Vladimir Putin: 'New Russia' czar
Verfasst: 13 Mär 2004, 19:01
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Gruss
Regina
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Vladimir Putin: 'New Russia' czar
03/12/04
The more things change. . . .
On Sunday, Russia will hold elections yet again. This time, the Kremlin is controlling everything in the name of stability, the economy is ever more tightly centrally directed and there is no independent press or television left. Only one candidate is seriously running for president.
Vladimir Putin knows exactly what he is doing: Russia's president has reconstructed and streamlined his Cabinet to hold in check the hard-line security forces who surround him. He has put into position putative economic "reformers," but ones who will be sure that all economic decisions remain in his hands; and he has made sure that there is no free media that can analyze and judge the outcome and give the Russian people outlandish ideas.
Welcome to the "New Russia."
There is, of course, the semblance and appearance of a real election. Final polls this week gave Putin 64.9 percent and the other six to eight candidates (people keep dropping out, so it's hard to tell at any one moment who's still in) about 14 percent.
It's anybody's guess what happened to the remaining 21 percent. But Vladimir Putin will be the next president of Russia -- and very probably the following and possibly the following, as well.
The short, smart, suspicious former KGB agent -- the largely unexpressive man whose soul George W. Bush so confidently looked into and saw a democrat -- has turned out to be part modern-day czar, part Slavic superhero and part populist campaigner who thrills his people, inured to superannuated leaders who could barely make it across the room, with his athletic prowess.
Above all, the Russian people see in the president at least a partial realization of their obsessive need for stability. At any cost, if necessary.
Typical were the words of a 42-year-old entrepreneur from the Russian city of Samara on the Southern Volga. "People now are not interested in democracy," Vladimir Nemashev told the Financial Times during the electoral campaign. "They're interested in earning money, bringing up their children and perhaps making trips abroad. This is not disappointing. It just must be accepted, like the weather. My real aim is to keep the home fires burning so they don't die away completely. Maybe for 10 or 15 years."
Other Russians have been quoted during the campaign as saying of Putin and his security forces' reign, "At best, he's not making things worse." Another said, "He's the first normal person to head Russia."
But if the general public's needs and desires can be expressed in such minimalist terms, there is nothing simple about the machinations of Putin, who is turning out to be as Machiavellian as the classic Russian czars.
These developments will pose no problem to the United States if we see today's Russia realistically -- as it is and as it was culturally destined to be for some years after the fall of totalitarian communism. Today it is a hybrid, authoritarian, and yet with elements of a free market and with some hope for that future 10 to 15 years from now. A country in which 77 percent of the people say in polls that they do not want to see a relative serve in the armed forces is not exactly a big threat to anyone, no matter how it blusters.
Maybe it's time President Bush took another look into Vladimir's eyes.
2004, Universal Press Syndicate
Georgie Anne Geyer can be reached through Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Suite 700, Kansas City, MO 64111-7701.
Gruss
Regina
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vladimir Putin: 'New Russia' czar
03/12/04
The more things change. . . .
On Sunday, Russia will hold elections yet again. This time, the Kremlin is controlling everything in the name of stability, the economy is ever more tightly centrally directed and there is no independent press or television left. Only one candidate is seriously running for president.
Vladimir Putin knows exactly what he is doing: Russia's president has reconstructed and streamlined his Cabinet to hold in check the hard-line security forces who surround him. He has put into position putative economic "reformers," but ones who will be sure that all economic decisions remain in his hands; and he has made sure that there is no free media that can analyze and judge the outcome and give the Russian people outlandish ideas.
Welcome to the "New Russia."
There is, of course, the semblance and appearance of a real election. Final polls this week gave Putin 64.9 percent and the other six to eight candidates (people keep dropping out, so it's hard to tell at any one moment who's still in) about 14 percent.
It's anybody's guess what happened to the remaining 21 percent. But Vladimir Putin will be the next president of Russia -- and very probably the following and possibly the following, as well.
The short, smart, suspicious former KGB agent -- the largely unexpressive man whose soul George W. Bush so confidently looked into and saw a democrat -- has turned out to be part modern-day czar, part Slavic superhero and part populist campaigner who thrills his people, inured to superannuated leaders who could barely make it across the room, with his athletic prowess.
Above all, the Russian people see in the president at least a partial realization of their obsessive need for stability. At any cost, if necessary.
Typical were the words of a 42-year-old entrepreneur from the Russian city of Samara on the Southern Volga. "People now are not interested in democracy," Vladimir Nemashev told the Financial Times during the electoral campaign. "They're interested in earning money, bringing up their children and perhaps making trips abroad. This is not disappointing. It just must be accepted, like the weather. My real aim is to keep the home fires burning so they don't die away completely. Maybe for 10 or 15 years."
Other Russians have been quoted during the campaign as saying of Putin and his security forces' reign, "At best, he's not making things worse." Another said, "He's the first normal person to head Russia."
But if the general public's needs and desires can be expressed in such minimalist terms, there is nothing simple about the machinations of Putin, who is turning out to be as Machiavellian as the classic Russian czars.
These developments will pose no problem to the United States if we see today's Russia realistically -- as it is and as it was culturally destined to be for some years after the fall of totalitarian communism. Today it is a hybrid, authoritarian, and yet with elements of a free market and with some hope for that future 10 to 15 years from now. A country in which 77 percent of the people say in polls that they do not want to see a relative serve in the armed forces is not exactly a big threat to anyone, no matter how it blusters.
Maybe it's time President Bush took another look into Vladimir's eyes.
2004, Universal Press Syndicate
Georgie Anne Geyer can be reached through Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Suite 700, Kansas City, MO 64111-7701.
