The Wikipedia article on Putin is quite balanced, and gives a brief summary of his career. It should help you understand what kind of leader Putin is.
Whether or not Putin can reasonably be called a “dictator” is a more difficult question to answer. The concept “dictator” is vague, used in many different senses, and its meaning is in large part in the mind of the beholder.
You can read the Wikipedia article on dictatorship, but it won’t help you much. Some dictatorships...
- Опубликовано:
- 25.09.2016 03:39:00
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/opinion/what-the-west-gets-wrong-about-russia.html
According to Gleb Pavlovsky, the Kremlin is "still enigmatic, but no longer strategic." Kremlin policy is now "fashioned rather like the music of a jazz group; its continuing improvisation is an attempt to survive the latest crisis." Pavlovsky thinks Putin "lost interest in day-to-day decision making" after the accession of Crimea to Russia when he won the support of more than 80 percent...
- Опубликовано:
- 25.01.2016 08:12:00
Political parties are alleged to provide their electorates with choice. Cynics might object that, while elections give an electorate the feeling that they have choice, this is only an illusion. Soviet propagandists used to like to point out that the choice is only between Rockefeller millionaires and Kennedy millionaires, that is, among factions of the ruling elite.
What parties and candidates argue about during election campaigns is always "small stuff." Fundamental questions like the...
- Опубликовано:
- 22.10.2015 02:36:00
Russia's leaders have long recognized a need for competitive politics. They tried twice, in 1995 and in 2006, to create a two-party system from above. Most observers among those who even took note of these attempts ridiculed them. Both times, they stressed that the parties created from above were "pro-Kremlin,...
- Опубликовано:
- 24.09.2014 16:22:00
