Keeping the tradition of mutual trust, and head-splitting

Unless you specifically pay attention to this sort of thing, I think the presidential election in Russia this past Monday (or Sunday, here in the US) flew under much of the international radar. As expected, Дмитри Медведев (Dmitry Medvedev) - hand-chosen by Владимир Путин (Vladimir Putin) - won easily, with 70% of the vote.

The news comes with mixed reviews at home (Russia) and abroad (mostly US and Western Europe). In fact, The Economist - in this past week's issue - questioned the real impact of Vladimir Putin's iron-fisted policies.. which are slated to continue under Menvedev. The short version is that Putin came to power at just the right time for an economic boom, given three factors: "a revival of private initiative, oil prices that have risen fourfold during his presidency and macroeconomic stability." And so, his crippling of the democratic process and human rights abuses - both in the name of "stability" and "nationalism" - have little to do the country's current success. Read on:

Smoke and mirrors
From The Economist print edition
February 28th, 2008

That said, I can only imagine that the average Russian will be happy with the consistency of power (and therefore still able to ignore the ugly underside of political business). The NYTimes puts it nicely:

"Most Russians do not love Mr. Putin per se, but they love Mr. Putin’s Russia. They love being middle class. They love planning for the future. It is no comfort to the politically persecuted, but average wages in Russia are leaping 10 percent a year, in real terms."

(full article here)

And you know what, that just makes sense. I think it's hard sometimes to understand that day-to-day issues - putting food on the table and making mortgage payments - are common concerns for everyone around the world; it's easy to be an outsider and criticize another society's whole system of governance (especially when you don't plan on improving the situation yourself, and there are no unpleasant consequences for offering your unsolicited opinion). It's the same story for other folks talking about the US and its problems, without acknowledging its successes. I'm just saying that we all got some things we do right and some things we do wrong in our respective societies; and there's always room for improvement.

That will be an especially important lesson for Russia's next president (and our own, for that matter) to keep in mind during the next couple of years. Those who question the government in public and practice civil dissent seem to be in the minority right now, given the aforementioned awesome increases in the average person's personal wealth (not to mention the chances for harsh penalties). But if oil prices flatten out and the economic engine at home loses a little steam, there will be more and more people who will join the internal/external cries for better individual rights, checks on government, and so forth.

Regardless, it seems to be exciting times for the country, and George Bush and I wish Medvedev the best.