As Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party sweeps to victory in parliamentary elections, pundits are crying that Russian democracy is dead. But one observer says that exactly the opposite is true.
Tensions between President Putin and the West aside, a market economy has begun to function not only in the traditional centers of the country, but also throughout its periphery.
The true composition and goals of last weekend’s protesters in Moscow and St. Petersburg did not make it into the American media’s reports. The real picture is far less sanguine.
Regardless of the evidence, the media narrative concludes with Putin’s guilt, if not of murdering Litvinenko then of killing democracy.
While the Litvinenko mystery is right out of a spy movie, the stakes in real life—including for the West’s relationship with Russia—are very high.