Putin Reluctantly Agrees to Become Prime Minister of Russia, whew!

After long months of speculation, the collective fears of the world are at last mitigated.

Contrary to the fears that Putin would simply leave the political scene after he maxed out on legally allowed terms as the Leader of Russia, he was slowly but surely persuaded by public opinion to accept appointment to the positions of Benevolent Dictator and the ceremonial post of Prime Minister. That post was already serendipitously offered to him by his appointee Medvedev who has not yet been elected but who book says, will be the next President of Russia. Why? Because he was hand picked by Putin to run and who will have the authority to name the Prime Minister. Make you dizzy?

We Americans tend to see and emphasize the non democratic parts in what happened in this development. That’s because we didn’t go through the terrible early years after Glastnost, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the fall of the wall. With relaxation (not elimination) of state control, there was a dramatic increase in crime. Similarly negative, with some state being privatized but with no beneficial participation by the citizens, the lucky got extremely rich and powerful. Some services provided earlier however poorly done by the state, degraded or became non existent as service and security gaps appeared and more things started to need to be paid for.

All of which was exacerbated by the economic tough love demanded by the US and the IMF. The average citizen in Russia, as in Iraq, did not achieve the higher standard of living they envy in other countries. Those systems developed over hundreds of years and not over night. Many Russians were better off under communism.

Now that oil has surged to incredible heights an “economic miracle” has happened in Russia. Economic life is getting better for many Russian citizens as well and as well as for those who benefit disproportionately as happens in any economic system the world has ever tried. Every economic or social system is based on Capitalism. Every one.

To understand that, here is one helpful question you must ask about any system, whether it be a republic like the US or parliamentarian European both of which has for some time now generally embraced some form of market capitalism. You must also ask the same question of historically designated “socialist” type systems such as China, Cuba, Russia even though each of those have significant differences between themselves. But THEY ARE ALL CAPITALISTS.

The question is “who controls the CAPITAL?”

In the old Soviet style, it was controlled by one entity, the Communist Party. That party consisted of a few privileged policy makers who were decided based on by power driven consensus, not real consensus, to appoint a dictator and other subordinant powers. Together these folks made up all the rules of how the capital of the country was allocated without any voter, or market mechanism or even good faith regulation to seek some kind fairness.
And make no mistake there were many disproportionate beneficiaries of capital as there is everwhere. Even “freedom” was allocated as were jobs, apartments and so on. Who gets to be appointed to do the dirty jobs? Who gets the small apartments. Who gets a car?
While illegal, the free markets (an imperfect term) found expression in insidious ways delivering forbidden goods to some, in the black market as always happens even in even iron fisted regimes, or whenever choice is allocated. Thus the capital was spread unequally, unfairly, and not on any merit at all, by authoritarianism and by unchecked innocent and not so innocent human foibles.

Todays Russia has citizens who are “voting” for what they believe has delivered them more economic, security and esteem benefits. As a result a very intelligent and crafty Putin may now be in a better position than Chavez in Venezuela for some form of lifetime control over Russian life, business and foreign policy. And wasn’t that nice that all the public workers are getting a raise just before the election? What a nice departing thank you from a greateful president and future prime minister.

Only few authoritarian governments have more control than Putin will have and he controls a lot, oil, nuclear devices etc. Of those few, the easy ones that come to mind are Castro in Cuba and the dictatorial ruling party in Myamar. But wait, it is rumored that Castro has had an epiphany and in a letter said he has a duty not to get in the way of the leadership of a younger generation. Wonder which one? No doubt there will be real free elections there soon.

Who but us in the US really cares about the steady move away from what we think of as democratic processes? And should we care?

After all, even Gorvachev, an American hero, has thrown his weight behind Putin and publicly supports him. He also now bristles at any mention of the US defeat of the Soviets in the Cold War.