Putin's iron grip grows
April 15th 2007 07:23
How stupid is Putin. Yesterday he had Gary Kasparov, the famous chess master, arrested. Gary was supposed to lead an anti-Putin rally. He had perhaps a couple of thosuand protesters. If allowed, there protest would have made news in Russia fora few days and elsewhere for a few minutes. What does he have to fear? his popularity in Russia is uncontested and even if wants to change the constitution and get elected for a third time, it was all smooth sailing for him. The public is behind him and most of the political class is in his pocket.But no. Putin has to deploy twenty thousand army personnel and arrest Gray even before the rally began and beat the rest of them to hell and put them in prison. Now this is major international news and it is official, Putin is a dictator. Gary Kasparov is not Khadovsky, the Yukos billionaire whom Putin sent to penitentiary. Gary is known worldwide and more importantly, the Yukos businessman was at least known to be corrupt but no such grievances against Kasparov exist. However quixotic his anti-Putin demonstrations might seem. If push comes to shove, this will again present a bitter dilemma to the West, the same they faced in Georgia and Ukraine. At least then, the choice was easy. But to support now insurrections in a powerful country like Russia would tip the scales of global balance. After all Putin started on this self-destructive path after what were to him his feudal holdings, Georgia and Ukraine, were yanked from under his feet. Slowly he is evolving into a classical tyrant. And if the cycle is complete, Russia will turn into a personal dictatorship yet again.
I used to like this man. No, I haven't looked into his eyes and seen his soul but I had always hoped that the understanding forged between Bush and him would steadily grow into a US-Russia relationship. How great that would have been for the world and the war on terror. Instead, the US-Russia relations have steadily soured which meant that Russia is arming Iran. People are already calling it a new cold war. Now this. Till now at least there was a tragic ring to these turn of events. You could at elast understand if not excuse Putin's behavior. Now this. Stupid, stupid.
I used to like this man. No, I haven't looked into his eyes and seen his soul but I had always hoped that the understanding forged between Bush and him would steadily grow into a US-Russia relationship. How great that would have been for the world and the war on terror. Instead, the US-Russia relations have steadily soured which meant that Russia is arming Iran. People are already calling it a new cold war. Now this. Till now at least there was a tragic ring to these turn of events. You could at elast understand if not excuse Putin's behavior. Now this. Stupid, stupid.
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