Is Communism Back?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, The World
Vladimir Putin scares me. No, not because he kissed that kid’s belly. That was just weird.
What frightens me is he’s slowly but surely turning Russia back into an authoritarian state, and we’re doing nothing about it. He seizes oil companies worth billions of dollars. We do nothing. Journalists are murdered mysteriously. We do nothing.
Now he’s literally making it impossible for his political opponents to have any say. And we will once again do absolutely zero. And we certainly won’t make any political hay over it either. Why? Well, the best I can tell its because Russia let us stage some of our military in their country when we invaded Afghanistan. Sure, there are other reasons, but that’s the biggie.
So I ask the question, is Communism coming back and are we letting it happen?
Russia’s next parliament is likely to have no genuine opposition after a court in Moscow yesterday banned a leading liberal party from standing in elections.Russia’s supreme court announced that it had liquidated the small Republican party, claiming that it had violated electoral law by having too few members. The party is one of very few left in Russia that criticises President Vladimir Putin.
The move against Russia’s opposition came as pro-democracy activists prepared for the latest in a series of anti-government rallies that have infuriated Russia’s hardline authorities.
Liquidated for having too few members? Sit back and think about that one for a moment. Boggles the mind.
Seriously, are we ignoring a growing threat in Putin’s increasingly fascist regime? What’s even scarier is that Putin is hugely popular with the Russian people. 81% approval in a poll taken in February.
Color me extremely concerned.
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2007 and is filed under Foreign Policy, The World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 24th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
How is America responsible for this, and what actions can America undertake to avoid similar internal political situations around the world? Especially considering Putin has such a high approval rating. We must be concerned, of course, but to say that America has the authority or power to control domestic politics in Russia is overstating it a bit.
We somehow let it happen because they helped us in Afghanistan (how exactly?)…c’mon man. The world is crazy with or without America.
March 24th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
I’m not saying that we’re responsible, I’m just saying that because they allowed us to stage some of our troops, now we’re just standing by while Russia is turning back into a one-party fascist state.
You know…warning, 1938 alert.
March 24th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
“We do nothing”
I hate to come off as overly cynical, but have you forgotten that the US already has her nose in enough problems in the middle east, we’ve lost enough troops as it is by occupying other countries with badly founded information.
We have enough problems as it is before we try to fix another.
March 24th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
I seriously doubt that the relationship over Afghanistan will have anything to do with American the response (or lack therof) to this. There really is nothing we can do but issue a press release verbally condemning it, and even that is meaningless. Besides, I seem to recall Bush and Condi talking tough during the Ukrainian election affair a few years back.
March 25th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Communism has never gone away, or at least its mentality. Just as East Germany was a rebadged Nazi state in 1945, so Comrade Lt. Col. V.V. Putin of the KGB is now der fuhrer.
March 25th, 2007 at 9:04 am
I am old enough to remember the the Air Raids, Bomb Shelters in shopping center parking lot demos, and “The Russians are coming; The Russians are coming”. It was a fine marketing scheme and had grand time for the reactive people in the US. Don’t forget that while we worry over what might happen, THINGS are happening elsewhere. Distraction is a great tool for those with a plan.
March 25th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
The thing I think we’re all forgetting here is that Russia is going towards a place where we will HAVE to answer them. Also, who has the most stray nukes in the world? You put those two things together, and what is our plan?
March 25th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
In the near term, I concur that Putin’s Russia is looking more and more troublesome. It’s the longer term that’s a bigger question. Russia, by all accounts, is heading for a demographic collapse at least as great as the one threatening western Europe. How can even an authoritarian regime keep a nation afloat when its population becomes too small, and spread too thinly across such a vast land mass, to maintain the nation’s infrastructure - especially its military/industrial complex?
The worst-case scenario, it seems to me, is that someday an authoritarian Russia, out of desperation, will try to (re)conquer its way out of its crisis. It may not get very far, precisely because it lacks the quantity and quality of people in its armed forces and M/I complex needed to sustain a Russian war machine, but even that would be very bad news, as it would basically eviscerate Russia and relegate it to Third World status.
March 25th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
As long as the people of Russian believe they are better off than ever before, Putin will get his way. No other government can stop it.
There is only one difference between right wing & left wing dictatorships: who controls the country’s productivity. Under Communism, the state, which has no clue how to operate efficiently, controls it. Under fascism, private corporations, who do know how to do it well, controls the country’s wealth.
US history shows that the government always supports capitalistic dictators, provided they do not perceive an immediate threat to our mainland. Meanwhile, they have always opposed those of a socialist leaning.
When it comes to the nuclear option, there is none between the US & Russia; MAD is still in effect, & probably always will be. Sounds like both sides are blowing hot air at each other. The dictatorship will remain a reality, & there is nothing we, or Europe, can do about it.
March 26th, 2007 at 8:37 am
This seems to me like one of those times when you have to choose your battles carefully. We protested the election BS in the Ukraine because there was a chance to make a difference. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem like the case in Russia.
Let’s face it, their experiment in Democracy failed, that’s why Putin is popular. That country has undergone a collapse in living standards since the fall of communism. The people there are making a very rational choice for efficient dictatorship over corrupt kleptocracy.
March 29th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Well - and I say this knowing little to squat about current Russian politics - given that all of the rest is true about suppression of dissent, if you believe that 81% support figure, I have this swell bridge I’d like to offer you.
April 18th, 2007 at 11:11 am
eventually Russia will evolve into the kind of structure China has.
The entire world is moving in that direction. It is the kind of world FDR
hoped the UN would create after WWll. Gov, intervention when needed
\and controls to keep the oligarghy and the rober barons in check.
That is how Roosevelt tried to save the sole of America.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Our politicians could only dream of a 81% approval rating.
If Russians like him, its none of our freaking business.
Power to him.
COMMUNISM FOR OUR FUTURE!!