Tranquillus in Exile
New member
< It will not happen soon, if it ever happens at all, that Russia will become a second edition of, say, the US or Britain in which liberal values have deep historic traditions. For Russians a strong state is not an anomaly which should be got rid of. Quite the contrary, they see it as a source and guarantor of order.
[On the other hand ...]
Modern Russian society does not identify a strong and effective state with a totalitarian state. We have come to value the benefits of democracy, a law-based state, and personal and political freedom. >
https://pages.uoregon.edu/kimball/Putin.htm
Twenty years later, 'democracy' in Russia is a sham, the 'law' is an abject servant the state, and the best that can be said for 'personal and political freedom' is that it isn't as bad as Stalinism - yet.
Is that the future that Putin planned or did it just happen? In 1999, to public acclaim, he launched an invasion of the rebellious province of Chechnya, which dragged on for years but Russia won in the end. Maybe people should have paid more attention to what Putin was saying.
[On the other hand ...]
Modern Russian society does not identify a strong and effective state with a totalitarian state. We have come to value the benefits of democracy, a law-based state, and personal and political freedom. >
https://pages.uoregon.edu/kimball/Putin.htm
Twenty years later, 'democracy' in Russia is a sham, the 'law' is an abject servant the state, and the best that can be said for 'personal and political freedom' is that it isn't as bad as Stalinism - yet.
Is that the future that Putin planned or did it just happen? In 1999, to public acclaim, he launched an invasion of the rebellious province of Chechnya, which dragged on for years but Russia won in the end. Maybe people should have paid more attention to what Putin was saying.