Putin's Power Grab and the US Response
Vladimir Putin's new initiative to restructure Russia's government, though advertized as an anti-terrorism necessity, is nothing less than a naked anti-democray power grab. Under his proposal, regional governors, who are now popularly elected, would be nominated by the president and approved by regional parliaments. Putatively to create a single organization better capable of combatting terrorism, the plan would have the effect of making the leaders of the regional governments accountable to the central government, specifically the president himself, rather than to those they currently are selected by and serve. It's difficult to believe that in any other time or context such a move wouldn't be decried by an American administration as the move away from democracy that it is.
Though Colin Powell has spoken out against this plan, President Bush himself has remained mute. A large part of his after-the-fact justification for the invasion of Iraq was to bring democracy to that country and use it as a springboard to spread democracy throughout the middle east. The Bush administration repeatedly points proudly to the number of citizens registered to vote in Afghanistans upcoming elections (while ignoring that the number of registered voters exceeds by one or two million the number of eligible voters) as further evidence of its commitment to spreading democracy. The problem with pointing to Afghanistan and Iraq as its only successes, aside from the fact that democracy has yet to arrive in either nation, is that whatever successes, real or imagined, that have been achieved in those countries has been at the point of a gun. Pakistan, one of our "allies" in the war against terrorism, is no closer to democracy today than it was five years ago when Musharraf took power in a coup. The latest word is that he is now reneging on an earlier promise to relinquish his role as chief of the army. There is not even a discussion of democratization of Saudi Arabia.
We can expect nothing more from the President regarding Putin's power grab than we have already got from Powell. As with so many things, Bush's commitment to spreading democracy throughout the world consists of pretty words. His actions in this area have been primarily aimed at other goals and justified only later as democratization efforts.
Perhaps Hugo Chavez could share his thoughts on Bush's commitment to democracy.
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