Russian elections

[Caid Ivik]

Does anyone disagree with me that Medvedev will be nothing more than a puppet President?

Sure I do, you mean Putin as a 'puppeteer'? Medvedev will be gracious to him, but still, there is nothing binding him. If he has skill and devotion, he doesn't have to be 'controlled' in any way.

[Sneakgab]

So I suppose these French citizens were peacably removed back to French territory?

I guess the recent talk of secession may have brought it up.

[Tatar Khan]

And so the voting has began, of course the results only would be known on the 7th. Compared to Canadian and US elections this is a huge delay between voting and results.

EDIT

My inside sources claim that Medvediev got 69% in St. Petersburg.

[Edric O]

Tell me where Russia can stop german expansionism and i will tell you how great russian power really is. My opinion about the tendancy is russian influence can only grow as german leadership can only fade.

That is no longer the way things work. You are thinking in terms of old national rivalries which do not exist any more. They died in the decades following World War 2. Germany and Russia were enemies for centuries, but what does it mean to say that two countries are enemies? It means that the ruling classes of those countries have opposing interests and therefore try to destroy each other. The German and Russian ruling classes tried to expand their influence at the other's expense for most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but then things began to change. After World War 1 and the Bolshevik Revolution, the old Russian ruling class was destroyed, and for a time there was no ruling class at all in the new Soviet Union, and there was no more rivalry with Germany. Then Stalinism set in and a new ruling class developed; the Nazis took over Germany and the old rivalry between Russia and Germany resurfaced, this time with an ideological basis. World War 2 followed, the Soviet Union won, and Germany was separated in two states on different sides of the Cold War. That was the end of the old Russo-German rivalry.

During the Cold War, and even more so after the end of the Cold War, the process of globalization united the old national capitalist ruling classes into one global capitalist ruling class - at least in the West, and particularly in Europe. It doesn't make sense to talk of the interests of Germany any more. Germany has no interests, because Germany has no separate ruling class. German capitalists and politicians are part of a pan-European ruling class. It used to be the case that German businessmen owned companies located in Germany and employed mostly German workers. That is no longer the case. German businessmen own companies located all over the world, employing workers from all over the world. Their interests are no longer related to Germany as a country. They have no reason to care what happens to Germany.

Globalization hasn't affected Russia to the same extent as it affected Germany and Western Europe, so there is still a Russian ruling class whose interests are bound up with the fortunes of Russia as a country. But that will probably not last much longer.

The point is, Russia's rival is not Germany or France or any other single country. Single countries, especially in Europe, are no longer separate economic units, and their leaders have less and less reason to care about them. There is now a single European ruling class, and that is Russia's rival (along with the American and Chinese ruling classes, of course).

[Edric O]

Well, the elections are over and the final results are as follows:

Dmitry Medvedev -- 70%

Gennady Zuganov (communist) -- 18%

Vladimir Zhirinovsky (nationalist) -- 9%

Andrei Bogdanov (liberal) -- 1%

So Medvedev won a crushing victory as everyone expected. The communist candidate actually did better than polls predicted (he was predicted to get 15%) and the nationalist did worse (he was predicted to get 11%). I suppose that is some small comfort.

What are your thoughts?

[Sneakgab]

I wonder if every one voted for Medvedev because a vote else where would be wasted because every one els is voting for Medvedev for above reason. lol. Take the American scenario where votes are not given to truly supported parties but to those who have a chance of winning but replace the two parties that have a chance of winning with one. Pretty much described SA politics to an extent as well, though most people here are so stuck in their ways that getting them to change their cigs purchase to a different box (same brand and flavor) is out of the question never mind getting them to change who they vote for. Conservatism at its worst.

Well, not really much to say about the results. A few more chairs for the communists perhaps? Even if all of the other parties chairs vote together against Medvedev's party they could not make a difference against a united party decision. So, if there is a parliament question in Russia I guess it is now a matter of people and not parties that will decide it. Though, in general parties are often unilateral with whatever their president decides. This is probably still more the case when the party president is also the president of the country. So it pretty much seems that Medvedev is ''elected dictator'' (:D) of Russia (or puppet dictator perhaps) till the next election. That is if he decided he wants one, since he does have more than two thirds. It's probably assured that he would want the image of democracy though.

Self-determination for the people is not allowing them to choose who decides everything for them. Self-determination is the people making the decisions for themselves. The self-determination that Democracy is supposed to imply has never actually come about to my knowledge. A system interested in true self-determination would be direct democracy, these other democracies that are virtually useless to that effect can only be seen as attempts with ulterior motives.

[Dunenewt]

Well, that was predictable.