What's democracy? The dictionary definition is government of the people. In more practical terms, peaceful and fair competition for power. On March 2nd, 2008, the world will embrace the fact that the Russian Confederation is no longer a democracy. This is the expiration date of Vladimir Putin's presidency.
As of now, the Russian constitution has a term limit of the presidency. Much like in the US, the term is 4 years and a person can only be elected two terms consecutively. But there is a crucial difference, in Russia, the term limit is only on the current run, which means Putin cannot seek reelection in 2008, but he can do so in 2012.
And he is already preparing for just that. First he dissolved the government, and appointed an relatively unknown character named Viktor Zubkov as prime minister. Well poised, and backed by Putin, this guy is most likely to win the 2008 election for president. But this guy doesn't have much political capital, and is likely to be dependent on the support from Putin. So the president will most likely be Putin's puppet. Secondly, Putin puts out words that he is not objecting to the idea that he runs for the prime minister.
Oh, come on, everyone can see what he is doing, switching the power structure of the government, making the presidency a ceremonial title, he can retain power indefinitely. If Putin stays on, he probably will change the constitution, making all the legal paperwork, paving his way to autocracy.
Then it comes the question, is it bad? See the next Post.
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