Democracy & Russia

I remember speaking to one of the members of a small Canadian contingent dispatched to Russia. He was talking to me about the kind of corruption that was seeping through the system. For instance, all the delegates were staying in hotels exclusively owned by Putin.

One of my favourite authors – Anna Politkovskaya – was assassinated in her Moscow apartment block last October. When the news came through, I already had two of her books in my possession. Her book on Chechnya was perhaps one of the most important political works of the last decade. I found Putin’s Russia flawed, but nevertheless I respected her tremendously for her pioneering work.

And now, the following news:

Russia’s next parliament is likely to have no genuine opposition after a court in Moscow yesterday banned a leading liberal party from standing in elections.

Russia’s supreme court announced that it had liquidated the small Republican party, claiming that it had violated electoral law by having too few members. The party is one of very few left in Russia that criticises President Vladimir Putin.

While one cannot link Politkovskaya’s death to Putin, it is a product of a sick system. A system which is being used to fatten Putin’s pockets, and represented by a morally ambiguous leader. My objection isn’t so much to the fact that the Supreme Court has banned the Russian Republican party from participating in the coming elections. After all, they did only carry 5 of the 447 seats. My objection is that the conglomerate of parties that represents opposition to Putin only hold so few seats to begin with.

Putin is undeniably popular within his home country. But when you have large protests on the streets voicing the position counter to the dominant party, and those voices go unheard in the election polls – it does not speak well of things to come. If not for within the country, then for the relations between Russia and the polarized West.