Jump to content
IGNORED

OT: Democracy the Russian Way..


Recommended Posts

7 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

it doesn't matter, only Putin will be elected... these three are just there to give the elections the semblance of  democracy.

These are local St Petersburg elections.

I had visited Moscow in 2002 or 2003, once in a lifetime experience..

Link to comment
23 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Boris Vishnevsky, a senior member of the liberal Yabloko party, is competing two other ..Boris Vishnevskys in soon-to-be elections in St Petersburg. No, this hasn't been taken from Monty Python.

I hope you'll enjoy the article as much as I did B|

 

Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot

 

Many years ago, running candidates with the same name as the official party candidate was a common practice in the province of Quebec. The practice was eliminated by including the party affiliation beside the candidate's name on the ballot. 🙂

"Relax, it's only hi-fi. There's never been a hi-fi emergency." - Roy Hall

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - William Bruce Cameron

 

Link to comment
2 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

The matroshka tradition might have had some influence on the birth of that election trick idea, I guess.. I wonder if these 3 guys are of the same size..;) 

From the picture, Mr. Ivanovich is relatively small (3cm Φ diameter on my monitor) but the other twos are roughly the same size (4cmΦ) 🤔

Sunday programmer since 1985

Developer of PlayPcmWin

Link to comment

And that's bringing us right back to a previous thread about tax evasions / tax havens etc.

 

Russian-Style Kleptocracy Is Infiltrating America
https://archive.is/uYozt

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/how-kleptocracy-came-to-america/580471/

Quote

The collapse of communism in the other post-Soviet states, along with China’s turn toward capitalism, only added to the kleptocratic fortunes that were hustled abroad for secret safekeeping. Officials around the world have always looted their countries’ coffers and accumulated bribes. But the globalization of banking made the export of their ill-gotten money far more convenient than it had been—which, of course, inspired more theft. By one estimate, more than $1 trillion now exits the world’s developing countries each year in the forms of laundered money and evaded taxes.

 

Their Corruption, and Ours
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/their-corruption-and-ours/

Quote

As Burgis’s account makes clear, the mad rush to clean the bones of the Soviet Empire was not only corrupt to its core, but enabled by the West. Farther to the left, academics like Jason Hickel have made convincing arguments that the widespread adoption of corruption rankings like those of Transparency International should be upended, given the positive scores invariably handed out to countries that are centers of banking secrecy, or dubious tax practices like transfer pricing, which allow multinational corporations to starve developing world governments of the taxes they are legitimately due.

 

Russia’s Kleptocratic Projection of Power
https://www.power3point0.org/2018/01/31/russias-kleptocratic-projection-of-power/

Quote

This process is enabled by two distinctive features of the Russian economy: the extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of a powerful elite, and the extraordinary amount of that wealth that is held outside of the country. One recent report estimates that the richest 10 percent of Russians own 87 percent of the country’s wealth. A separate study by leading economists shows that wealth is moving offshore on such a scale that Russian citizens’ total offshore holdings are now equal in value to those assets held inside the country.

 

‘Putin’s Kleptocracy,’ by Karen Dawisha

https://archive.is/I0D2u

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/books/review/putins-kleptocracy-by-karen-dawisha.html

Quote

The true tragedy is that corruption, state-sponsored, energy-driven and totaling hundreds of billions annually, has mortgaged Russia’s future. Freedom has withered. Money for the investments urgently needed to make Russia innovative and prosperous has been diverted to enrich a few.

Alas, that’s what kleptocracies do.

 

The man who helped make ex-KGB officer Vladimir Putin a president
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50807747

Quote

But 20 years ago, Vladimir Putin was handed power on a Kremlin plate. The former officer of the KGB - the Soviet security service - was handpicked by President Boris Yeltsin and his inner circle to lead Russia into the 21st Century.

 

Kleptocracy is here to stay, farewell to democracy.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...