Another Nail in the Coffin of Russian Democracy
But the Kremlin was not fazed by any of it. Russian “President” Dmitri Medvedev proclaimed when meeting with the recalcitrant parliamentarians:
I agreed to meet with you and discuss the outcomes of the elections to local legislatures and local self-government bodies so that this all should not turn into a burial of democracy and the electoral system here. There are different assessments [of the outcome] among parliamentary parties, but that’s easily understood, because, as a rule, those who win treat the results as positive.
In other words, he told the shocked legislators that they were just imagining things. When he mentioned the “burial of democracy” he actually laughed out loud. Or perhaps he cackled.
Medvedev’s statements, however, were mild compared to those of Deputy Chief of Staff Vladislav Surkov, the Goebbels of the Putin Kremlin. Surkov compared democracy to a dangerous toxin that might poison and destroy Russia. In fact, he openly argued that power in the Kremlin was not nearly centralized enough:
Even now when power is rather consolidated and ordered, many projects are very slow and difficult. If we add any sort of political instability to that then our development would simply be paralyzed. There would be a lot of demagoguery, a lot of empty talk, a lot of lobbying and ripping Russia to pieces, but no development. We must understand that authority that is unconsolidated and unbalanced [and] weak democratic institutions are unable to ensure an economic revival.
Though Putin talks the talk of a tough, confident leader (often lacing his rhetoric with stunningly coarse street epithets), he does not walk the walk. Vote fraud this sensational is not the hallmark of a man who is sure of his foundations. Even with virtually no real opposition candidates allowed on the ballot, just as in Soviet times Putin feels the need to protect himself with measures that are totalitarian in scope and ambition.
Indeed, the New York Times reported:
Like an envious underachiever, Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia, is increasingly examining how it can emulate the Chinese Communist Party, especially its skill in shepherding China through the financial crisis relatively unbowed.
So proud KGB spy Putin is openly seeking to emulate the one-party system that rules over China, in effect resurrecting the USSR. How long before we see a Russian Tiananmen?
And if we do, what will President Obama have to say about it? Will he ever stand up for basic democratic values in Russia? Or will he simply watch and wait the way Chamberlain watched and waited, until Russian tanks roll once again through the streets of Prague?
Really should Obama, the creature of Chicago politics, criticize anyone for vote fraud. The big American cities have not had an election in decades where voter fraud was not a factor. In Philadelphia men swinging baseball bats outside polling booths is considered normal at least by the Obama deparetment of Justice. For the Obama regime to make comments about any election in Russia or in Afghanistan would be the epitome of hypocrisy; without Acorn and the miilions of fraudelent votes it produced Obama and his gang would not be sitting in the White House, the center of the former American Republic. There is no surprise at the silence of the Obamaites.
Please remain calm – Obamacare will save us all.
… and not a peep from the Obama WH. Next time, instead of “We won” they intend to inform everybody, “You lost”.
There is no danger of hypocrisy from the White House on this. Obama has been very consistent in deploying his political clout to legitimize electoral fraud, Iran and Honduras being the most salient examples. He will also use his influence to legitimize brutal repression (as with Iran) and even cross-border aggression (as with Georgia).
#1 Has it right, how can we knock Putin check out the fraud next Tuesday in New Jersey. Newark and Camden are infamous for fraud on election day.
“Meanwhile, the Obama White House looked the other way.”
Clearly this writer doesn’t know obama very well… obama never looks away from events like this… in fact he takes very detailed notes on the whole event.
“Surkov compared democracy to a dangerous toxin that might poison and destroy Russia.”
And he’s right… and democracy will destroy the US if we give it a chance… thats why the US is a republic and why the only way it will live is if we crush democracy in the US and restore the Republic…
“Democracy is but one vote away from tyranny.”
I say recognize Solidarity as the Russian government in exile. If it isn’t done by the current US government, then I say it has to be done by the US government in exile. The shenanigans have to stop, and frankly those who perpetrated those shenanigans are as capable as being reformed as a terminally ill patient is treatable.
Wow, nice to see the me myself and I Jamestown Foundation conversation going on here between Zigfeld and “her” sock puppets.
Say hi to Randy Scheunemann for me guys too!
we are told there is democracy in Russia, Iraq,Iran,Afghanistan, and China. pretty laughable claims.
Mr. X, at least I am carrying out the legacy of my ancestors. Two uncles, and a cousin of theirs were in uniform during the second world war. The cousin of my two uncles was shot down over the North Sea. No survivors. The elder of the uncles was a prisoner of war for 18 months after being captured at Ortona, which was one of the bloodiest battles in the second world war, and he was sent to a P.O.W. camp near Moosburg, which isn’t far from Dachau. The younger was part of Operation Overlord, and he was wounded
not that long afterwards.
So, what were your ancestors doing during the time the world almost plunged
into horrific darkness?
Of course Obama won’t say anything, its the one time he will observe the old adage “Tohe who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”
Democracy is overrated anyway. It’s too easy to buy the votes of layabouts who own nothing, produce nothing, and pay no taxes. If there aren’t enough native layabouts, you can always let in a few million unskilled immigrants to tip the vote in your favor (e.g. the UK).
Democracy leads to “wealth-sharing” leads to bankruptcy leads to dictatorship. Russia already had democracy under Yeltsin, and it was a nightmare. Nor do millions of middle-class Chinese want democracy, because they know exactly what a billion poor, envious peasants would vote for.
“Mr. X, at least I am carrying out the legacy of my ancestors.”
So working at Jamestown Foundation is like serving in WWII? I don’t get it.
Oh yeah Ziggy, that open letter to George Soros stunt was interesting…
Are your bosses at the Jamestown Foundation (themselve a front for you know who) no longer in the big anti-Russia lobby tent with good ole’ George? Has Soros figured out that buying governments wholesale in Eastern Europe is getting too expensive, what with the Chinese offering Moldova a cool billion dollar loan in return for farmland and the EU offering the “last dictator in Europe” in Belarus $12 billion, probably in exchange for similar assets?
It seems George Soros and his protege Obama decided to switch tactics, while your Jamestown buddies are upset that this means cutting of Misha Saakashvili and hanging Yuchenko out to dry too. Well you people could only support a politician with a 3% approval rating who is more beloved among Lyov-ites in Montreal than in Kyev for so long.
If the Washington anti-Russia lobby is cracking up between the “liberal Democrat” Demintern Bzerzinskites and the militarist, military industrial complex Republicans, that’s wonderful news.