The President of the Russian Confederation, Vladimir Putin has been exercising his powers as president to the extent where many have begged the question: is Putin turning
Russia’s democracy into a dictatorship?
The now popular, charismatic leader of
Russia was not always this way. In fact, when Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin anointed him as his successor, Putin’s had a 2% popular vote. However, Yeltsin and many others among the Kremlin (Russian Government) began making conscientious efforts to recreate Putin’s public image. They taught Putin how to walk, talk and dress like a president and three months after being anointed by Yeltsin, Putin was elected into office in 2000. The once “grey cardinal” of Russian politics became President of the Russian Confederation. During a summit in June 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton praised him for "surely being capable of creating a strong and prosperous
Russia" and even Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had a positive impression of Putin stating, "he's certainly no threat to the Russian democracy".
Perhaps Clinton and Gorbachev were wrong because during his presidency, Putin has taken over national television, emasculated the power of the country's governors, transformed parliament into a rubber stamp, jailed the main financial backer of the political opposition and intimidated the most significant potential challengers from entering the race. Putin even fired Mikhail Kasyanov,
Russia’s prime minister, because Kasyanov posed a potential threat upon the presidency of Putin. If on Election Day the voter turnout was below the legal minimum, Kayanov would become assume Putin’s position. Putin became paranoid of the scenario and took drastic measures to ensure the continuation of his presidency.
Television was the main source of fuel for Putin’s paranoia. Putin would bring home tapes of news broadcasts that featured him and review them, to make sure that nothing critical or negative was being broadcasted about him. After some difficulty with a negative news report the Kremlin began to sit down with each major news station and discuss “recommended” news stories. Those news stories were mainly aimed to praise Putin and his political party. It seems that journalism in
Russia was now simply turning into propaganda.
Putin has taken a hold of every part of Russian government and media and manipulated it to appease his wishes.
Russia has been rerouted from a path of reconstruction and democracy towards a dictatorship. There is no working system of check and balance in the Russian Government, allowing Putin to gain and maintain all the political power he wishes to achieve.
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