We are acquainted with a Russian family who’ve lived in America for many years. She’s moving back to Russia with their 11 year old American son because she needs medical care and they’re going broke (really, but that’s not what this is about). We had them over to say goodbye and we were talking about Russia and Putin’s recent reelection.

I was saying that I had heard that Putin had made himself one of the richest men in Russia while he was President by forcing people to pay-to-play in the peculiar Russian-style klepto-capitalism.

They acknowledged that this was probably true, but it wasn’t peculiar, they said, look at Obama, certainly he personally enriched himself on the bailout of the banks, otherwise why would he have done it? Certainly some of the money he funneled to banks was funneled back to him.

I didn’t know quite how to respond because equating Putin and Russia to Obama and America just seemed so absurd, but to these Russians and how they saw the world they were exactly the same. I know a lot of people hate Obama, but is this attitude a reflection of the jaded Russian view of the world, or do other Obama haters think he’s crossed into Russian-style klepto-capitalism and corruption?

I vote jaded Russian view of the world.

I'm currently reading "The Dictators Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle For Democracy" by William Dobson. I can understand that your russian friends might have a world view that politicians are actually using democracy to further their own ends. Putin rules Russia the way a mafia boss rules.

It is interesting that Russia's dependence on economic engagement with Europe and the world is a leavening influence on the way the Russian government behaves... Dobson illustrates this with the descritpion of the activists fight to protect the Khmiki forest from destruction for a highway. that would have benefitted certain Kremlin ministers personnally. Despite the perception that Putin has the power of the Czar, the need to appear to use power through legitimate means is important. Both domestically and to the outside world. For that reason the law, such as it is in Russia, was a great tool in fighting the destruction of the forest for the activists....
And ultimately, since the highway required financing that was to come from Europe, the activists appealed to the courts in Europe and stopped outside financing, which achieved a temporary halt to the destruction of the forest. . (Two sentences for 150 pages...)
The point being that, Putin's use of the constitutional levers of power can look like a western nations use of the same levers of power. (The courts, elections rule of law). The difference is that in Russia they are new and corrupted from their inception, and usually subject to coruption or intimidation. .
Very few democracies have been born as functioning fully free. A great deal of time and energy from committed participants in the incremental growth of equal access to a fair and just system of governance.
Modern Russia is 20 years old, and a former KGB desk officer (East German) has taken charge of the reins of power in order to maintain his view of what Russian society should be. Your Russian friends mistake his use of what could be parts of a genuine democratic with the normal use of those tools in a much more evolved democracy. (But lets admit, still evolving.)

I thought it was Bush who bailed out the banks. Obama bailed out the Detroit car manufacturers.

Sassenach wrote:I thought it was Bush who bailed out the banks. Obama bailed out the Detroit car manufacturers.

Indeed. I think there's a group who aren't really educated, but very suspicious of gov't, and those kinds of details don't matter so much because, "they're all corrupt."

Ricky, good post, thanks.