A New Term For A New 'Tsar': Russia Has Never Experienced Democracy
06 April 2018
By Eyad Abu Shakra
Vladimir Putin won Russia's presidential elections… again!
An 'electoral' victory for the 'Kremlin Tsar' was not actually in doubt; and
if the obvious reason is the lack of well-organized opposition, there are no
less significant other reasons.
Without any prejudice against Russian political history and great heritage,
and keeping in mind the fact that it was the power that came close to
dominating the world, and is still capable of exterminating mankind and
destroying our planet tens - even hundreds - of times over, Russia has never
experienced democracy.
Yes, Russia has neither experienced nor practiced democracy, at least as
defined and conceived in the West.
Russia moved from the primitive state of the Volga 'Rus', as depicted by the
Arab traveler Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, the envoy of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir
(ruled between 908 and 932 AD) to the Volga Bulgars, to the Tsarist era.
During that time, and thanks to three Tsars - Ivan 'The Terrible', Peter 'The
Great' and Catherine II (or 'The Great') - Russia became a European and global
power.
The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 ended the Tsarist era; and subsequently, the
Communist Bolsheviks assumed absolute power albeit in the name of the people,
indeed, the people's working class.
Between 1917 and the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991 many faces,
slogans and principles changed; however, nothing really changed in Russia's
imperialist ambitions and its authoritarian style of government.
In practice, the old Tsar - then the nation's leader and the Orthodox Church
protector - remained a virtual 'tsar' who retained absolute power. The 'comradery'
spirit was rarely in view during leadership changes among its 'commissars',
'ideologues' and 'peoples' heroes'. The accepted norm was either: execution,
deposition or exile … whether in Mexico where Leo Trotsky was murdered, or
Siberia where several leading 'comrades' ended working in 'collective farms',
energy generation stations, and other 'retirement' homes.
However, the USSR, this giant of a country, with a land area of more than 22
million square km - making it by far the World's largest - , eventually
collapsed after it failed to regenerate itself, cure its economic ills, and
improve its view on human rights.
This great country, which pioneered space exploration and dominated almost
half of the our planet, failed when it became clear that its 'Communist'
leaders, such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin - as well as the KGB man
Vladimir Putin - had nothing to do with Socialism, 'peoples' friendship' or
'proletariat' lifestyle. It was gone when its 'red tsars' turned against their
own slogans, idealism, and sermons broadcast across the world to millions, who
eventually believed in them, and even fought and died attempting to fulfill
them. The irony is that Soviet 'Communism' fell in Moscow but has remained
alive and well in Havana, the capital of Cuba!
Following the demise brought about by former 'comrades', a new regime dawned.
It has been a 'hybrid system' comprised of former Communist Party
'apparatchiks' brought to the top by nepotism and personal loyalties, a
hotchpotch of 'mafias', and 'front men' of Western capital rushing to
penetrate the 'new' Russia through wholesale privatization. The aim was to
occupy what was the 'heart' of the falling giants and its largest and richest
constituent.
It is fair to say the demise of the USSR began with Gorbachev's accelerating
concessions to the West's most belligerent anti-Moscow leaderships. Dancing to
tune of cynical Western praise of his 'vision' and 'courage', Gorbachev went
too far in a naive and premature 'opening up'. His actions were bound to worry
the 'Old Guard' about selling out both Socialist ideals and the USSR power.
In the meantime, there was the rising star, Boris Yeltsin. The former Moscow
Communist Party's boss shocked many observers in April 1990, during his visit
to London, when he showered Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the staunch
anti-Socialist and avowed 'enemy' of trades unions, with admiration!
The 'Old Guards' unsuccessful desperate coup attempt during the summer of 1991
in the faint hope of 'rescuing' the USSR, actually, accelerated its collapse;
more so when Yeltsin rode the wave against it. The attempt, itself, showed
beyond doubt the fragility of the political, intellectual, and economic
structure of a regime that had passed its sell by date.
With the rise of Yeltsin and demise of the USSR, Russia began a new phase in
its history, virtually in every respect except its distance from true
democracy. The aforementioned 'hybrid system' inherited, in fact, all the ills
of the former Communist regime, but not its promotion of socialism and
'peoples' friendship'. However, it was never in the interest of the victorious
West - after a long and fierce confrontation with USSR - to uncover the full
truth about the new regime. On the contrary, the West was ready to overlook
strident corruption, growth of diverse 'mafias', and fake democracy; as the
West regarded Yeltsin merely as a receiver of a failed business. Actually, it
was vital for Western capitals that Yeltsin continued his destruction of a the
very power that threatened Western interests for so long.
Still, Russia remains much larger than any individual; and as time passed,
seasoned political and well-connected 'loyalists' moved to reclaim their
presence; among those was the ambitious and steely ex-KGB man Vladimir Putin,
who stealthily managed to find his way to Yeltsin's inner circle.
Ruthlessly putting down the Chechen second uprising (1999-2000) was the 'blood
baptism' of the new leader rising from the intelligence community's dungeons.
Putin who hails from St. Petersburg, the old Tsarist capital built by Peter
the Great - Russia's greatest emperor - and made an architectural gem and a
window to Europe, before becoming the birthplace of the Bolshevik Revolution,
is a man with a strong memory and formidable willpower.
He embodies almost all the elements of Russia's identity, and its
nationalistic and religious pride. His psyche is infused with its imperial
voracity, pains of its defeats and besiegement through the centuries. Thus,
after his 'coronation' yet again, nobody should ever expect from Putin
anything different from his systematic destruction of Syria under the pretext
of confronting extremists.
Furthermore, amid America's confusion and Europe's distraction, it is worth
recalling one of Putin's quotes: "No one should have any illusions that it's
possible to achieve military superiority over Russia; we will never allow it!"
…
So, we have witnessed the confirmation of a new kind of 'Tsars', albeit
through the ballot box.
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EsinIslam.Com
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