National Post: Russia over centuries is always tyrannic, only labels change

28 September 2011

The Canadian newspaper National Post reported on a new self-appointed of Putin as gang leader of Russia:

"To nobody's huge surprise, Vladimir Putin, Russia's latest red tsar, is headed back to the country's top job next year.

Only the hopelessly naive would suggest Putin still has to win a presidential election, in which Russians allegedly get to choose from an array of candidates.

It doesn't work that way in the new Russia. Rule by strongmen (and a few women) has a hallowed history, from tsars Ivan the Terrible through Peter and Catherine - both with soubriquets the Great - to the Bolsheviks rulers Lenin and Stalin.

Only the ideologies change. The tyranny remains remarkably consistent, whatever the label. And thanks to changes to the Russian constitution, enacted while Putin's poodle Dimitry Medvedev occupied the president's office, he can stay in power for another 12 years.

A commentary in the Canadian newspaper illustrated by a photograph from Reuters, on which Putin was filmed with a pistol in the dash. Putin's words under photo: "Now put up the photo of Khodorkovsky".

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/28/15185.shtml.