Guardian on Putin's speech

[Alina Israeli]

On Feb 22, 2007, at 10:30 AM, Valery Belyanin wrote:

> Great!
> What I hear all the time from Russians that they already had  
> democracy and
> they do not need it anymore.

Democracy, in my opinion, is not a commodity that you need only once,  
and after you had it once, you don't need it anymore. It is the kind  
of thing that has to be constantly supplied, like food, gas and oil,  
or you starve or freeze to death.

One may argue that some nations are better off under autocracy, but  
that is not the same as not needing the democracy anymore.

> And that the democrats did not use their
> chances. etc.

This is talking about a certain party or parties that are more  
democratic in their platform. There is a confusion between the type  
of government and its participants, parties and electorate. France is  
a democracy, yet some right wing or left wing parties are not  
democratic in their aspirations. Yet, if they come to power they'll  
do so by means of democratic elections. And in those regions where  
they are in power they were elected democratically.

In Russia, on the other hand, certain democratic institutions were  
abolished by Putin, with his VERTIKAL': the governors used to be  
elected locally, now they are appointed and rubber-stamped. In other  
words they serve at the pleasure of the President (there better be a  
benevolent president).

Incidentally, there is a historian David Wallechinsky, who compiles  
lists of World's worst dictators, here is for 2006 http:// 
www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wallechinsky/the-worlds-worst- 
dictato_b_28679.html. For 2007 which did not make it on the web yet,  
Putin made it to #20. Of course it was helped by the death of #8, of  
Supermurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan.

Mr. Simon Jenkins also alleges that "America seizes Iraq's oil". I  
think it is a slight over-generalization.

"but when Putin nationalises Russia's oil that, too, is a foul."  
France nationalized its banks under Mitterand, but I don' recall Mr.  
Rothchild ending up in a labor camp.

One has to defend rulers very carefully.


Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 	
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------