Schröder and Putin

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ^ | Dec 03 o4 | By Reinhard Veser

[Cutterjohnmhb]

he state must be able to fulfill its protective role without having to buy protection from Mafioso elements.” Would anyone disagree with this statement? Chancellor Gerhard Schröder recently said this in defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was being accused of installing an authoritarian regime in Russia. Schröder has repeatedly pointed out this autumn that Putin is restoring order in Russia, a necessary measure after the chaos of the transition years. Really? Schröder has adopted the arguments of Western experts, which are based on outdated analyses. When Putin first came to office, he took on the oligarchs who had turned Russia into a self-service shop during the 1990s. Putin spoke of a ”dictatorship of law” and brought liberal reformers into his government. At that time, Schröder's evaluation of Putin's government would have been justified. Today, however, it isn't. The Russian president has long been two-faced. While selling himself to the West and his own people as a liberal modernizer, he has gradually restricted freedom of the press. He put secret service officers into key positions and eliminated potential enemies through intrigues, slander and a judiciary that he has welded with the executive. His tough domestic course can no longer be justified by the need for a strong state. The way Putin has handled the Yukos affair shows that his ”dictatorship of law” suspends the law. While Yukos and its former head, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, are being brought down for violations of the 1990s, oligarchs who pledge loyalty to the government are still wheeling and dealing. Many Russians see the Russian state as the main Mafioso element.

[Jabba the Nutt]

One reason Putin is so concerned about a real democracy in Ukraine, is that it could spread to Russia. After the Beslan massacre, Putin decreed that governors would no longer be elected, but appointed. What does that have to do with fighting terrorism?

It's going in exactly the wrong direction. Federalism and elected governors is one of the advantages the US has over the rest of the world. Governorships are a training ground for Presidents, indeed our best Presidents: Roosevelt, Reagan and G W Bush.