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#Post#: 8245--------------------------------------------------
Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: Zhang Caizhi
Date: August 23, 2021, 5:35 am
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I read how Putin uses his power and I think Russia is not a
democracy.
Could it be that Putin is powerful enough to implement Duginism
without taking many opinions from his allies or Russians?
#Post#: 8246--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: guest55
Date: August 23, 2021, 12:28 pm
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--- Quote ---
> I read how Putin uses his power and I think Russia is not a
democracy. Could it be that Putin is powerful enough to
implement Duginism without taking many opinions from his allies
or Russians?
--- End Quote ---
--- Quote ---
> Criticism of recent elections
>
> Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia's party system has
been characterised by the presence of a ruling party which is
financed and staffed by the presidential administration, and in
return, it provides support for the ruling administration.[16]
>
> One study from Reuter et al. referred to criticism of mayoral
and local self-government election in Russia. Findings being
indicated that mayor candidates opposing the present ruling
party, United Russia, had their elections cancelled more easily
than those that could promote support for the ruling party.[12]
>
> Another study from Enikolopov et al. performed an
investigation where observers were strategically placed at
polling stations to see the effect of their presence on United
Russia's vote shares. Findings reveal that with observers,
United Russia experienced an 11% loss in share of votes for the
poll chosen.[17]
>
> Since Vladimir Putin became President of Russia there has been
increasing international criticism of the conduct of Russian
elections.[18] European institutions who observed the December
2007 legislative elections concluded that these were not fair
elections. Göran Lennmarker, president of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE), said that the elections "failed to meet many of
the commitments and standards that we have. It was not a fair
election."[19] Luc Van den Brande, who headed a delegation from
the Council of Europe, referred to the "overwhelming influence
of the president's office and the president on the campaign" and
said there was "abuse of administrative resources" designed to
influence the outcome. He also said there were "flaws in the
secrecy of the vote." "Effectively, we can't say these were fair
elections," he said at a news conference.[20]
>
> In February 2008 The human rights organisation Amnesty
International said that the presidential election on 2 March
would not be a genuine election: "There is no real opposition
ahead of the election. There is no real electoral campaign
battle," Friederike Behr, Amnesty's Russia researcher, was
quoted as saying. In a report on the elections, Amnesty said
laws restricting non-government organizations, police breaking
up demonstrations, and harassment from critics were all part of
"a systematic destruction of civil liberties in Russia."[21]
Another human rights organisation, Freedom House, said that the
victory of Putin's party in the 2007 elections "was achieved
under patently unfair and non-competitive conditions calling
into doubt the result’s legitimacy."[22]
>
> The Russian government has acted to prevent international
observers monitoring Russian elections. In 2007 the OSCE was
prevented from monitoring the legislative elections held in
December.[23] In February 2008 the European Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights announced that it would
not send observers to monitor the presidential election on 2
March, citing what it called "severe restrictions" imposed on
its work by the Russian government. "We made every effort in
good faith to deploy our mission, even under the conditions
imposed by the Russian authorities", said Christian Strohal, the
organization's director. "The Russian Federation has created
limitations that are not conducive to undertaking election
observation".[24] The OSCE has also withdrawn its attempts to
monitor the elections.
>
> The 2011 Russian legislative elections were considered to be
rigged in favor of the ruling party by a number of journalists
and opposition representatives.[25] However public opinion-polls
prior to the election suggested that the ruling party could
count on the support of 45–55 percent of voters, which may
suggest that there were no mass falsifications, despite isolated
cases of fraud.[26] Nationwide exit polls were very close to the
final results.[27]
>
> In 2015 OSCE called the Russian government to respect and
support the work of independent election observers, following a
number of incidents where citizen observers were beaten or
harassed in regional elections.[28] There is a widespread
practice of increasing attendance on unpopular or controversial
votes using financial bonus for everyone attending, free food,
toys, etc.[29]
--- End Quote ---
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Russia
According to Lord Acton, another rightist himself, described
above is exactly how democracy functions:
HTML https://restoreliberty.us/images/Lord_Acton_Quote.jpg
As far as Putin implementing Duginism himself, sounds viable, as
long as it is not declared as an "official Russian ideology":
--- Quote ---
> What is Russia's political ideology?
> The 1993 constitution declares Russia a democratic,
federative, law-based state with a republican form of
government. State power is divided among the legislative,
executive, and judicial branches. Diversity of ideologies and
religions is sanctioned, and a state or compulsory ideology may
not be adopted.
--- End Quote ---
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Russia
Lest we also forget Dugin is named "Putin's Rasputin" by many:
Putin’s Rasputin
HTML https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v33/n20/peter-pomerantsev/putin-s-rasputin
#Post#: 8363--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: Zhang Caizhi
Date: August 27, 2021, 12:58 am
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Xi's China gave Putin the Order of Friendship, which could be an
attempt to have others see them as allies.
