[quote]Rohnyn wrote:
[quote]ReignIB wrote:
this just means that Russia will continue to follow the same path it’s been on both politically and economically for the last 10 or so years - shadow of the evil empire soviet union used to be back in the day, still trying to be a force, although being unable to compete with US/NATO on their level - resorting to petty “anti-american” stuff along the lines of selling weapons to Iran etc etc.
sadly though, this is what most Russians want from what I understand, so in a way it’s all “democratic” - the people are getting the ruler they want.[/quote]
Versus what alternative? Nose dive into theocracy? Being corrupt puppets of the USA ala Yeltsin? Becoming an outright kleptocracy state?
Say what youw ant about Putin/Medvedev but the guy brought order and dignity back to Russia. Russian went from being the butt of the West’s jokes to being a great power, and a regional / energy superpower. Living conditoins have done nothing but rise, and optimism is probably at the highest point its been since Brezhnev.
I am skeptical of those who claim Russia isn’t a democracy, because people do vote and the andiddates who get in do win by those votes. All notable international monitoring agencies have said the actual elections in Russian aren’t corrupted.
I suppose the anti-Democratic aspect is the fact that the Kremlin thins out the political playing field to those they deem acceptable. How is this different than the Corporate-MIC-Bank-AIPAC zaibatsu we have controlling US politics? Have you noticed men like Paul are pre-blocked from real candidacy and it is shown that way on Fox News and the like, yet Romeny/Perry have already been pre-selected by these media puppets of big corps?
Further, the outright fraud involved in the 2000 election makes Putin’s reelection look like a cakewalk. If you want to call Russia undemocratic, perhaps turn the mirror on the USA first, before allegating elsewhere.[/quote]
Who’s saying Russia is “undemocratic” ? I don’t have any doubt that in a free election Putin would win over any other candidate by a huge margin so you can take your scepticism elsewhere.
What I don’t like is in their pathetic bid to appear to be a super-power they used to be once (although it appears that there was a fair amount of smoke-and-mirrors there as evidenced by USSR’s rapid collapse), they are resorting to cooperation with anyone who is perceived to be “anti-western”.
Alternatives? Don’t really care what they do internally.