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Russia Steps Back Into Totalitarianism

Russia has restricted rights to such an extent that it has joined the countries that are not free for the first time since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, Freedom House said Monday, marking Moscow's march away from the Western democracies it has embraced as diplomatic partners. [AP via Kyer - also TotalitarianismToday].

Many of the restrictions and changes in election policies were motivated by the recent terrorist attack on a Russian school. "In the wake of the September attack, which killed more than 330 people, Putin introduced a plan to end the election of governors by popular vote and the election of legislators in individual races," the article states. Consider the article, Putin given new powers to combat terrorism, that describes the overwhelming support of Russia's lower house of parliament to give preliminary approval to a counterterrorism law that would hand the Kremlin broad powers to declare states of emergency, restrict free speech and clamp down on communications and the news media in cases of terrorist threats or attacks.

The encroachment of freedom in Russia, by all appearances, has the popular support of the Russian people. Such is the nature of political revolutions that exploit perception and fear to motivate a transition into tyranny.

According to a Freedom House press release,

Russia's status fell from Partly Free to Not Free because of the flawed nature of the country's parliamentary elections in December 2003 and presidential elections in 2004, the further consolidation of state control of the media, and the imposition of official curbs on opposition political parties and groups. Russia's retreat from freedom marks a low point not registered since 1989, when the country was part of the Soviet Union.

Interestingly, Freedom House suggests the following regarding terrorism:

Freedom House survey data also shed some light on the debate about the relationship between the lack of political rights and civil liberties and the growing threat of international terrorism. According to a Freedom House analysis of global terrorist attacks of a five year period from 1999-2003, 70 percent of all attributable deaths by terrorism were perpetrated by terrorists and terrorist movements originating in Not Free countries. By contrast, only 8 percent of global fatalities from terrorism were perpetrated by terrorists and groupings with origins in the free world. "This suggests that the expansion of democracy and freedom is an important component in the international effort to rid the world of the terrorist scourge," said Adrian Karatnycky, principal analyst of Freedom in the World.

Emphasis mine.

Update: Putin courts China - Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly, could team up with the China National Petroleum Corporation to develop the Yukos oil company's main production asset, sold to a mystery bidder on Sunday.

Posted by tim at December 21, 2004 12:10 PM

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