[Newsbot]

<strong>Filibuster Cartoon</strong>
<strong>Title: </strong> <a href="http://www.filibustercartoons.com/archive.php?id=20071202" target="_blank">Garden of Tyranny</a> (click to view)
<strong>Date: </strong> December 02, 2007

Two of the world\'s most-watched tyrants-in-the-making put their popularity to the test at the ballot box this week. <br> <br>Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has steadily been amassing more and more power over the last few years, but such power is useless unless he retains a firm hold on the presidency. So he tried to get the constitution changed to let him rule for life, among other things. The proposal was narrowly rejected, 50% to 49. A crushing setback to a man who has, until now, largely been invincible. <br> <br>Vladimir Putin had better luck in Russia. A while back he invented some new political party, with himself as head. And now the pro-Putin Party has won 315 of the 450 seats in the Russian Duma, making Putin a shoe-in to be the next Prime Minister once he stops being president. The high vote totals were a bit suspicious in some states. I find the fact that his party won 99% of the vote in Chechnya to be a bit questionable, for example.

[fire_i]

99%. In Chechnya. Yeeeeeeeah, sure thing, Vlad, sure thing.

Though, even if it's very likely Putin got virtual votes, his majority is so overwhelming I doubt he'd obtained less than 250 seats even with a completely clean election.

I'm always amazed by the Russian way of thinking. It's like these guys live on another planet. This is not the first issue on which Russian citizens appear to be completely oblivious to facts everyone else seems to know (unless it's the other way around?). Putin's despotic tendencies, in this case.

[sasquatch2]

Chavez has had a major reverse but he has a chorus or two left in him yet.

The Russians are not ignorant of fixed elections just indifferent...........

[Murray_Smith]

sasquatch2 wrote:

The Russians are not ignorant of fixed elections just indifferent...........

Well, what do you expect? Of the dozens of leaders Russia has had, only one came to power in a full free democratic election.

[Kjorteo]

Off topic, but is the Chavez plant picking the Venezuelan guy's pocket?

[DravisAR]

fire_i wrote:

99%. In Chechnya. Yeeeeeeeah, sure thing, Vlad, sure thing.

Though, even if it's very likely Putin got virtual votes, his majority is so overwhelming I doubt he'd obtained less than 250 seats even with a completely clean election.

I'm always amazed by the Russian way of thinking. It's like these guys live on another planet. This is not the first issue on which Russian citizens appear to be completely oblivious to facts everyone else seems to know (unless it's the other way around?). Putin's despotic tendencies, in this case.

+1 on living on another planet.

Chechnya. Thats freaking great.

[Kjorteo]

Anyway, so what happens if one of the Other Russia candidates beats Putin's hand-picked successor in the Presidential race, creating an anti-Putin President and a pro-Putin (well, Putin himself, really) Prime Minister? Based on what I've been told, the former is far from a sure thing but certainly could happen, while the latter all but already has.

[CanadianJeff]

I don't think that's going to be an issue. I doubt there's going to be an election (real or imaginary) for the next president.

But for the sake of argument I imagine Putin would have him assasinated and place the blame on some small country that likely wouldn't even be aware of it's blame for a while.

[kevlarman]

Not only that, they will choose a country they actually want, so they can make it conveniant. "Oh well, we wanted that country, let's sack it!"

[Psudo]

He could easily just blame Chechnya. Why look for a new enemy when you've got one conveniently on everyone's mind?

But Jeff's right that it's not likely going to be an issue.

[Daovonnaex]

Murray_Smith wrote:

sasquatch2 wrote:

The Russians are not ignorant of fixed elections just indifferent...........

Well, what do you expect? Of the dozens of leaders Russia has had, only one came to power in a full free democratic election.

Why should they care? Democracy has as of late become an end of itself and an article of religious faith for most of us Westerners, which is absurd. A political system is an means to and end, not an end in itself. Here in the West we arrived at the conclusion, right or wrong, that representative democracy was the optimal political system to achieve certain social and economic outcomes.

Russia, on the other hand, appears to be driving towards a different conclusion. So what? I don't agree with all of Putin's agenda, but life for Russians is much, much better now than it used to be, and it's not just because of commodities prices.

It's also worth nothing that we view the events in other nations with biased lenses. When Boris Yelstin ordered the Russian Army to shell and storm the Duma in 1993, not many people in the West complained--because he was doing what we wanted him to do. Putin has been charting an independent course, and this has correlated with increased negative attention from the West. Meanwhile, nations that our friendly to our interests tend to receive positive treatment, even if the facts speak otherwise (e.g., Latvia, Georgia, Pakistan).