Russian leadership modeled on the American mafia?


The similarities go more than skin deep, Western nations can't afford to look the other way anymore.
Gary Kasparov calls Putin's Russia something straight out of The Godfather. He's right too.

The web of betrayals, the secrecy, the blurred lines between what is business, what is government, and what is criminal--it's all there in Mr. Puzo's books. A historian looks at the Kremlin today and sees elements of Mussolini's "corporate state," Latin American juntas and Mexico's pseudo-democratic PRI machine. A Puzo fan sees the Putin government more accurately: the strict hierarchy, the extortion, the intimidation, the code of secrecy and, above all, the mandate to keep the revenue flowing. In other words, a mafia.

If a member of the inner circle goes against the Capo, his life is forfeit. Once Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky wanted to go straight and run his Yukos oil company as a legitimate corporation and not as another cog in Mr. Putin's KGB, Inc. He quickly found himself in a Siberian prison, his company dismantled and looted, and its pieces absorbed by the state mafia apparatus of Rosneft and Gazprom.

But here is the money quote. Emphasis added.

After years of showing no respect for the law in Russia, with no resulting consequences from abroad, it should not come as a surprise that Mr. Putin's attitude extends to international relations as well. The man accused of the Litvinenko murder, Andrei Lugovoi, signs autographs and enjoys the support of the Russian media, which says and does nothing without Kremlin approval. For seven years the West has tried to change the Kremlin with kind words and compliance. It apparently believed that it would be able to integrate Mr. Putin and his gang into the Western system of trade and diplomacy.

Instead, the opposite has happened--the mafia corrupts everything it touches. Bartering in human rights begins to appear acceptable. The Kremlin is not changing its standards: It is imposing them on the outside world. It receives the stamp of legitimacy from Western leaders and businesses but makes those same leaders and businesses complicit in its crimes.

Putin's Russia shows exactly what is wrong with Western diplomacy and with American diplomacy in particular. By excusing the Russian leadership from consequences, we are just asking for Russia to take advantage. We KNOW what happens when the other guy doesn't play by the rules. It's the same mistake that made the Middle East a mess. We can only afford to "be nice" when everyone plays by mutually agreed on rules.

There have to be consequences.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sun - July 29, 2007 at 07:24 AM  Tag


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