clinton messed up a lot, but not everything.
calbear on November 28, 2007 at 12:23 AM
Yup.
silverfox on November 28, 2007 at 10:38 PM
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