Is Russia evolving to dictatorship ?

[Toke]

Fox news??

 

[Nogbad]

It would be hard for him not to be popular, any critical press is silenced after all. So all anyone hears is good things.

There is an element of that but I think there is genuine popular support in there too.

 

[Toke]

He is doing something for national pride

 

[dudalb]

He is doing something for national pride

BUt in the worst way possible...he is scaring the hell out of all his neighbors, and seems to be giving proof that he wants to bring if not the Soviet Union, Old Imperial Russia.

And (at the risk of a Godwin) Hitler did a hell of a lot for national pride also.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

He is doing something for national pride

And that's a good thing?

ETA: what dudalb said.

 

[dudalb]

And that's a good thing?

Not the way that Putin is doing it.

 

[Toke]

Depends, the russians like it, the neibours not quite as much.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Not the way that Putin is doing it.

I'd suggest that national pride always carries dangerous potential, but Putin's version concerns me a bit more for sure.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

It's "evolving" into dictatorship in the same sense that I am "Getting" really really fat.

I.e. I am already really really fat

 

[Francesca R]

Putin may be a dictator but fewer people are starveing in the street the economy is in a better shape and pay is no longer several years behind.

As I said above, and I can put it differently perhaps: more than all of that can be explained by the change in the oil price. In other words, Putin did not have to do anything, and had he done nothing at all, the economy would have grown even faster.

 

[geni]

As I said above, and I can put it differently perhaps: more than all of that can be explained by the change in the oil price. In other words, Putin did not have to do anything, and had he done nothing at all, the economy would have grown even faster.

But with even greater levels of inequality.

 

[Francesca R]

Dunno. What's its geni [sic] coefficient without Putin?

 

[geni]

Dunno. What's its geni [sic] coefficient without Putin?

Obligarchs would own gazprom as well.

 

[Chaos]

I don´t think Russia is evolving into a dictatorship. I think it is being intelligently designed to be Putin´s personal property.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

There was a joke that went around Russia after the Fall of Communism®.

Communism is the historical step on the way from Capitalism to Capitalism.

 

[JihadJane]

Not a few posters on this forum believe Hugo Chavez is a dictator so I won't take their judgement too seriously. Meanwhile, the US is evolving into China:

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2008/11/14/talk-by-chinese-intelligence-chief-on-us-economy/

 

[Thunder]

Russia....is a dictatorship. Putin will either be President or Prime Minister (it matters not which position he actually has) until the day he dies.

 

[Crowlogic]

Of course Russia has retreated back into dictatorship. Makes perfect sense too. The world was a much saner/safer place when it was us vs them. Or to put it another way the US vs the Soviet Union. There may have been bit players like China but in the end it was the big 2 that were calling all the shots. So I wouldn't be too upset if Russia abandons its pretense to democracy I can almost sense that there was a few behind closed doors meetings where Russia and the US decided that the old world order on the surface at least was a more workable solution.

 

[KoihimeNakamura]

{Deleted original post, off topic}

Hm. Honestly, I can't say I'm surprised. Usually, food in your house outweighs various abuses.

 

[geni]

Russia....is a dictatorship. Putin will either be President or Prime Minister (it matters not which position he actually has) until the day he dies.

I doubt it. Putin probably plans on surviveing office and that means makeing sure there is a way to leave other than your death. There are other power players in Russia (or wannabe players). Putin has to remain genuinly popular to some degree in order to counter them.