New at Reason

In a feature from reason's April issue, Cathy Young delves into the darkness of Vladimir Putin's Russia. What kind of country is he leaving behind?

Comments

ChrisO | March 25, 2008, 7:30am | #

Interesting article. I don't pretend to be an expert in Russian history, but I've studied enough of it to see that Russian political culture has changed only in degree, not qualitatively, since the Muscovite princes took control in the 15th Century.

The crony capitalism of Putin, as well as his use of token democratic gestures, resembles nothing so much as Nicholas II, circa 1900.

Warren | March 25, 2008, 9:13am | #

Cathy Young disappears for six months and then reappears like it was yesterday. I heard a rumor that she's been doing experiments in genetic engineering, incubating a human fetus and the like. But then why no picture? Did she name the kid blanket?

Colin | March 25, 2008, 10:50am | #

It's a mistake to attempt to apply liberal democracy to a country without any history of liberal democracy.

Putin has brought stability and prosperity to Russia (he also drastically lowered taxes.)

It's funny how almost no one complains about China they way they complain about Russia. As Pat Buchanan recently said, "Moscow is a lot closer to Monticello than Bejing."

Rhywun | March 25, 2008, 10:58am | #

Funny, I was going to mention how the word "stability" is always bandied about as some sort of "alternative" to democracy and freedom, when Colin went ahead and did just that.

It's funny how almost no one complains about China they way they complain about Russia.

What does that even mean? It's like saying "no one complains about North Korea the way they complain about Iran!". The two have nothing to do with one another.

Librarian | March 25, 2008, 11:09am | #

Kathy, It was probably VICTOR Yerofeev, not Venedict, who's been dead for many years. Please correct

Jonathan Hohensee | March 25, 2008, 11:11am | #

Cathy Young disappears for six months and then reappears like it was yesterday. I heard a rumor that she's been doing experiments in genetic engineering, incubating a human fetus and the like. But then why no picture? Did she name the kid blanket?
Who cares? She's back!

Aresen | March 25, 2008, 11:55am | #

Correction:

Putin was a KGB officer, but he was never head of the KGB.

Kolohe | March 25, 2008, 12:00pm | #

Now this is getting ridiculous. The Cathy Young article had an ad for 'Find your Russian Beauty Today.' Is this the new plan for Reason's foreign affairs reporting? Tell a story about a place, and then ask if you would like to meet 'sexy singles' from there? Well, at the very least it's an interesting riff on Verhoeven's 'would you like to know more?'

And even if it is a cunning plan to increase the clichéd horrid linguistic skills of Americans, it could go too far:
"Here's the latest on Darfur; now, would you like to meet some hot Janjaweedettes?"

ChrisO | March 25, 2008, 1:16pm | #

Now this is getting ridiculous. The Cathy Young article had an ad for 'Find your Russian Beauty Today.' Is this the new plan for Reason's foreign affairs reporting?

Sounds like a good foreign policy to me. We import the Russian beauties, they keep the dictatorial thugs.

William Newberry | March 31, 2008, 11:28am | #

The fallacy of Putin bringing stability to Russia is equitable to claiming that Kim Jong Il has brought stability to N. Korea. One can hardly deem restrictions on press and individual freedom as indicative of stability, or anything that resembles it. When the citizens are allowed to publicly criticize the United Russia party without violent or subversive repercussions, we can talk about stability.