Quote:
Originally Posted by Onkel Neal
You are right, Jim. Though I'm not so sure how legit their elections are. Can any intelligent electorate vote the same guy into office this many times without the use of fraud?
The only thing Russian Joe can say to this is, "Oh yeah? Look who you have running, can you say it's any better?"
I can only hang my head.
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Either Stalin or Ulbricht once said something like: "It must look as if it were democratic, but we must make sure that we stay in absolute control."
Who said that Russia ever was "democratic"? Was the German Democratic Republic "democratic"?
Russia has no tradition of freedom and liberal society, quite the opposite, it has a tradition of authoritarianism, and that also is true for many of those places that were its former South-Eastern provinces during the USSR's times, and now are independent states. They are practically all authoritarian.
And some do not even try to look democratic.
And people do not object as long as the economy is doing well enough so that it keeps their family's boat afloat.
I recall two lines of dialogue from some TV series, I think, I do not recall what series it was. One person got "accused" of always being so pessimistic. The reply was: "No, I am not pessimistic. I am Russian."