The Complication Of Criticizing Russian Democracy

The complication of criticizing Russian Democracy

1/30/07 12:28 PM

What questions di you try to nswer in your paper? what sources did you use? What conclusions di you come to? spirtual reasons why putin is supported by Russia: •they saw him as decisive •someone who could potentially preserve russian pride •a strong man who will stand up to American encroachment Why do the Russians want a strong leader? •Russian uniqueness •in russia’s history consolidating power: the western perspective •domestic sovereignty othe governments commitment to support its own form of democracy and believes that Russia has its own unique form of emocracy oit stands as a calling card around anti-american sentiment and pro-russian sentiment ohowever the western media sees it as thinly veiled effort on the part of Russia to re create its empire The west levels the criticism against all aspects of putin’s plan always have to ask the uestion of who is saying this and why? Levitsky's article about competitive authoritarianism •man in the west do not find that democracy is a word that describes Russia today oterms it competitive authoritarianism Putin (the anti-hero) •Western criticisms have been leveled in the fields of oHealthcare Increasingly privatized and if you can’t afford it you have to go through the shitty public medical system russia has a vertical training system which is a failure people who pick specialities peopel are limited to know only what they studied there is also just very little money being pumped into the public medical system oHousing Putin has been criticized because 2 million peope live in housing that is officially labled as dilapidated the vast majority of homes were built in 1940’sthe service quality is also poor oeducation aog ith the privatization of education education now is suffering a lot it is very difficult to get into public schools teachers are getting paid abysmally people are not going into education because it is just not feasibly economically oagriculture a long period of time where production levels are significantly low there is a culture of conglomerate farm owners simmilar to the communal farming system in the globalized society…. The ability to move goods around theyhave to remain competitive oEconomics

no interest at all by foreign investors to have there be more centralized control over economic investment in russia Yukos tax and economic fraud government instigated anti globalization activist would usually celbrate such punitive actions •but they didn’t because the yukos cheiv was actually planning on running for Russian president putin does it to keep foreign investors from exploiting Russia, or so he says oMilitary the west used to criticize the Russian military as debunked proliferaion is a scary prospect should russia’s military fal apart the west sees this as a form of extortion Russia is using its nukes as a way to extort money out of the west russia's military cannot quell uprisings in checnya Criticisims of Putin the Leader •Seen as a either a bumbling tyrant or a weak dullard •Jokes about putin Human rights violations •In march 2004 putin was re-elected under fair elections but did cite the overwhelming putin bias in the media •You can now be held in prison for terrorism related problems for over three motnhs •The banning of the people’s ability to elect their own gov’t •Disappearances, torture in Chechnya •People who support chechan rights who have disappeared •Russian violence against women in Chechnya •Media freedom questions •Are people getting fair trials? •Horrendous treatments of Russian prisons allows him to point his own governors corrups the election process the duma used to be able to involve itself in inter governmental disputes the duma now has no direct role is this the best the russia ca hope for?

1/30/07 12:28 PM

1/30/07 12:28 PM