Putin

I found Michael Specter's article on the death of Vladimir Putin's critics in the January 29 issue of The New Yorker quite interesting.

Specter points out two extremely popular dead leaders in modern Russia that can help explain Putin. The first is fairly obvious: Leonid Brezhnev. Of all the ex-Soviet leaders to have skyrocketing popularity, Brezhnev? But this is clearly what the Soviets have settled on. A boring, stolid state with great security powers and an intense desire for order without political opposition or anything to upset state goals. Why Russians want this of all things, I do not know. Like today, Specter points out, the Brezhnev regime succeeded because of high oil prices. If oil plummets today like it did in the 1980s, what would happen to Putin? Would the world put up with his dictatorial ways? Probably, but perhaps the Russian people would demand more rights and accountability.

The second leader is more fascinating: Augusto Pinochet. His death has led to nostalgia pouring out all over the place. A friend who was just in Spain said his death led to old fascists openly reminiscing about the good old days. Russians see Pinochet as the leader who made Chile "stable and strong." Putin seems to as well. He has a way of offing his opponents that is quite Pinochet-esque, particularly in the years after the initial repression. When one of his opponents gets too out of line, they die in mysterious and uninvestigated circumstances. Stability and the ability to make money is all that matters in today's Russia.

To a not small extent, the United States and western Europe deserves some blame for this. The western-supported sell off of state enterprises after the fall of the Soviet Union and the extreme corruption that followed soured many Russians on western-style political and economic systems. Order quickly became more important than democracy and freedom. Had the U.S. not listened to its free-market ideologues and supported a more limited sell-off of state assets, with the state maintaining some stake and assuring accountability, it is quite possible that Russia would be in a much better state today.