Vladimir Putin: A National Catastrophe
Filed under: Russia
Reuters reports that Ukraine has just cleared the final hurdle in its race towards membership in the World Trade Organization, ratifying the WTO protocol in its parliament. One month from now, Ukraine will become the WTO's 152nd member, from whence it will sit in judgment on Russia's pending application to join the body.
What humiliation for Vladimir Putin's Russia! First anti-Russian Viktor Yushchenko is elected president, foils a Russian assassination attempt, and then leads an "Orange Revolution" when Russia tries to rig his election. Then, anti-Russian Yulia Tymoshenko is elected Prime Minister, overcoming Russia-sponsored street protests designed once again to destabilize the country. On top of that, Ukraine receives a state visit from the President of the United States, who declares that Ukraine must be brought within the protective embrace of NATO -- Russia's despised rival -- and next the boss of NATO itself vows that it is only a matter of time before Ukraine is admitted. And now, WTO membership is served up on a silver platter, while Russia still lamely clutches its begging bowl.
In a civilized country, the leader who presided over all this foreign policy disaster would be called to account. If not ejected from office, at the very least his party would suffer mightily in parliament and public opinion polls would show increasing dissatisfaction. But Russia, as all who watch it know only too well, is not a civilized country. So, instead of decreasing Putin's power, Russians are actively searching for ways to increase it -- just as they did in time of Josef Stalin.
The latest horror is, as Reuters also relates, the rumor that Putin (who will become Prime Minister in May after his so-called successor, the sycophant Dimitri Medvedev, becomes "president") intends to seize control of Russia's local government systems. Reuters states: "Early in his presidency, Putin created seven superdistricts led by the presidential envoys, who are charged with making sure the regions in each district obeyed federal law. [The Russian newspaper] Vedomosti cited unidentified United Russia officials and a source in one ministry as saying that the role of the presidential envoys to the seven federal districts should now be economic and that they should answer to the government, which Putin is to lead as prime minister. Sources confirmed that a reform within the Kremlin administration was being considered, Vedomosti said."
So first Putin obliterated the independence of local government by decreeing that local officials like governors would be appointed by the Kremlin rather than elected. Then Putin created a supervisory body to dominate and control the local leaders, accountable directly to the Kremlin. And finally, he is packing that body up in his suitcase and taking it with him to the prime ministry.
The totalitarian buildup continues apace in the commercial sector as well. The Moscow Times reports:
Russian Railways has expressed an interest in bidding for the huge Udokan copper field in Siberia. This is another example of how the government's economic policy is increasingly shifting from free-market reforms to the creation of gigantic, state-controlled "national champions." It would appear that the goal of Russian Railways is to build another state-controlled behemoth a la Gazprom, which, in the absence of much-needed cost controls, has also been allowed to acquire a mind-boggling number of noncore businesses in such sectors as telecommunication satellites, television, farming and medical clinics.
Putin will do via the prime ministry what he once did in the presidency. Russia will do through corporatism what it once did through Communism. The Russian shell game goes on, with zero real reform and hence zero prospects for real progress. Vladimir Putin's KGB rule over Russia is a national catastrophe, one in which the people of Russia have been willing and mindless collaborators, a disaster that is unprecedented in world history.
NOTE: To comment on this post for publication, write to: kimzigfeld@gmail.com
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