Venezuela and Russia show remarkable similarities in their social, political and economic systems and levels of attainment, so it is perhaps not surprising to see their two tinpot leaders, Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez, seeking ever closer relations. An even more disturbing parallel, though, is that in both countries men who are essentially dictators have won ratification of their power through elections that, while fundamentally corrupt, are still a basic expression of popular support despite the vast majority of the population languishing in poverty while the regimes hoard oil revenue windfalls and obliterate individual liberty. UN data, as outlined below, shows that both regimes are catastrophic failures when it comes to delivering on the promise of civilization for their populations, yet those populations do not hold the regimes accountable. Truly, those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it. As such, these two countries represent the acid test for democracy and American resolve (both are hotbeds of anti-Americanism). As in the Soviet era, substituting Chavez for Castro and Russia for the USSR, we see the the larger state providing weaponry and countervailing political support to the smaller in exhange for its outbursts of furious anti-Americanism and its cooperation in a nascent effort towards world domination. In this case, Russia seems to want to build an energy cabal which it can use to threaten the world just as the USSR used its nuclear arsenal. Thus, in a very real sense, we cannot solve the Venezuela problem without solving the Russia problem.

According to the Human Development Report for 2006 issued by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), life expectancy, literacy, nutrition and access to basic utilities have showed no improvement during the last two years in Venezuela. The extreme poverty rate has fallen by 7% in the past year, but 8% of the population continues to live in extreme poverty, with more than 2 million people living on an income of a dollar a day. Venezuela fell two places on the developing country ranking compared to the 2006 UNDP report. Its per capita GDP of just over $6,000 was 25% lower in constant dollars than it was three decades ago. Income inequality grew by 11%. Under eight years of Chavez governance while oil prices boomed, the regime constructed 100,000 fewer homes for the impoverished than the previous administration built in five years of low oil prices. Venezulea recorded over 13% consumer price inflation during just the first three quarters of 2006 despite government-imposed price controls on a basket of of 145 staples, 242 personal care and home cleaning products, as well as public utilities such as power, land phone service and education. Consumers have been facing shortage of some products such as milk, sugar, coffee, and beef, among others. Since Chavez took office, Venezuela????????s homicide rate has doubled, with as many as 10,000 people murdered annually out of an overall population smaller than that of Canada. Venezuela is #4 in the world in homicides per capita with a rate of 0.316138 per 1,000 people.

If we turn to Russia, the picture is eerily similar. It????????s UNDP score is only slightly better than Venezuela, and when we look beneath the surface we see that Venezuela actually exceeds Russia in several important criteria. Venezuela ranks #72 out of 173 countries surveyed by UNDP while Russia hovers just above it at #65; their scores (0.797 for Russia and 0.784 for Venezuela) are virtually identical, and bested by such countries as Mexico, Bulgaria and Malaysia (all of which make it into the lofty category of ???????highly developed??????? nations while both Russia and Venezuela languish as ???????medium development??????? countries). Russia was #62 on the 2005 UNDP report while Venezuela was #75, so over the past year Russia actually got slightly worse on the overall list while Venezuela got slightly better. Like Venezulea, Russia experiences double-digit consumer price inflation on items that matter to ordinary people. The average life expectency in Russia is 65.2 years and it????????s ???????purchasing power parity??????? per capita GDP is $9,902; Venezuela, with 30% less per capita GDP, has an a life expectency of 73, so Russia is behind Venezuela here as well. Venezuela also vastly exceeds Russia in gender equality. Russia ranks 62nd out of 75 countries in the UNDP????????s Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), while Venezulea ranks 46th. Russia????????s 2006 score on the UNDP study of 0.797 is not radically different than in was in 1990, when it reached 0.818 or in 1995 when it was 0.771. This gives the lie to the Russophile propagandist claim that Russia under Putin is doing dramatically better than Russia under the ???????disastrous??????? kleptocracy of the Yeltsin era. Russia is right behind Venezuela at #5 on the homicide rate list, with 0.201534 per 1,000 people.

Incidentally, it????????s interesting and important to note that the United States is far ahead of the major counties of Europe on the UNDP survey (despite the fact that the UN seems to have nothing but contempt for America), holding place #8 on the list, right behind the Scandinavian countries that lead the world (along with Canada, Japan and Australia). Despite all the seething anti-U.S. propaganda out in the UN, America is doing a far better job than any major European country in making wealth available throughout the population. It should be noted, however, the US is bested on the GEM (it comes in at #12) by Germany (which now has a female head of state).

Despite all this failure, both Chavez and Putin have been returned to office in landslide electoral triumphs. At first blush, this calls into question the value and wisdom of the institution of democracy itself, and for that reason alone is more than enough basis for vigorously opposing what is happening in these two countries; they are discrediting the institution of democracy iself. If Russians will freely choose to hand the reins of power to a proud KGB spy, then perhaps democracy is not the remedy for human strife we might imagine. If Venezuelans will freely choose to allow Chavez to remain in power despite his open provocation of America, by far the world????????s most powerful state both economically and militarily, are the Venezuelan people themselves not directly challenging America and its values? These are vital questions which require searching inquiries and debate.

The situation in Russia is far more grave (indeed, Russian assistance to the Venezuelan leader can be seen as a major cause of the problems in Venezuela). To start with, Venezuela does not possess an arsenal of nuclear weapons aimed at the U.S. Venezuela does not have a recent history similar to Stalin and his ???????gulag archipelago??????? (which killed more Russians than Hitler????????s armies and far more people than Hitler????????s concentration camps) and Chavez is not a proud career member of the secret intelligence services which was dedicated to the destruction of democracy (though his military connections are ominously similar to Putin in many ways). And no matter how crazed the policies of Chavez, their direct results only impact 25 million people; in Russia, the impact is six times greater.

More important, Venezuelans do not have any immediate memory of a direct confrontation with the United States which they lost as Russians have their Cold War recollections. Venezuelans might be forgiven for failing to realize the potential consequences of awakening the ???????sleeping giant??????? described by Admiral Yamamoto prior to Japan????????s Pearl Harbor invasion; Americans have never taken much notice of Venezuela. But Russians have no such excuse. Not only are they barrelling heedlessly down the same failed path of authoritarianism, which is at least arguably their own business, but they are baiting the United States into a new conflict it is hardly likely they can even survive, much less win.

And perhaps Russia????????s internal politics are the world????????s business too, even if there was no cold war threat. After all, we require people to wear their seatbelts even though the risk is only to themselves. Why? Because you won????????t necessarily be killed in that crash you refuse to protect yourself from, you might just receive horrific injuries and you might not have insurance. That might mean society, the rest of us, will have to pay for your recklessness in the form of your hospital bills, and that????????s not fair. If Russia implodes because it is allowed to pursue the failed policies of authoritarianism unfettered, this could create a monumental crisis that would make Africa look like a 4-H project. The world will be left holding the bag for Russian recklessness.

Because Russia is so fundamentally corrupt, we really have no idea how deep Russian support for dictatorship and KGB rule actually is. More important, because we haven????????t seriously opposed it, we have no idea whether Russians would be willing to cling to their barbaric ideas if there was a stiff international price to be paid for doing so. It????????s time to find out. If the Russian people are going to freely choose KGB rule and world confrontation, that will give the term ???????Evil Empire??????? a whole new meaning. We ought to give democracy every chance to work in Russia by forcing the Russian people to confront the consquences of their choices. If we do, who knows . . . maybe they????????ll surprise us. If we find out Russians respond only with more provocation, then we will know we are in for a nastly slog and can begin to prepare for it.

Kim Zigfeld publishes the Russia blog La Russophobe.