As always, the world remains a busy place, with lots of stuff happening in just about every level of life. Every now and then though, someone pulls something that makes me doubletake and go, "What the hell?" For the past day or so, Russian president Vladimir Putin has been eliciting that reaction from me - and probably most of the rest of the world.
In the wake of the botched hostage rescue in Beslan recently (the question of just who botched what remains up in the air), Putin has - wholly understandably! - decided to Take Measures to try and shake up Russia's security apparatus. Having been rocked by any number of major attacks over the course of a few short days, the implication is that such reforms are needed.
Some of the reforms, however, seem to leave much to be desired. Much of what Putin is preparing makes sense - come down on corrupt officials, improve international cooperation, and so on. Other parts, however, don't, such as making the regional governors appointed (by Putin, nyatch) rather than elected by regional populations, and otherwise changing electoral law to weaken minor parties. On top of this, Putin is adopting a doctrine of pre-emption similar to the Bush doctrine, which might even be acceptable provided it's applied for the right reasons - which it may or may not be, by which I mean will probably not.
Some quick glances through the news show that reactions to this seem to be more than a little bit concerned across much of the world. When it gets to the point that Powell is willing to criticise Russia over its actions ("...said he wanted to discuss the measures with Moscow"), something significant's happened, and I don't think anyone can deny that Putin's changes are a cause for concern.
On the one hand, it's a whole lot less subtle than PATRIOT Acts and screening airline passengers for potentially subversive books. On the other hand, Putin apparently doesn't feel a need to be subtle about this, and is running through large-scale reforms that have little relevance to freedom or security. While Putin has at least addressed the idea of combating the root causes of terrorism - poverty, helplessness, oppression - the fact that he is taking the opportunity to sieze powers which will do little to solve those problems is a cause for concern indeed.
Tomorrow, if I get the time, I'll do a quickie about a local reporter who managed to, just a little more than he usually does, make a name for himself in Iraq.
Posted by zibblsnrt at September 14, 2004 09:13 PM