now that Putin feels he can stay in power past term limits, what is left of Russian democracy?

Question

Is this the return of the evil empire?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071113/ap_on_re_eu/russia_putin

Answer 1

that's called propaganda. i know it too well for i'm an insider on the matter, i'm a citizen of russian federation, live there and lived in SU either.

in SU there was a newspaper, the largest one. it was called "Правда", which translates into english as truth. this paper indeed wrote truth only, yet not all the truth and always from certain point of view. i regularly monitor number of news agencies worldwide and can tell that well lot of them lead campaigns against russia and here is why:
1. they do not tell all the facts
2. they ask certain people of certain views for comments, not anyone else
3. certain agencies not once have let me leave comments holding the missing facts, while permitted all kinds of bashing and insults towards russia.

after this i only can smile when hear from the white house any comments on freedom of speech in russia. as an insider i can tell that here you can find any kind of political rubbish in newspapers, tv, etc. there are 'political parties' in russia, who are officially payed from the white house. they have their main source of income there officially, and represent views of less that 0.1% of population statistically. no doubt you've heard about "evil russian government brutally broke up their peaceful rallies". it was them. yeah, peaceful youth in masks, compelling to take weapons and crush nearby cars. and when taken for that shouting in english (!) prepared speeches to conveniently nearby reporters. it's a theater and the US people are the intended audience i believe. and my guess is that propaganda is in place to socially justify unfriendly acts towards russia in the future.

note, that i speak of major new agencies, world leaders in new industry. in the US i trust at least 4 of 5 news stories would be by one of that agencies. in EU the rate is less.

then, i can compare it to the propaganda i see in russia. by the way, distrust anyone who says that mass media is not used for propaganda for it always has and i see no reason for this to stop. so, the propaganda against the US here is strong either. it rather started to increase since the start of iraq campaign. was nearly no such propaganda before that. yet the propaganda i see here is rather mocking over the US government. How they first give large funds to osama bin laden, who already was a terrorist by that time, to fight pro soviets in afganistan, then condemn him in every way conveniently forgetting what made him strong. the color revolutions in ukrane, georgia (former soviet republics) - civil unrest lasts for years there, no development: one political crisis after another. and certain political forces even do not hide where they get the funds for that - one gray building in washington, d.c. this kind of stuff. and you know, it's pretty evident, hard to argue.

no, the article presented. it's full of inaccuracies. for example it says that putin is not a member of united russia. in fact he is #1 in their list for the parliament election. and united russia according to pre election polls is the favorite on the elections and quite likely will have the majority. a leader of the parliament majority certainly will have power in the country for the majority will form the executive government, excluding the president who is chosen by direct election. how much is it different in the US? the difference is in the US there's no a political party supported by the majority of population.

in russia sure there are problems, major of the list i'd name corruption. and indeed the measures government takes to overcome it currently are cosmetic at best. there are many things that are source of disrespect to the current government. yet there's one thing that overcomes them. they do not dance in the shadow of the US state department, which was the case in 1990s and which is the case in ukrane, georgia, etc. for common people this means that contracts for our production is not in favor of washington, but in ours, which means better salary, better roads, better homes, etc. it's evident you. it's a matter any russian can see and can compare. sure it's worse for the US corporations. they lose billions here. no wonder they are so angry. and guess who owns the media?

also, all that rhetorics of 'evil', is it only me or it does sound childish? in SU i do not remember a single case say the US were called 'evil'. there mostly was compassion towards oppressed labor and black people compared to billionaires ill from corruption.

what i can applause current white house administration for is they play chess wonderfully. they take oil from iraq, hundreds of thousands civilians dead, no responsibility, billions earned, expenses put on tax payers. i trust mr bush and the company become well more prosperous in last few years. they successfully led number of 'color revolutions' on russia border to put another headache on russia's head. they are determined to install anti missile system, which is directed against russia - this anyone can tell who has a map and a scale. ballistics is not that complicated as mrs rice and mr gates seem to show. scale here is more than sufficient instrument. and, viewing posts here, i can tell they've done a great job on propaganda. so here i stand, perhaps the most 'evil' of all the russians :) scared of me huh? :)

being blind is simple, as i learned in soviet years. don't be blind, people.

good luck to you.
mickael

Answer 2

One must remember we are still in the same generation as the Soviets.There are tens of millions of Communist sympathizers and voters in Russia.This is a powerful voting block.They have a Communist party- that takes a lot of those votes.However a lot of the others go to Putin.That plus the fact that he has created a Soviet style cult of personality for himself to pick up the moderate socialist vote and small c capitalists.Voila! He has a mandate to rule by popular support! Putin will put his stamp on Russia.That is going to happen for sure.We will see him in power for another dozen years.

Answer 3

He has been planning and placing each puppet for months. The main concern is he is removing democracy and may perhaps return to Cold War status. He is that determined. Yes.

Finland is considering revoking terms to remove land mines protecting borders. Germany is very annoyed. The Grand Ayatollah of Iran gave him a rare audience. He is in trouble flying over Norway, Northern America and maybe Guam violating airspace? In his own country he allows Nazi youth bash non whites as his population declines and immigrants float his economy.
Yes, he trained under them and is becoming one in his own right. Evil is just the tip of the iceberg. Thanks.

edit: some say he sold nuc subs to Hugo Chavez already...he is building Iran's facilities until they ran out of money debt=1bil

Answer 4

specific. The twenty 2nd modification in elementary terms says that no you would be *elected* president greater effective than two times. Bush ought to end out his term, get elected to the homestead of representatives, develop into speaker of the homestead (2nd in line to the presidency), and the two the pres and the vice pres on the time ought to die. Then Bush must be pres lower back.

Answer 5

It's all just a little bit of history repeating. Maybe the Democrat left-wing freak shows will fly to Russia to kiss his ring as they did when Hugo Chavez pushed through his agenda to rid Venezuela of term limits.

Answer 6

Bah! Reagan destroyed the Soviets, remember??
Or did he??

Answer 7

So he wants to stay influential. Why is that 'evil'?