What IS Going On In Russia?

[Annie]

No doubt they are having a rough time with 'revolutions'. Their economy is beyond 'on the ropes'; their military has been demoralized, though how it's doing right now, hmmm?; there has been the series of 'formerally KGB tactics of dealing with emerging opposition leaders...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8329-2005Mar28?language=printer

Russian Politics, Playing With Fuhrer

By Masha Lipman

Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page A15

Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Russian upper house, was talking recently about the "real threat of a fascist putsch in Russia" -- "a new fuhrer with fascist-type, nationalist ideology" emerging in the 2008 presidential campaign.

But while it would seem that so grave a danger calls for urgent and resolute action, Mironov sounded vague and nerveless about what should be done. Perhaps, he mused, the looming threat would simply impel the Russian people to ask President Vladimir Putin "to stay, not to leave" in 2008, when his constitutional term expires.

The idea that the Kremlin might use the risk of a nationalist takeover as a justification for scrapping the election and extending Putin's tenure is but one of several 2008 scenarios thought to be circulating in that body. It's telling that the one scenario missing from the political rumor mill and analysts' forecasts is a democratic transfer of presidential authority, something that has never occurred in Russia.

As in any "soft" authoritarian regime, the prospect of yielding power to a political rival is unacceptable to the ruling elite. Putin presides over a political system in which state power is basically usurped by the administration. Other branches of government are reduced to mere decoration, and decision making is confined within the Kremlin walls.