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNCti2NsFVk
#Post#: 8418--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: 90sRetroFan
Date: August 28, 2021, 4:35 am
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Xi should learn some history:
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/issues/diplomatic-decolonization/msg1207/#msg1207
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/russia-the-last-colonial-empire/msg7661/#msg7661
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Kulja
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Aigun
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tientsin
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_of_Peking
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tarbagatai
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Livadia
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Saint_Petersburg_(1881)
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li%E2%80%93Lobanov_Treaty
Russia is the only Western colonial power which has not yet
given back the land it stole from China! But you won't hear Xi
talking about this. Look at how Westernized he is:
[img]
HTML https://i.insider.com/5b6c5f938905f218008b520e?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp[/img]
[img width=1280
height=818]
HTML https://i0.wp.com/asiatimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/China-Xi-Jinping-Wine.jpg?fit=1463%2C936&ssl=1[/img]
HTML https://al-khaleejtoday.net/content/uploads/2020/10/24/b3b2527a0e.jpg
HTML https://www.thatsmags.com/image/view/201711/xi-jinping-trump-gala-11.jpg
[img]
HTML https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/http%3A%2F%2Fcom.ft.imagepublish.prod.s3.amazonaws.com%2F89fb2172-a08d-11e4-9aee-00144feab7de?fit=scale-down&source=next&width=700[/img]
As if the clothes and hair aren't bad enough, he insists on
using a wine glass FFS!
#Post#: 8420--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: Dazhbog
Date: August 28, 2021, 6:19 am
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--- Quote from: Zhang Caizhi link ---
> I read how Putin uses his power and I think Russia is not a
democracy.
--- End Quote ---
I haven't yet researched the inner workings of Putin's Russia in
detail, however, so far his system strikes me as more similar to
the rightist democracies in Hungary or Poland than to any
autocratic system I know. Could you point me to specific traits
of Putin's Russia that make you think of it as an autocracy?
#Post#: 8423--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: Zhang Caizhi
Date: August 28, 2021, 7:14 am
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--- Quote from: Dazhbog link ---
>
> [quote author=Zhang Caizhi link=topic=922.msg8245#msg8245
date=1629714941]I read how Putin uses his power and I think
Russia is not a democracy.
--- End Quote ---
I haven't yet researched the inner workings of Putin's Russia in
detail, however, so far his system strikes me as more similar to
the rightist democracies in Hungary or Poland than to any
autocratic system I know. Could you point me to specific traits
of Putin's Russia that make you think of it as an autocracy?
[/quote]
It's about how he can maintain his power even with protests for
20 years, unlike Trump.
#Post#: 8425--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: Dazhbog
Date: August 28, 2021, 7:44 am
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--- Quote from: Zhang Caizhi link ---
> It's about how he can maintain his power even with protests
for 20 years, unlike Trump.
--- End Quote ---
Keep in mind that the constituent element of any democracy are
elections by majority vote, not street protest movements.
Otherwise, we might also start calling Biden an autocrat, as he
managed to assume office despite extensive Trumpist rioting.
#Post#: 8426--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: Zhang Caizhi
Date: August 28, 2021, 9:32 am
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--- Quote from: Dazhbog link ---
>
> [quote author=Zhang Caizhi link=topic=922.msg8423#msg8423
date=1630152892]It's about how he can maintain his power even
with protests for 20 years, unlike Trump.
--- End Quote ---
Keep in mind that the constituent element of any democracy are
elections by majority vote, not street protest movements.
Otherwise, we might also start calling Biden an autocrat, as he
managed to assume office despite extensive Trumpist rioting.
[/quote]
I think the Central Election Commission of the Russian
Federation guarantees Putin's wins.
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Election_Commission_%28Russia%29
Controlling any election commission means controlling voting
results.
North Korea has mandatory voting every 5 years without other
candidates than those who are approved by the government.
It is used to check people's approval of the candidates and
population change.
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_North_Korea
#Post#: 8448--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: 90sRetroFan
Date: August 28, 2021, 9:55 pm
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"Controlling any election commission means controlling voting
results."
Yes, but having elections at all reinforces the democratic
premise that leaders must be elected in order to be legitimate.
This point has already been explained exhaustively:
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-false-left/western-democracy/msg2807/#msg2807
--- Quote ---
> Now that mainstream leftists are finally able to accuse Trump
of a coup, False Leftists are once again completely screwing up
their framing of the scenario. They accuse Trump of being
anti-democracy while portraying Trump critics as pro-democracy,
as if only pro-democracy people could oppose Trump.
>
> Firstly, is Trump anti-democracy? No. Trump (who loves being
popular) would surely prefer to have won the election cleanly
than have to resort to trying to invalidate the election
results. It is only because the results did not go Trump's way
that he is falling back on invalidating the election results in
an attempt to retain power. And even then Trump is claiming to
be the winner of the election, in other words he is still
reinforcing the notion that winning the election is what should
determine leadership; he is merely lying about who won. In other
words, Trump is fundamentally pro-democracy, but just in a
dishonest way. (In contrast, an actual anti-democrat would argue
that it is wrong for popularity to determine leadership.)
--- End Quote ---
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/news/red-coup/msg3147/#msg3147
--- Quote ---
> If we have three countries A, B and C whose people have the
characteristics:
>
> A: agree to not have elections
> B: agree to have elections and then respect the election
results
> C: agree to have elections but then do not respect the
election results
>
> it is perfectly possible to consider B (which displays
commitment to keeping contract) superior to C (which fails to
keep contract) without considering B superior to A (which does
not fail to keep contract, but merely has better contractual
content). So here is how the split works:
>
> False Left worldview: B > C > A
> True Left worldview: A > B > C
--- End Quote ---
#Post#: 8460--------------------------------------------------
Re: Is Putin's Russia Duginist autocracy?
DIR By: Zhang Caizhi
Date: August 29, 2021, 4:04 am
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I see that most non-Western autocrat are officially elected as
described by their constitutions.
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