PUTIN: STALIN-LIKE POWER?
Dependence on Government Fostered --
The Illusion of Independence
March 17, 2004
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2004 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
The international press is questioning whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is becoming a new Soviet-style dictator. The direction which Moscow takes is vitally important to the U.S., because Russia still possesses a potentially devastating nuclear arsenal, and is considered a key ally in the war on terror.
One of the most important trends in Russia, however, is the re-Sovietization of society, a development virtually unreported in any U.S. or European media.
European and U.S. media have published criticism of Putin's reelection, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) goes so far as to recognize the poll as "undemocratic."
The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel cites instances of purportedly "secret" ballots filled out on tables and windowsills in full view of bystanders, and entire families casting their votes together in a single voting booth.
The subversion of the privacy of the voting process is in line with the Russian government's control of the media, which virtually insured Putin's victory. Both the trained expert and former Soviet dissidents agree that the "new Russia" is not progressing toward democracy, but is falling into an as yet unrecognizable "authoritarian" system.
"Russia's experiment with liberal democracy is ended," declares Lilija Schevzova, a leading political analyst for the Moscow Carnegie Center in an interview with the German news daily, Die Welt.
Former dissident Alexander Podrabinek, who spent seven years in a Gulag prison
camp and three years in exile during the Soviet era,
also views the Russian democratic experiment as moribund,
and brands the Putin government as a "modified Soviet
regime," during an interview with the French news daily
Le Monde.
Another former Soviet dissident provides a dismal assessment of the Russian political scene, and warns that society-wide brute force is not necessary to deprive a nation of its liberty. "It is not necessary to have the Gulags," stated Sergei Kovalev, but " the object [of the Putin government] is to recreate a Soviet ambiance to arrive at an obedient society…[and to arrive at] total dependence on the central government…[while instilling] an illusion of independence."
Neither U.S. nor European media question the ultimate goal of Putin's "authoritarianism" and "Soviet ambiance," and many of the measures Putin uses to support his regime are remain hidden from the general public.
From postage stamps praising Stalin's espionage network to the revival of Soviet-era military youth training groups, Moscow is reviving - and rehabilitating -- the Soviet past.
The social and economic disaster following the collapse of the USSR contributed decisively to a reverie for the old Soviet system, and Soviet leaders Lenin and Stalin remain respected - if not revered -- figures in the minds of most Russians.
Every government, especially dictatorial regimes, need to give the general population something in which to believe, and provide a justification for the actions of those in charge.
Increasingly, Moscow's ruling elite find the purportedly discarded tenets of Communism fit the needs of the "new Russia."
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