For starters, I am not a big fan of Vladimir Putin. So naturally, I am not 100 percent happy with the way that Sunday’s presidential election turned out. Dimitry Medvedev, Putin’s hand picked successor, won the election with an overwhelming 70.2 percent. I don’t think that the Kremlin would be so bold as to outright rig the election, but Putin certainly manages to retain power in a very undemocratic way. From my observations, it seems as if the Russian government has instituted a “resistance is futile” sort of propaganda campaign in this election.
How did Russia get this way? What happened to the Russian democracy that Boris Yeltsin once led? I’ve been thinking these questions through for a while now, and I think that I have a better understanding of the will of the Russian people, and the way they think about government.
Russians seem to hold strength as a very high ideal. The way that Americans think of the idea of freedom, I think that Russians feel the same way about strength. In that way, I’m sure that Vladimir Putin is a sort of hero to many Russians. My problem is, that while Putin may have increased the strength of the Russian nation, he has also undermined many basic democratic rights to the people of Russia. Why can’t a people be governed with both strength and freedom?
This election doesn’t answer many questions. Will Putin or Medvedev be the Russian head of state? I’m sure that Putin’s policies will continue for now, but I can only hope that Medvedev will put his own mark on the policies of the Kremlin. He is only 42 years old, and unlike Putin, he firmly has both of his feet planted in the 21st century. Perhaps Medvedev will carve out his own image as Russia’ president.
