|
| quote: | Originally posted by George Smiley
Just out of interest Magnetonium, why is it that a Canadian-Russian supports Vladimir Putin so much? Is it just because he's such a nationalist and sparks some kind of emotional response inside you that makes you proud of your Russian background? Or do you actually support Putin's policies? |
George, what happened to your Polska at the Euros? They couldn't beat Croatia's auxillary team ;-) Heheh ;-)
I'll be frankly honest with you - I dont support Putin in everything he does. In fact, there are some things that I harshly criticize him for, like failure to deal with increasing bureaucracy and corruption. But then again - realistically, what can he do without getting a bullet to his head?
I support Putin because his agenda is good for Russia. Not excellent, but good. It has saved Russia from destruction, from appalling 1990s, from misery and humiliation. Which is better than any other options on the table. And Putin isn't being all nationalistic - Russia is not planning to invade any countries or to flex our economic muscles. The oil/gas problems with Ukraine and Belarus are not examples of Russia "flexing" economic muscles, but merely disputes (thats why Russia wants to build pipelines on the Baltic bottom). There's more important pressing problems within the country. Putin is a very intelligent guy, he knows that in this modern world its hopeless and pointless to invade or take over countries.
One might say that Putin's rise to power might have single-handedly contributed to the post-2000 American foreign policy. I think so. Which in the end has resulted in further NATO expansion towards Russian borders and American bases in Central Asia and Georgia, right next door. So it figures.
BUT, Putin's biggest problem is the same problem all Russian leaders that have done before him - wipe out the previous leader's political support mechanism, which is very bad because its keeping Russian political elite very weak. There are no good politicians in Russia other than the ones in power as a result. Previous ruling bloc and its politicians, and their experience, influence and gains are almost always wiped out and tossed aside. And Putin is not clamping down on opposition, its not the problem, because liberals and pro-Americans are usually discarded because of their lack experience, support and direction. And so on and on. For example, Mr. Yavlinsky (look him up), for many years has been Yabloko's party leader, a pro-Western direction with very liberal agenda. He wasnt clamped down by Yeltsin/Putin, he was simply a victim of weak Russian political system which prevented him from contributing to the big Russian political picture. For over a decade, he has been literally just a touring politician voicing his pro-Western bridging ways, but thats all that he got. He did manage about 10% of presidential vote against Putin and Yeltsin a few years back, but thats it.
On the other hand, Americans and British have a very well-established and well-rooted political elite. Its so good, it dont matter who comes to power in those countries, be it Russia-friendly or anti-Russian guy because things wont change by much. Not so in Russia. AAnd this makes Russia very vulnerable and weak - one leader's progress can be wiped out easily.
In USA, Kennedy clan has been alive and strong for decades. Bush family too. And whatever others. When they left the office, they remained strong and continued to contribute to the country's politics.
But here's when another problem comes in - constant foreign meddling in Russia's affairs, like the Khodorkovsky case, which I illustrated above. Yeltsin played along to the American/British tune, and secured their companies huge chunk of Russia's resources. Continuing NATO expansion and anti-Russian political mood in some Western countries is only pushing Russia away, not in the authoritarian direction but in the Asian one.
The reason why I tend to defend Putin 100% of the time on these forums is because people on here tend to criticize Putin for all the wrong reasons. So I am unable to bring up the REAL issues in Russia. What some people post on these forums about Russia and Putin are wild opinions and perspectives, like claiming that Russia is going back to authoritarian regime while providing opinions and Westerners, primarily, look at Russia with a very crooked view and don't understand the situation all that well. For example, they probably never thought about picturing Kasparov at the Russian throne and what he would do for Russia. Because if they did, and they considered all the options like any political think tank would, they'd realize that its stupid. Not stupid, but ridiculous. Good politicians dont just play chess and then run for president. Might as well invite Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees to the White House.
And with regards to Krypton's point regards opposition. Yes, I support opposition, please please Russia needs a deeply rooted and diverse political scene, which it lacks. I mean, it has the communists, the nationalists, neo-liberals, social democrats, Putinists, Green Party, etc. but all these parties are very weak other than the ruling bloc. Their political heads are very weak and inexperienced and dont have much of a say in the country. They dont have influence and are not well-rooted either. They dont have big pockets or actual goals to pursue to achieve something. They just take their ideologies, and use whatever method to run for elections to sway voters and push agenda. Look at one of the oldest politician in Russian politics, Mr. Zhirinovsky. His party only been in politics for about 20 years, since 1987-89. Thats weak. He started the first party that wasnt backed by the Soviet Party. Russian parties change, merge, move, disband too often. There's no continuity, no stability, no determination in Russian politics. Weak weak system, which has been a problem for many years before even Putin came around. So its not Putin's fault. But maybe he could do something to change it for the better.
I think its the resources curse. No nation with massive natural resources has been able to bring itself to economical and political prosperity. There's nations who build wealth on resources and lack infrastructure and support, and thus just become resource exporters and there's other nations who dont have much of resources so they adapt by building infrastructure and import the resources to build economy and strong industry, which means jobs and stability. Look at Denmark - little resources yet strong, stable and industry-developed state.
___________________
Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture
Last edited by Magnetonium on Jun-18-2008 at 22:54
|
