Decius wrote:
] Jello wrote:
] ] This isn't as serious as it might seem, in a way.
]
] Depends how you define serious. Yup, the democracy sucked, but
] to select dictatorship. Even if Putin makes the trains run on
] time, he will establish a system in which people have no
] power, and then he will go away and another will replace him.
] Ultimately, the result will be bad. A benevolent dictatorship
] is still a dictatorship.

No, I agree that its terrible. I hope Putin gets testicular cancer, along with the entire Moscow Militsia. I'm just saying, that this isn't really a change. Its just the formalization of changes that happened in the last 5-6 years. If Putin doesn't support a candidate, then he rarely gets elected. Which is basically the same as him directly appointing officials. And the Duma is a joke. They have no real power. So modifying those elections doesn't really amount to much. The new system is a bit more honest than the old one, about what it is. But its the same.

The pretext for the announcement however, is absurd. The caucus resion has been under this new system since before the school incident.

As for civil liberties... most Russians are so preoccupied with getting by, and the government is so unwieldy, the militsia so oppressive, that freedom is equivalent to avoiding the system entirely. Rights exist on paper, but not in reality. Unless you can afford them.

Perhaps the ideal thing would be for a benevolent dictator (which he is not) to clean things up, to make Russian government function, and then to return the system to the people. Too bad it never happens that way.

RE: Putin uses school attacks to cripple democracy in Russia.