Putin's Potemkin democracy

theaustralian.news.com.au ^ | March 01, 2008 | Peter Wilson

[Tailgunner Joe]

The False Dmitry was an audacious fake who came forward after Ivan's death claiming to be his missing son, who had in fact been assassinated as a child.

The False Dmitry was clearly not who he pretended to be but he won the crown anyway thanks to the gullibility of some of his countrymen and a deliberate decision by others to pretend to believe his lies. His rule lasted only 10 months before he was killed in a palace coup but the episode destabilised Russia for many years.

The False Dmitry's tale, which inspired Pushkin's play Boris Godunov, comes to mind when considering the public statements in recent weeks of Medvedev....

Medvedev claims that his central goal as president will be the promotion of freedom, including freedom of speech, and he has vowed to strengthen property rights, cut back the bloated state role in the economy and crack down on corruption and the abuse of state powers by bureaucrats and politicians.

To that end he says he opposes the present boardroom dominance of government-linked businesses by Kremlin heavies, insisting that he would prefer to see truly independent directors take up those positions.

Even the first False Dmitry would have had a hard time saying all that with a straight face.

Medvedev, after all, holds the juiciest boardroom sinecure, the chairmanship of Gazprom, the world's largest gas company. In that position he has overseen the strong-arming of foreign and Russian firms to force them to hand over lucrative gas assets. Corruption has thrived under the regime in which he is such a senior figure, while the independent media has been all but wiped out, elected regional governors have been replaced by hand-picked Kremlin cronies and most forms of political opposition have been crushed.

[kalee]

thanks for the post