Ever since the 25th of July 1998 when the drunk Yel'tsin proposed the catastrophic nomination of Colonel Vladimir Putin as Director of the 75,000-person Federal Security Service (FSB), democracy in Russia has spiralled ever downwards towards totalitarianism. It’s no accident that a series of explosions occurred in Moscow throughout September only one year later, culminating in the Moscow apartment bombings, killing some 300 people. That eased the way into the second Chechen War, and more importantly, it initiated the grab for power and finance by the various members of the KGB such as Andrei Lugovoi, and his KGB cronies.
Quiet naturally this eventually culminated in Russia’s two most powerful Secret Police factions pursuing a turf war in a standoff between the FSB, the former KGB, headed by General Nikolai Patrushev, and the Federal Narcotics Control Service (FSKN), headed by General Viktor Cherkesov, which supposedly fights organised crime as well as drug trafficking. Both quiet rightly see each other as opposing gangs of Mafiosi grabbing what they can in this free-for-all. This is the reality of power in modern 21st Century space age Russia.
Ignoring the above, dogma wielding Bush Jnr. invited General Putin to his New England home to meet the family, but now preaches General Musharraf on democracy. Is this a conundrum I ask? Have I missed something salient? I must leave you, dear reader, to work that out.
We have General Putin attempting to regain control over his neighbours such as Belarus, Ukraine, and Georgia, while his underlings help themselves to the lolly in Russia. There is even a bizarre sick attempt to portray Russian soldiers occupying Georgia’s Abkhazia region as “peacekeepers.” Ask Moldova about Russian “peacekeepers,” there to keep a piece of Moldova but not the peace. The situation is far worse than it ever was ever since Stalin’s time. Not a single independent newspaper, radio, or TV station has survived General Putin’s regime.
