A RUSSIAN CRITIC OF PUTIN ADVISES PRO PUTIN LIBERTARIANS
The thing that bothers me is the theft of your business if you build one. The Putin Oligarchs are fine for the poor, but not for the entrepreneurial class. And therefore not eventually for anyone.
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(POSTED NOT LINKED) I CANNOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO LINK TO IT. SO HERE IS THE COPY AND PASTE
Vera Kichanova shared Tatiana Moroz’s post — feeling angry.
November 22 at 3:51pm · Kyiv ·
I am mad as hell. A friend of mine and a libertarian star Tatiana Moroz asked her fb friends (mostly American libertarians) what they think about Putin https://www.facebook.com/tatiana.moroz/posts/10153258040193595. Many answered they “trust him 100%” because he is “anti-communist” and “opposing New World Order”. As a person who has lived under Putin most of my life (I was 9 when he came to power for the first time) I have a lot to say in response to this:
“Modern Russia is much less socialist than the US and Putin is blantly anti communist.”
Some westerners admire Putin for being “not openly a communist”. Well, I fondly hoped that whenever statism changes its name libertarians can still recognize it. Half of Russian economy is officially owned by state, and all the big monopolies that are de jure private actually belong to Putin’s friends, relatives or judo sparring partners—and now their children are already being appointed executives, thus, half of Russian economy is ruled by few dynasties.
At the same time, when someone creates a successful business and refuses to play by their rules, they find a way to take it away in favor of someone more loyal. See the story of Pavel Durov, a libertarian hero who created a “Russian Facebook”, the major IT-company in Russia, and was forced to sell it to Putin’s friend after he refused to show the personal data of some Ukrainian activists (he is in exile now) http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandcu…/…/24279/1/pavel-durov
A very popular argument for Putin being “anti-communist” is a flat taxation in Russia. Yes, that was a great improvement made during his first term, and it was implemented by his former economic advisor Andrei Illarionov, now a Cato Senior Fellow and a prominent Putin’s critic. Ten years ago (!) he resigned declaring that “Russia has become a different country. It is no longer a democratic country. It is no longer a free country”. There are no free market supporters in Putin’s administration now.
But even if you prefer symbols to actions, a modern Russian ideology is still a mix of Stalinism and Orthodoxy. Other post-communist countries (like Baltic states and now Ukraine) have gone through decommunization process, but not Russia. The main street in almost every town is still called Lenin Street. Moscow authorities are planning to rebuild a monument of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret police and the most bloody person in our history. The head of state is a former KGB officer, and there is no such thing as a “former KGB man”. None of the top officials who were Communist Party members in Soviet times (and most of them were) ever renounced the communist ideology.
At the same time, the Russian Orthodox Church has become an influential political force. The Cossacks were allowed to “patrol the morals” in the streets. The construction of 200 (!) new churches in Moscow was sponsored by the Moscow government. One can receive a prison term for offending “religious feelings” of other people http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/Russia-introduces-jail-terms-f… Further, religious education is mandatory in all Russian schools. The Russian Patriarch calls Putin’s reign a “miracle of God”.
As you probably know, two years ago a famous “gay propaganda law” was enacted making it illegal to equate straight and gay relationships and to show public affection. Soon after I and my fellows were beaten for “looking gay” in a bar owned by a representative of Moscow’s mayor. Three months later, my friend from Petersburg was attacked by two masked men at the meeting for the LGBT community. He sustained serious damage in one eye after being shot with a pneumatic pistol http://www.politico.com/…/03/russia-putin-lgbt-violence-116… Do I have to mention that Russian investigators refused to search for the thugs in both cases?
Russia is a de-facto single-party state, just like the USSR. The laws on the majority of issues are being passed unanimously, since, as the State Duma speaker famously said, the “parliament is no place for discussions.” Independent parties are not allowed to participate in elections. Last summer, I was attacked by unknown criminals who broke my street booth and tore all the signatures I had collected in support of myself as a candidate for Moscow City Council.
“The media will always demonize Putin because they work for “The Man” whose agenda is complete world dominance. Putin is one of a few remaining leaders who is standing in the way. The people of Russia, for the most part, are very happy with him. Not the brainwashed ones who are all for “globalism”.”
Not brainwashed, right? The first thing Putin did when he became president was taking control over the media. Every country-wide channel now is controlled by the government, including your favorite Russia Today, which receives $300 million dollars from the Russian government every year. The opposition blogs are routinely blacklisted and online news outlets censored. For instance, Russian Wikipedia was temporarily blocked because of the article “Cannabis smoking”, a number of Bitcoin-related websites were blacklisted because “it contributes to shadow economy”, and my article on Siberia was blocked as promoting separatism http://studentsforliberty.org/…/journalist-vera-kichanova-…/
As for anti-Putin movement, in 2011, we had the biggest civil uprising since the 1990s. As a result, 28 demonstrators were accused of inciting a riot and violence against the police—not celebrated opposition leaders but a random selection of the 100,000 protesters. In fact, Russian government set up this lottery to make us all afraid. “For an injured policeman, the liver of demonstrators should be smeared on the asphalt”, said Putin’s spokesman.
Now, if a protester is detained for the second time, he or she risks receiving up to five years in prison. By the way, I have been arrested six times for peacefully protesting and once as a reporter http://www.forbes.com/…/ive-been-arrested-at-six-anti-puti…/ Despite that, 50,000 of my fellow countrymen went out in the streets of Moscow last year in protest of our government’s aggressive actions in Crimea. Have you seen it on Russia Today? No need to ask.
“[Putin] seems to be the only head of state in power that uses common sense.. .also seems like he actually cares for the well being of humanity…”
“He’s for restoring and preserving his nation. That’s more than I can say for our leader!”
“Surely Russia’s wealth has increased and he’s not exactly imposing his footprint that much, although there are certainly some questionable issues on his foreign policy I’m sure
Questionable issues, really?!
Putin admitted that Russian troops took over Crimea, removing any doubt that it was an occupation and not a popular uprising. (The same kind of referendum is illegal in Russia: public calls for actions violating the territorial integrity of country are punishable by 4 years in prison.) Many separatists fighting in Ukraine are Russian citizens, some of their commanders formerly served for Russian special services. If you need more facts on Russia’s regime comparing to Ukraine I recommend you to read this: http://libertarian-party.ru/…/an-appeal-to-western-libertar…
In addition, Russian military budget is the second largest in the world. Russia, by the way, still has a conscription army, and many those fighting in Ukraine and Syria are subject to a military draft. Journalists who investigated secret burials of Russians paratroopers killed in Ukraine were severely attacked
http://www.rferl.org/…/russia-pskov-politicia…/26558191.html Russian officials, however, finally admitted there were regular army soldiers in Ukraine, but said they were fighting voluntarily while being “on vacation.”
“Anytime the US media demonizes someone there’s something good about them.”
Would you join ISIS just because Obama said it’s evil? The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend. I don’t want to spend my whole life proving this obvious thing, and I’d appreciate if you help me to spread the truth.
Don’t be Confused Pro-Putin Libertarians, please.
Source date (UTC): 2015-12-02 08:33:00 UTC