--- Patrick Bond <pbond at mail.ngo.za> wrote:
> Absolutely tragic that geopolitics and venality have
> brought the Russian elites back to this point, now.
>
>
? I don't see it. The Kremlin just de facto renationalized a stolen state asset to the thunderous applause of the population. Where's the venality?
My theory is that Russia just can't win -- it will be perceived negatively by the outside world no matter what it does. Putin locks up one billionaare oil gangster and everybody cries; he pardons 200,000 ordinary prisoners and nobody even reports it. The Kremlin increases spending on social services sixfold, and somehow this is "slashing the safety net" (the SOVIET safety net, maybe), at the same time as poverty drops by 50%. Putin wins reelection with 65% of the vote without campaigning -- as the most popular Russian leader since the tsarist era, even more popular than Andropov, which is saying something -- and he's a dictator. Sigh. I could go on.
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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