A Russian Documents the Truth About Russia

PajamasMedia ^ | 5/17/08 | Kim Zigfeld

[Dawnsblood]

Nemtsov begins by pointing out that Putin enjoyed an average oil price more than double what Yeltsin had to work with, five times greater in recent months, and that Putin has not used any of the oil windfall to “carry out economic reforms, create a modern army, and establish public health and pension systems.” All but the economy, he says, have degraded, and the economy has merely been “stabilized through a stroke of luck” having nothing to do with Putin.

He shows that there were already clear signs of recovery before Putin came to power, and argues convincingly that the problems Yeltsin’s Russia faced were those of the communists’ making, not Yeltsin’s. As important, he shows that Putin simply didn’t obtain power through policy success; he was named president arbitrarily by Yeltsin, and this was followed by the relentless use of electoral fraud and media suppression to guarantee his election. He writes: “We are all supposed to be over the moon at the success of the economy under Putin. In reality, however, it is not doing that well. Given today’s oil prices, our GDP growth has actually been remarkably modest.”

He points out that Russia is #143 in the world when ranked for societal corruption, tied with Angola and lagging behind Zambia, with corrupt business increasing more than sevenfold under Putin’s rule, including an itemization of the kleptocracy’s evils. And Russians have no recourse in courts which have been “used as a tool for the removal of private property in favor of Putin’s inner circle.”

He turns to the army, and shows that it has been dramatically weakened even as Putin creates new enemies for Russia to deal with. In addition, highways have degraded, the population is shrinking, and the social fabric is frayed and failing.

[proxy_user]

There is no doubt about it: if you want to destroy your enemies, give them large supplies of oil.

They will all end up in a state that combines the worst features of Nigeria and Venezuela.

[Cacique]

btt

[kempo]

There's one thing Putin has that gives him more power than anything and thats the power of the media. Kinda like the Democrats here in the U.S. They control the media and the sheeple follow right along.