Looks like Putin likes power. I don't understand all the ramifications but it doesn't look like a good trend in Moscow.

It's never cool when a leader starts gaming the rules to make himself incredibly rich and powerful. In most parliamentary systems, the President or head-of-state is actually not very powerful, and is usually a mostly ceremonial job. The vast majority of the power is centered on Parliament, and the executive Cabinet which is elected from Parliament.

The President (or the Governour-General, if you're in the British Commonwealth) is given the responsibility of dissolving Parliament and ordering new elections. But in most parliamentary nations, the President does not do this unless Parliament has already given the Cabinet a vote of no-confidence. Basically, it's a high-profile cushy job they give to someone who is fondly regarded. It's the Prime Minister who's got the real power.

But Putin is setting up Russia with a very powerful Parliamentary Presidency, and this is a bad idea. It gives too much power to the person whose job it is to dissolve the government. He doesn't get his way? He dissolves Parliament. And keeps doing it until he gets what he wants, and the government is crippled. So we have Putin, who is accumulating and consolidating power. Not to say that he's an angel, but what happens when he leaves (as he is expected to do next year) and someone crazier than himself takes power? It's a dangerous game he's playing. He's setting the country up for another Josef Stalin.

The parliamentary system is a fantastic system of government (better, I think, than the one in the US) but it only works when the Chief Executive is Constitutionally relegated to an extremely limited role.

Rahm Immanuel, the Senator from Illinois, commented once that the Republicans can interpret the Constitution to give President Bush all the power in the world, but they should only do it if they are comfortable with the exact same powers resting with President Hillary...or President Dennis Kucinich, for that matter. Same thing with Russia - Putin had better be damn sure there are no politicians in Russia wackier than himself. And considering the fact that this is the country that gave us guys like Vladimir Zhirinovsky, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhirinovsky#Anti-Semitism_and_political_controversies) I'm starting to get a little worried.

For all the hype today on this, this is nothing compared to what's been going on in Pakistan under Musharraf.

For all the hype today on this, this is nothing compared to what's been going on in Pakistan under Musharraf.


No shit. They're one bloody revolution away from being a more fanatical, more Islamic version of Iran, but with the weapons we're so scared of Iran getting.

Good point. And the funny thing is that Pakistan (at least the big cities) is seriously one of the most bigoted places on the face of the earth. Pakistanis HATE Indians with every fiber of their being. Ask any Pakistani, and he'll tell you that Indian women are ugly, Indians smell bad, their food is awful, they are generally ignorant, and their religions are primitive. 60 years ago, all of those people considered themselves Indians, and now they've been indoctrinated with a kind of visceral hatred toward Indians that is going to take some terrible tragedy to undo.

What's especially scary about Pakistan is that I can't think of anyone I'd like to come out on top there. Certainly not the batshit insane Islamist student parties, but not Pervez Musharraf either, and the mass of educated urban middle-class people are too goddamn frightened and lazy to take control. The situation in Pakistan is dangerously similar to late-imperial Japan - the young radicals have absolutely no idea what the hell kind of war machine they could be setting into motion.

This post is a petition requesting the admins to change this thread title to "Goddam world is going to hell in a handbasket, I tell you."