A modern Russian monarch
The current President of Russia Vladimir Putin, is likely to become Prime Minister when he steps down next year. How is it that this statement, that would appear to be nonsensical, will soon become reality? The answer is linked to the actions of this man; it is the deterioration of democracy in Russia. It would be too alarmist for me to try and imply that Soviet tanks are going to be rolling across Eastern Europe next Summer but certainly there is cause for concern about the increasing disregard for human rights in Russia and the growing authoritarian nature of its government.
NGO’s in Russia have faced tighter and tighter restrictions that hamper their ability to promote democracy and freedom within civil society as well as carry out the charitable work that is so necessary in Russia. Recent changes to the law ‘On Public Associations’ allow the federal government the power to severely disrupt the activities and reduce the independence of civil society from government. This is only part of the authoritative nature of government that President Putin has reintroduced into Russia. He has consistently rolled back democratic reforms and tightened state control. The Russian Parliament, the Duma, is filled with Putin’s supporters and has become little more than a rubber stamp, while the media has been intimidated and put under government control. This April, Russian police raided the Educated Media Foundation, a NGO sponsored by US and European donors. The police carried away documents and computers that were used as servers for the Web sites of similar groups. That brought down a Web site run by the Glasnost Defense Foundation, a media rights group, which published bulletins on violations of press freedoms. “Russia is dropping off the list of countries that respect press freedoms,” said Boris Timoshenko, a spokesman for the foundation. “We have propaganda, not information.”
However it is not only within Russia that the Kremlin has used undemocratic and oppressive tactics to ensure its preeminence. The conflict in Chechnya was the Russian equivalent of the Iraq war but without the media attention due to the monopoly on information that the Russian Army imposed on the area. Unfortunately one of the people to report independently on the conflict Anna Politkovskaya was killed last year. While the steady drumbeat of daily atrocities has ceased, human rights abuses continue unabated. A sign of the times is that the current Kremlin appointed President, Ramzan Kadyrov or “King Ramzan”, counts amongst his acquaintances Mike Tyson and keeps a pet lion. More worryingly Russian control in Chechnya has resulted in systematic torture of detainees. “If you are detained in Chechnya, you face a real and immediate risk of torture,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
On the international stage Russia’s actions have become increasingly belligerent and irresponsible. The prominent poisonings of Viktor Yushchenko, the President of Ukraine and Alexander Litvinenko in London were linked back to Moscow, some would say quite credibly. While these actions remain for the mean time at least, in the land of speculation, in other areas Russia has been throwing its weight around very publicly. It has used its economic power i.e. its gas reserves, to bully and force neighbouring countries to succumb to its will. When the Ukranian Presidential elections failed to elect a pro-Russian leader, the state run gas company Gazprom decided to dramatically raise gas prices. President Putin, emboldened by the perceived weakness of Britain and the US as well as economic strength at home, has begun to reassert Russia’s influence on the world stage. One gets the feeling that Putin is attempting to regain Russia’s “rightful place amongst the nations of the world”. However this “rightful place among nations” mentality has been shown to be dangerous in the past and will only create trouble in the future.
Certainly I have painted a grim picture of the Russian Federation but it would seem at the moment that it will not improve in the near future. President Putin seems in no mood to relinquish power, and it is unlikely that he will reverse any of the authoritarian measures that was introduced over the last 10 years. In addition the UK and indeed the US have little credibility to advise Russia on human rights or democracy. Due to our dependance on natural gas and oil, and our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq we certainly lack the military, political and economic clout to influence Putin. Civil independence is being rapidly eroded as the Russian Government or at least parts of it act with impunity, for example in the killing of Anna Politkovskaya and as long as the Kremlin sponsors dictatorial regimes such as in Myanmar it is likely that the efforts of other people around the world to gain civil independence will fail. One might have hoped that with the ending of Putin’s Presidential term, there may have been a change in Russian policies, however with Vladimir Putin and his cronies firmly entrenched in the Kremlin and the continuing impotence of the West to convincingly stand up as Leader of the Free World, there is unlikely to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
