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I am a graduate student in the History Department at UCLA in Modern Russian and European History.  My thoughts on Russia past, present and future can be read at Sean's Russia Blog.

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"Mirror, mirror upon the wall . . ."

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posted by Sean Guillory at 18h38 GMT on Oct 12

"Mirror, mirror upon the wall, Who is the fairest of all?"
The mirror answered-
"Thou, O Queen, art the fairest of all,"
and the Queen was contented, because she knew the mirror could speak nothing but the truth.”
--The Brothers’ Grimm, Little Snow White

Vladimir Putin's recent announcement that he seeks to become Russia's Prime Minister after his Presidential term is over next March has resulted in a discursive cacophony about failure of Russian democracy. The London Times wrote that Russia is "moving toward some form of post-Soviet dictatorship." The Moscow Times said that democracy in Russia "is more a facade than a reality." The LA Times called Putin's move yet another sign of Russia's "pseudo-democracy."

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Mirror? Hardly.

I just posted a response to one of the Edward Lucas' blog entries on a very similar subject. I will have to borrow from myself replying to you, Sean.

Democracy is just a concept. A concept of popular governance and it varies greatly in implementation from a very limited Athenian aristocratic democracy to universal suffrage. Societies develop and their implementations of popular governance change. To my Marxist trained mind there is a clear trend that parallels (and in my opinion determines) current form of democracy in a given society - the ever expanding institute of private property of means of production. Private property is the foundation and guarantor of democracy.

Democracy and freedom are often used interchangeably but very often refer to political freedom only, although both freedom and democracy span beyond purely political speech and cover economic freedom just as much. In a monopolistic environment a consumer of (gas, telephone service, health care, jobs, workforce, food, water, anything tangible or intangible) has less choice then a free market would provide.

From this perspective current Putin's Russia is not very free, not very democratic and not very capitalist either. It is almost impossible to determine where state ends and private sector begins. Some areas have been privatized more then others and there is more freedom in these sectors. Governance has been re-nationalized to the point of democratic institutions becoming irrelevant. Is there any pretense at all regarding upcoming presidential elections having any value?

Sean is also making a convenient substitution between democracy and human rights and specifically a very marginal case of legal disagreement whether Geneva Convention applies to non-uniform saboteurs, extrapolating it on democracy in general. Using Jimmy Carter, arguably one of the worst Presidents the US ever had, and a person indirectly responsible for quite a share of current problems with Islamic militants does not fortify the case either.

Cyrill

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What standards?

Sean, what standards do you think Russian democracy should be measured against? You're making it way too easy for yourself by saying that "Western" criticism of developments in Russia is just a way of deflecting what you see as a crisis of Western societies. Shouldn't we hold Russia to the same standards as we hold our own democracies? Shouldn't we look for political equality, free and fair elections, free media and freedom of speech, a functioning civil society, and as Cyrill says, freedom in the economic sphere -- shouldn't we look for all these things and more in Russia just as we look for them in Norway, the US, Greece or wherever? If we do that, then we treat Russia just as we treat ourselves, and we precisely _do not_ conveniently discover Russia as the new orientalist other. But if we said that, hah, the Russians, they always need an iron man at the top to tell them what to do etc etc, _then_ we would be doing what you say critics of Russia are doing now.

And by the way: it is entirely possible that a great variety of democracies can exist side by side, even though they share some essential traits like the rights I listed. Russia can find its way into this very colourful club of democracies with its identity intact. I think you would agree that there are distinct differences between Norway, the US and Greece, but they are all democracies. A parliamentary monarchy, a parliamentary republic, a presidential republic.

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