First figures show Putin's party winning 61% of the vote for Parliament today. Kasparov likens the election to those of Stalinist days. If we are getting the correct story, he may be right.
There was an interesting article in Saturday's Wall Street Journal about Gorbachev. He seems to be of two minds with regard to his support of Putin; on one hand, he thinks Putin is doing the right job, on the other hand democracy is being squelched. Part of the problem seems to be Gorbachev's poor treatment under Yeltsin, whereas Putin has made life easier for Gorby and put him on some committees.
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Like Gorbachev, I think many of us are in two minds about Putin. On the one hand, he's done a great job for Russia and there can be no doubt the vast majority of Russians are behind him. On the other, it does seem that democracy has been eroded under his authority. But then, democracy throughout the western world is being eroded also. Perhaps Putin is just more honest about it?
As for Yeltsin, he was a recumbent alcoholic who was used and abused by the criminals and gang leaders who pillaged Russia of its wealth and reduced it to bankruptcy. Putin is the one man who has been able to stand up to them, even jailing a few, and he deserves credit for that. Judging from the various media reports, I doubt we're getting anything like a true picture of what is happening inside Russia today.
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