Tag: Dictatorship

Equation of Russia and Putin Works Against Both, Gazeta Says

November 10, 2014

Staunton, November 8 – Ever more people equate Vladimir Putin with Russia, something that for most Russians is a positive, but that for others is a negative thing, the editors of Gazeta say, noting that this “personification” entails “a serious danger “not only for the powers that be but also for the country as a […]

No Russian State in Occupation of Crimea Can Be Considered Democratic, Portnikov Says

October 17, 2014

Staunton, October 17 – Now that Aleksey Navalny has said that he won’t return Crimea to Ukraine and Mikhail Khodorkovsky has added that “only a [Russian] dictator” could do so, other “representatives of Russian democratic society have hastened” to assure Russians that they won’t either as they live in “a democracy” in which “all issues […]

‘Hybrid Regimes’ Simulate Not Only Democracy But Dictatorship Too, Schulman Says

August 18, 2014

Staunton, August 17 – Most Western commentators focus on the absence of genuine democracy in the so-called “hybrid” regimes but fail to notice that such regimes are also characterized by a lack of genuine dictatorship, according to Yekaterina Schulman, a Moscow legal affairs commentator. “It is easy to see that the democratic façade [of such […]

Like North Korea, Putin’s Russia ‘Destroying Itself From Within,’ Akhmetov Says

May 31, 2014

Staunton, May 31 – In the 1950s, North Korea was developing rapidly and South Korea was extremely poor, but over the succeeding decades, North Korea cut itself off from the world, became ever more authoritarian, and bankrupted itself with massive military spending. South Korea did just the reverse and is now the economic powerhouse on […]

Putin’s System is the ‘Negative Convergence’ of Worst of Capitalism and Worst of Sovietism, Eidman Says

May 12, 2014

Staunton, May 12 – Vladimir Putin’s system represents a combination of “all the worst features of capitalism and socialism,” a fusion that represents “’negative convergence’ and one that has created “a monster,” according to Igor Eidman, a Russian sociologist and commentator who now lives in Germany. In an essay on Kasparov.ru today, Eidman notes that […]

Under Putin, ‘Russians Don’t Exist, Only “Sovs,”’ Shumyatsky Says

April 6, 2014

Staunton, April 5 – Given the nature of Vladimir Putin’s regime and reflecting the Kremlin leader’s own understanding, “Russians do not exist,” émigré writer Boris Shumyatsky says. Instead, “people from the former Soviet Union are united [by] their experience of life under a dictatorship.” In a comment to Die Zeit this week, the writer argues […]