Comments on: Don Putin

By: Oleg Mosin

Oleg Mosin — Sat, 30 May 2009 10:53:31 +0000

The Putin dillema is that the former incumbent Russian president today has remained to be the most strong successful symbol of stability for many Russians: a national logotype that can ensure political longevity for any political program, even being the most helpless and unviable. The May celebrations in Russia indicated a revival of great consolidation and patriotism among common people over a victory in world war second who professed nostalgia for the former USSR and who think the Russia should be by any means a great powerful country again. Ruling over Russia as a Prime Minister the key element in Putin’s increasing authoritarianism is his reliance upon the militia, military and, to an even greater extent, upon Russia’s internal security affaires – FSB the analog of secret police of the Communist era. It might be said that today the activity of Russia’s democratic institutions is dismissed as a farce, while the alleged course toward suppression of freedom and human rights is perceived as an official policy priority while power continues to concentrate in the hands of Mr Putin himself. The key sources of politics are in Russia’s patriachial mentality, which unfortunately is inacceptable to understand the western system of values and ideas of freedom and democracy imperial thinking that put Russia in the centre of all Slavic world”, combining with corruption, violence, human rights violation, and disingenuous, sophisticated propaganda that were used by the party, the KGB, and the military. Meanwhile Russia has remained to be among the most oil reachest countries of the world. In his television address to Russian people, Putin said that even being in the world economic crisis the country has been growing at an average of 7 percent per year, a rate Russia exceeded in both 2003 and 2004, according to International Monetary Fund figures. This is a good indicator of stability for Russia oil-based economy. Experts believe, that Russia’s oil-driven economic growth further would be even higher with the proper institutional reforms, possibly reaching 7 percent annually even while being in the epoch of world financial crisis. The second point is that with Moscow leading the way, Russia is now dramatically reversing a decade-long drop in its national birthrate. Statistics shows that not only were 122.750 more birth registered in 2007 than in 2006, but the number of children boorn cast year was the highest since 1991. Officials attributed the turning birth tide due to new policies and increased economic stability in Russia. It probably has to do with improvements in living standards and economic growth. On the other positive side, the analysts praised the establishment of the Russian stabilization fund as a bulwark against a potential drop in the world price of oil. This important initiative of Russian government is arguably the most important example of economic legislation in Russia which surely would be approved in the following six presidential years.

By: charles

charles — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:01:00 +0000

As long as we’re quoting movies, this famous one seems pertinent:

“In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed—but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

Murder, bloodshed, even poison, it’s all there. But at the same Putin & family are (re)building a great country, which puts them in a higher class of gangsterdom than the two bit hoodlums of the movies.

By: W. Shedd

W. Shedd — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:48:09 +0000

Good work Lyndon! I might have even missed the update on your blog.

In fact, I DID miss the update on your blog.

The photography is well done, but it is rather cold. That was the point I suppose.

By: Lyndon

Lyndon — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:43:42 +0000

The collective genius of the Russian internet has identified the photographer. See here (updated at the bottom).

By: W. Shedd

W. Shedd — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:36:02 +0000

I have questions about Putin truly posing for that strange photo, or if that is a stand-in wearing Armani.

By: ivanov

ivanov — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:43:34 +0000

Putin – man of the Year, my creepy fellows )

By: Kolya

Kolya — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:41:16 +0000

Incidentally, for a good photo of Putin as Don, check Robert Amsterdam’s blog:

http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2007/12/vladimir_putin_is_times_person.htm

(a picture from Time)

By: Kolya

Kolya — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:37:37 +0000

Sean, thank you for an interesting and informative post. Although I admit that I dislike Putin and I’m disappointed that so many Russians go gaga over such a creepy fellow, my opinion of him improved a bit when he anointed Medvedev to be his successor. Not knowing much about Medvedev, I thought he was the least bad among the potential successors. More importantly, realizing that hoping for a better and more stable transfer of power mechanism is an exercise in futility, I thought that through the years this contrived succession mechanism may eventually evolve into a more open and transparent system. Perhaps this is what will eventually happen, but after reading your post I see that the possibility of such evolution is much iffier than I permitted myself to hope for a few days ago.

By: robert harneis

robert harneis — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:21:42 +0000

Congratulations on a really good piece, particularly: -

“Kremlinologists are so obsessed with the future that it diverts their attention from the present… So what does this present entail? It’s a present where the Russian political elite is jostling for position.”

However let us not forget that political élites are jostling for position in every country on the globe all the time. They are a bit rougher around the edges in Russia but the dynamic is the same.

One largely overlooked result of the present manoeuvres involving Putin and Medvedev is that there is no lame duck end of presidency and probably no period of governmental uncertainty after March that could be exploited by a very aggressive US administration or any other ill wisher. Independance for Kosovo, Georgia and Ukraine in NATO at one time were all intended to be buttoned up during 2008 conveniently after Putin and when some untried successor was still settling in. I suspect that is not an accidental consequence of the present goings on.

When we hear Putin talking about foreign destablisation during elections it is worth remembering the old saying that “just because you are paranoid does not mean that they are not out to get you”.

By: James

James — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:44:44 +0000

Also, didn’t the Storchak arrest happen before the Shvartsman interview?