>
> And why aren't you more interested in Putin's
> nationalization of
> Yukos as a developmental model? A state whose power
> had been drained
> by neoliberalism recovers significant amounts of its
> power and
> reverses a disastrous privatization. If you're
> willing to learn from
> Rhodesia and apartheid SA, why not Putin's Russia?
>
> Doug
>
Because it's Russia! People have a bug up their ass over Russia for some reason. If Putin was a Latin American leader, foreign leftists would be singing his praises.
I think this has to do with Russia having "failed" to establish a Leninist Utopia, then having "failed" to reslize Gorbachev's democratic socialism, and then having "failed" to confirm people's ideological preconceptions by not becoming a Third World country as divine punishment for having gone capitalist.
People here _love_ Putin. The high point of my New Year's at my ex-girlfriend's dacha was all the little kida yelling "POO-TIN! POO-TIN!" during his televized New Year's address. He's done more for people in this country than any leader since forever. I don't see why people don't notice this. (I think part of it may be that Western leftists tend to base their opinions on Russia _one_ person, Kagarlitsky, plus maybe Cohen.)
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250