From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 1/9/2006 10:45 AM
The problem with Russia
January 3 '06
By Jay Ambrose
Russia’s at it again. A slayer and enslaver of millions in the century just past, Russia has made war on opportunities for respect, democracy and free-market prosperity that have come its way since the end of the Cold War, opting instead for vile imperialism, autocracy, gangster economics and a social decay that could make it increasingly dangerous.
Its latest assault on decency was, first, to tell Ukraine that it would have to pay four times as much for gas as it has in the past, and then, when Ukraine said it just could not come up with that kind of money, to cut supplies. A tough winter lies ahead if Russia sticks to this punishment for Ukraine’s insistence on its independence, but, it’s noted, Ukrainians have been there before: Josef Stalin stole their food decades ago to bring them in line, causing mass starvation.
Europe is concerned. The United States is concerned. Stop gas flow one place and it can have all sorts of consequences in other places, especially since much of Russia’s gas intended for other countries passes through Ukraine. Heads of state are wondering whether Russia has yet learned basic lessons of international responsibility. It can hardly assuage their worries that Russia has not learned basic lessons of domestic responsibility.
Under President Vladimir Putin, the press has been made to shut up if it isn’t saying something nice about those in power. Parliament has been taught to salute instead of debate and the number of elected offices has been reduced. Just recently, the government put the clamps on non-governmental organizations. Who wants pesky human rights groups complaining about violations in Chechnya or elsewhere?
The economy has been growing at an encouraging rate relative to developed countries, though not when compared to some similarly undeveloped countries. It would be doing better if Putin had listened more closely to Andrei Illarionov, a democratically minded economic advisor who has now resigned (still another indication of Russia’s diminished hopes for the future). Among the matters Illarionov has complained about are state interventionism and the growth of energy monopolies. Illarionov has pointed out that Russia’s 6.2 percent growth owes much to oil profits that have little to do with sound policy and could have been more than twice that.
Those controlling the economy are not just bureaucrats, but members of the Russian mafia. One report said the Mafia consists of 100,000 gangsters (in 8,000 groups of organized crime) that call the shots in roughly three-fourths of the country’s businesses. These people are killers. Paul Klebnikov, a 41-year-old editor of Forbes Russia who had written about criminal business leaders, died when four bullets were fired inti his body as he headed for his Moscow office in 2004. The allegation in a trial now is that Klebnikov’s murder was carried out by a Moscow organization specializing in extortion and assassination.
On top of such problems, Russia is drinking itself to death. Millions have died in recent decades from alcohol abuse (vodka abuse, most notably). The death rate in Russia is high not only because of alcoholism, but lousy medical care as well. Russia’s birth rate is low, in part because of widespread abortions. Experts write that a seemingly inevitable, steep population decline will cause economic and political diminishment and social chaos. Quite conceivably, that could mean desperate actions by desperate officials — more desperate than cutting off gas to Ukraine.
The response of the West to such issues? Make it as absolutely clear as possible to Russia that support is ready for good-faith efforts at reform, and that resistance is ready for abuses.
Examiner columnist Jay Ambrose is a former Washington opinion writer and editor of two dailies.
http://dcexaminer.com/articles/2006/01/08/opinion/op-ed/23oped3ambrose.txt
