epitoneIt appears that Putin will be President once more, despite the protestations of the Russian people who cry not only foul play but also that they’ve had enough of Vladimir Vladimirovich – the leader who refuses to relinquish power in the vein of the many despots before him. Democracy in Russia is nothing but a façade, an illusion. Men such as Putin, former KGB apparatchiks, have little concern for the will of people – what they want and need. Rather such men, former nomenklatura, care only for the state, the Russian state, which they will serve, as they did the Soviet state, until the bitter end. Communism collapsed because the people had had enough of this state, which was utterly indifferent to them, hindering them and diminishing their happiness when it had claimed to be doing quite the opposite. Yet Putin’s state, this new state he moulded out of the debris of the old Communist one, is the very same. Vladimir Vladimirovich, a moody bugger like his monstrous predecessor Stalin, expects gratitude from his people for his dedication, his loyalty to Russia and her people. His surly face conveys a man who’ll be President again only because he knows best, what’s best for the Russian people, and that, despite the great demands of the job, he will make this enormous sacrifice for his people, a sacrifice which includes accumulating vast personal wealth. Putin might have labelled certain oligarchs thieves, yet he is perhaps the greatest thief of all. He robs the Russian people not only of their wealth but also their freedom.
that Russia should be waloled to join the WTO. I was personally flabbergasted, and I imagine Russophobes who have grown to rely on his acerbic put-downs reacted as if he had spat on their child’s birthday cake instead of blowing out the candles. However, that turned out to have been a slip that was not repeated, and he was soon back to peddling his usual brand of crap. Which is a pity, because Russia SHOULD be encouraged to join the WTO, and now it just looks like maybe the heat got to Aslund, or he had a bad reaction from his asshole medication or something.Yes, I’m sure some sources bad-mouth Russia nonstop because their paycheck comes from a think-tank that favours that view, but I don’t like to reach for that explanation every time somebody criticizes Russia. That’s because it annoys me whenever someone suggests I am generally in Russia’s corner in its spats with the west because the Kremlin pays me to do it. I wouldn’t take money if it were offered, which it never has been.
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