Power to the Putin

Published March 4, 2008

By Peter Salerno

We Americans worry about non-democratic elections in nations we consider our allies such as Pakistan, yet the problem is not unique to the Pakistani government. Vladimir Putin’s Russia has openly refused the democratic process in its own elections. Putin has helped rebuild Russia after its post-Soviet collapse in 1990, and for his efforts he has been rewarded power ever since 2000.

He has now decided to abdicate that power, but the change will not be much of a change at all. Dmitri Medvedev, one of Putin’s closest aids and a politician who shares in the President’s political and ideological philosophy, will now run the country.

The so-called elections in Russia are state interest driven. The propaganda towards the opposing party is outlandishly false and the pressure put on voters is bordering on terrorism in itself. Yet the top officials deny it all, saying that the West has put labels on the election that are unfair and untrue.

They are now spouting anti-Western rhetoric because of the attack the West has launched on the country’s recent elections. Russians feels like they are being unfairly targeted especially because they are freer than they were under Soviet control, have an economy that is growing stronger and stronger, and military prominence that can show restraint as well as far reaching power.

Yet how can we call these elections fair? Officials handed out pamphlets that were pro-Putin and in support of his party to schoolchildren and told them they had to make their parents go vote and vote for Putin’s United Russia Party.

Then they targeted factory workers and told them they had to vote and then call the party officials from the polling stations to confirm their votes. The opposition party has been hailed as everything from “AIDS spreaders” to “skinhead racists.”

The workers of the opposition parties have been threatened repeatedly with bodily harm to them or their families if they do not cease the work they were doing. The election has gotten so one sided that at the polling stations, election officials are actually wearing pro-Putin pins.

Putin promises to regain Russia’s strength in the international realm, something he and his people do not think Americans look fondly upon. In fact, he believes that the US and NATO are still interested in containing Russia just as they did during the Cold War.

The growth of NATO to include former Soviet states, and the growing competition for influence in Central Asia has led Putin to step up his anti-Western rhetoric. He has stated to large audiences that he believes the West, especially the US, has overstepped its bounds repeatedly in the realm of foreign policy.

This tension is not what the world needs right now. With problems ranging from global warming to global terrorism, the US needs the help of Russia. Yet this is becoming harder and harder to find because of Russia’s feelings of paranoia towards US interests
across the globe. The reemergence of two separate camps is eerily reminiscent of the Cold War mindset that gripped these two nations for half a century.

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