elections behind the iron smoke screen

this Sunday Russia will hold its presidential elections. the elections appear to be ceremonial at this point. It took me about 10 minutes to find an english article that mentions any candidates besides Dmitry Medvedev, who is the hand picked successor to Vladimir Putin. Putin plans to stay on as the Prim Minister in Medvedev's administration, little altering his role.

Putin has consolidated power in his two terms, and to his credit has allowed the Russian economy to grow. Russia today is like the dot-coms a decade ago, there are fortunes to be made, but instead of just going broke, you may end up in prison like Leonid Nevzlin a prime shareholder of former Russian gas company, Yukos. Its the wild east, but many credit Putin with the cash in the pockets of many Russian.

some say this is the reason that Medvedev has support of 70% of Russian voters. others say they have little choice. coverage of other candidates has been less than that on Medvedev, but such is often the case. This morning NPR did a story in which they interviewed a number of pollitcal leaders and journalists, of which two were visited the same day by Putin's police forces. domocratic monitoring groups have pulled out from observing the election as they had been hindered in doing their work and they wont be reporting on the elections.

while Putin has not openly forced anything, it seems common people are receiving firm direction from bosses and the like to vote, and for Medvedev. the general consensus is that Medvedev will win in landslide form, just as Putin and his party hoped. the problem is that the world is increasingly seeing Russia as a nominal democracy, not a functional one.

it has become a place a financial growth and freedom for the privileged, and is drifting toward political autocracy under Putin's regime. the control of Stalin's USSR with the capitalist wealth of new Russia.

whats all this mean? well Bush has been at odds with Putin, who has supported Serbia in the recent separation of Kosovo, and who is supplying nuclear material to Iran, who many in the west fear are developing nuclear weapons. It appears to be becoming the old East vs West standoff of the cold war era. open democracies over the world fear the return of communism, while countries like Iran that stand in the face of the west seem to be gaining a powerful ally.

all i hope is that Medvedev is able to tone down Putin's rhetoric a bit and that the new US president is more open to diplomacy and less trigger happy. Russia is much more valuable as an ally than a foe. the same can be said for Iran. we dont have to be, and probably wont be, either Iran's or Russia's BFF, but we can, and must, come to a peaceful compromise.

the way we as Americans see the world is not necessarily the right way. it is one way. Russia has another view on the world. it is easy to criticize what is happening there, but what we really need to do is build relationships. a peaceful trade of ideas, not a stand off of super powers.

having spent 6 weeks in Russia i can say that having mat Russians, they are people just like you and i. they are suspicious of outsiders. wary of invaders. but make a Russian a friend, and you have a friend for life. so lets make all Russians our friends. lets take Medvedev at face value, let the media denounce the elections as a fraud. lets let him make his path and with a new president here in the fall, we can perhaps have a new start with Russia.

i am having trouble summing this one up. i guess i throw a couple of links in and let you come to your own conclusion. i just hope the new presidents of the US and Russia will work together, unlike Bush and Putin.

Novosti
AP
BBC
ITN