Russia: Zimbabwe, with Permafrost
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This is your Mugabe.
If you were not the perspicacious Publius Pundit peruser that you are, and had imbibed a sufficient quantity of the insane Russophile propaganda that circulates out on the Internet from various corrupt screwball sources, you might think it quite impossible that "stable, resurgent" Russia would need to adopt exactly the same type of draconian state-imposed price controls seized upon by the maniacal regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Then, you'd undoubtedly be quite shocked to see the Financial Times report:
Russia is introducing Soviet-style price controls on some basic foods in an effort to prevent spiralling prices from denting the Putin administration's popularity ahead of parliamentary polls in December. The country's biggest food retailers and producers have reached an agreement, expected to be signed with the Russian government on Wednesday, to freeze prices at October 15 levels on selected types of bread, cheese, milk, eggs and vegetable oil until the end of the year. Russia's move is the latest sign of surging agricultural prices becoming an international political issue. Big retailers will limit their mark-up on those goods to 10 per cent.
So much for Russia being stable and resurgent! No wonder Putin is taking radical steps to crush all opposition in the upcoming parliamentary elections! He's even in the process of banning Western election monitoring! Russia is facing double-digit overall consumer price inflation for 2007 and inflation could be twice as high on the basic market basket of foodstuffs and other items that its impoverished mass population, which exists on an average wage of $4/hour, can afford. When will these tinpot despots like Mugabe and Putin ever learn that you can't solve the problem of inflation by simply making it illegal to raise prices? The next thing you know, as in the USSR and in Zimbabwe today, the shelves are empty and the prisons are full. The Streetwise Professor has more, as do I in my most recent installment in our articles section.
This is your Mugabe on nuclear weapons.
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