Re: Putin's gambit

In article <holman-1105082201040001@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
holman@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Eugene Holman) wrote:

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> 
> The advice about jump-starting to democracy that the Russians accepted
> uncritically after the fall of the USSR did few people any good, showed
> what kinds of greedy predators commnism had produced, and generally gave
> democracy a bad name ­ "dermocracy" ­ as some Russians claa it. A
> prerequisite for democracy in a country with the size and political
> traditions of Russia is a modi*** of prosperity and stabiity. Here,
Putin
> has delivered where Yeltsin failed, even if it meant backstepping to
some
> degree with respect to some rather basic freedoms. 

As to what Putin has delivered:

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/05/11/ccecon111.xml&page=3

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Russian towards a better economy

Last week saw the inauguration of Dmitri Medvedev - at 42, Russia's
youngest head of state since the last Tsar, Nicholas II. Medvedev's
ceremonials were quickly followed by the swearing-in of Vladimir Putin,
his immediate predecessor, as prime minister.

Kremlin watchers hope Medvedev - a technocratic lawyer - will usher in a
"thaw" in East-West relations. They want the sometimes prickly Putin
sidelined and can't grasp why he was such a popular president.

That's a question requiring no kremlinology whatsoever. Putin scored
stellar domestic ratings because, over the last decade when he was in
office, Russia has risen from nowhere to become the world's ninth largest
economy. Income per head has grown ten-fold in dollar terms - with your
average Russian now worth $12,012.

In 1999, Putin boasted that by 2015, Russians would be as rich as the
****tuguese - Western Europe's poorest economy. Seeing as the average
Russian income was then only 9 per cent of the average in ****tugal, his
claim was widely dismissed.

But Russia has since grown so fast that average incomes are now 60 per
cent of those in ****tugal, and gaining fast. And if the two economies keep
growing at the pace they have over the last decade, Russia's income per
head will overtake ****tugal's in 2014 - a year earlier than Putin's
estimate.
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</quote>

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Regards,
Eugene Holman