Duma Has Yet to Become a "Thinking Place"
Radio Free Europe reports, via Reuters:
July 5, 2006 -- Russia's parliament today approved a bill that grants the state-controlled gas company Gazprom the exclusive right to export gas. Proponents of the bill say it is a necessary response to growing foreign competition for a stake in Russia's rich natural resources. The European Union has urged Russia to offer foreign companies broader access to gas fields and export pipelines to reduce Gazprom's monopoly on prices and prevent the possibility of major disruptions to supplies.
This just about says it all where Russia is concerned. Russia itself is incapable of generating enterprises which could compete with Gazprom because the Duma, supposedly an expression of the people's will, fully embraces the failed policies of Soviet totalitarianism. Of course, the idea of any foreign enterprise competing in Russia is viewed as being even more dangerous to national security. After the spectacular failure of communism, Russians have learned not one thing about the value of competition either from their own disastrous performance or from the trust-busting example of American history. Instead, Russians prefer to plunge down exactly the same failed, ignorant, paranoid path that led to the destruction of the USSR. That is, they prefer it if you believe that the Duma (which is supposed to mean "thinking place") is actually in any way a remotely democratic institution. If you don't, that means the Russians are sitting idly by watching the rise of dictatorship and the institution of policies they know are doomed.
La Russophobe finds it difficult to decide which alternative leads to a more gloomy prognosis for Russia.
This just about says it all where Russia is concerned. Russia itself is incapable of generating enterprises which could compete with Gazprom because the Duma, supposedly an expression of the people's will, fully embraces the failed policies of Soviet totalitarianism. Of course, the idea of any foreign enterprise competing in Russia is viewed as being even more dangerous to national security. After the spectacular failure of communism, Russians have learned not one thing about the value of competition either from their own disastrous performance or from the trust-busting example of American history. Instead, Russians prefer to plunge down exactly the same failed, ignorant, paranoid path that led to the destruction of the USSR. That is, they prefer it if you believe that the Duma (which is supposed to mean "thinking place") is actually in any way a remotely democratic institution. If you don't, that means the Russians are sitting idly by watching the rise of dictatorship and the institution of policies they know are doomed.
La Russophobe finds it difficult to decide which alternative leads to a more gloomy prognosis for Russia.
2 comments:
Russia's ability to step on a collective rake getting its nose bloodied ever damn time is hilarious. It's like watching a Chaplin movie.
When developed world and many that used to be a part of developing world are moving away from feudalism-spawned mercantilistic policies and state monopolies, Duma and Putin turn Russia into a post Porfirio Diaz Mexico. No wonder they love Mexican soap operas so much over there.
CYRILL: How right you are. And it seems that the most amazing thing of all is that it is always the SAME rake, over and over over. At least if it was a different one each time, or maybe even a shovel . . . ;)
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