Ho-hum. > From Microsoft's SLATE magazine: > >"We shall strengthen the multiparty system. We shall > strengthen civil society and do everything to uphold media > freedom," Putin said after a campaign in which he arrested a > political opponent,
How did Khodorkovsky become a "political opponent?" Are Western papers still peddling the line that Khodorkovsky's backing of completely unpopular and hated marginal "liberal" parties that everybody in Russia hates was a threat to Putin? Do people really believe this crap? solidified his personal control of > Parliament, refused to debate his rivals, What Putin said was that his record over the past four years speaks for itself. The average Russian citizen is 5 times better off it every way than he or she was 4 years ago. His "rivals," except for Glazyev and to a certain extent Kharitonov, were PR stunts. Khakamada has a 3% popularity rating. What Western writers can't stand is that Russia was pulled out of the slump by a non-liberal. They also can't stand that Russia does not want to be like them, and is asserting itself on its own terms, not those of George Soros, not those of Jeffrey Sachs, and not those of the editorial writers of the New York Times. What really burns them up is that the Russian public hates everything they stand for.
