Is Russia a democracy? A dictatorship? Neither? A bit of both?
I would like to know your opinions/arguments. It's one of the most complicated nations to determine regime in the world I think.
![Think :-k](./images/smilies/eusa_think.gif)
KnowLedge wrote:is it not a democracy now?
Lithium wrote:he was talkin bout me and remembering the days i was massing him wit one finger
Guild wrote:is that the same finger you stick up your bum ?![]()
Lithium wrote:no its the one who gave u life
Field Marshall wrote:Lith put his finger up his bum and Guild arrived?![]()
I wish that was genuinely true![]()
Lithium wrote:oooo why there isnt any emo for this one , id have dropped of chair dead
MajorLeeHurts wrote:Agreed that was the funnies **Filtered** ive read here!Lithium wrote:oooo why there isnt any emo for this one , id have dropped of chair dead
Im sure JT is enjoying this thread , if he isnt hes in a coma !
[KMA]Avenger wrote:PS, "direct democracy" means, letting the people vote on everything....in short, putting the power back into the hands of the people.
RepliMagni wrote:[KMA]Avenger wrote:PS, "direct democracy" means, letting the people vote on everything....in short, putting the power back into the hands of the people.
Which would be completely stupid - people neither have the time nor the knowledge nor the skills to understand enough about all aspects of society to make informed decisions - heck, I'm a PhD socio-economic historian and I don't know enough about economics to make a fully informed decision about the current economic crisis, let alone all the other aspects of governance. The whole point of a democracy is to give those powers to people we trust to make the right decisions we want based on their policies....whether or not there is a disconnect between those policies and "trust" is another matter entirely....
RepliMagni wrote:[KMA]Avenger wrote:PS, "direct democracy" means, letting the people vote on everything....in short, putting the power back into the hands of the people.
Which would be completely stupid - people neither have the time nor the knowledge nor the skills to understand enough about all aspects of society to make informed decisions
RepliMagni wrote: - heck, I'm a PhD socio-economic historian and I don't know enough about economics to make a fully informed decision about the current economic crisis, let alone all the other aspects of governance.
RepliMagni wrote:
The whole point of a democracy is to give those powers to people we trust to make the right decisions we want based on their policies....
RepliMagni wrote:
whether or not there is a disconnect between those policies and "trust" is another matter entirely....
Athens had slaves. I like that. They made it possible for actual citizens to partake of democracy.Legendary Apophis wrote:Some still view ancient Athens democracy as the ideal type of regime, that's why it's seen as a dream for some.
Juliette wrote:Athens had slaves. I like that. They made it possible for actual citizens to partake of democracy.Legendary Apophis wrote:Some still view ancient Athens democracy as the ideal type of regime, that's why it's seen as a dream for some.
Anyway. Russia is cool. I love Putin. Some nations need a strict guiding hand. Putin gives stability and direction. IPutin. (Yes, that is twice.)
Lithium wrote:he was talkin bout me and remembering the days i was massing him wit one finger
Guild wrote:is that the same finger you stick up your bum ?![]()
Lithium wrote:no its the one who gave u life
Field Marshall wrote:Lith put his finger up his bum and Guild arrived?![]()
I wish that was genuinely true![]()
Lithium wrote:oooo why there isnt any emo for this one , id have dropped of chair dead
MajorLeeHurts wrote:Agreed that was the funnies **Filtered** ive read here!Lithium wrote:oooo why there isnt any emo for this one , id have dropped of chair dead
Im sure JT is enjoying this thread , if he isnt hes in a coma !
While OSCE, observer of the legislative Russians of December 4th, advanced " frequent violations of the procedure " during the vote count, the examples of frauds accumulate, denounced(cancelled) by the activists, independent journalists and civic observers who had spread(displayed,deployed) on the ground to be the witnesses(batons) of the irregularity of the ballot.
" I was all day in various polling stations of Moscow with a civic observer yesterday, we spoke with spot people and they confirmed us numerous frauds ", shows the correspondent of " New Times " Zoya Svetova. Young people of the party Close(Plain) Russia, "the" Nachi ", were brought by the province to Moscow to vote. We had supplied them polling cards. They were tens to queue up to vote and we authorized them to put several bulletins in the urn(ballot box) ", shows this committed(hired) journalist. And it is only an example of manipulation of the ballot among so many others...
Several observers were able to film blatant irregularities, as here or we prove to a helper that the ink of pens proposed to mark the bulletin is erasable and does not guarantee the vote:
Or as that one, who(which) finds in the urn(ballot box) that we have just emptied for the counting a heap assembled by bulletins, all for close(plain) Russia, but that nobody becomes alarmed in the idea that they were slid by a single hand in the urn(ballot box), what is impossible legally:
" They paid people to slide several bulletins in urns(ballot boxes). It is the system known well by the " carousel(merry-go-round) " where people have a polling card with which they are going to vote in several polling stations. And with the stations of temporary vote, we can slide even more easily its bulletin in the urn(ballot box) of several offices(desks), whether it is in stations, in tourist stations(resorts) in the campaign(countryside) " tells Zoya Svetova.
Stuffing of urns(ballot boxes)
" I belonged to Vladimir, to approximately 110 km from Moscow, on Monday, when the local authorities organized polling stations in centers of rest, far from cities, difficult to access for the observers. Golden, certain made the travel(movement) and were able to noticed that polling stations, opened at 10:30 am already had full urns(ballot boxes). When they questioned the director(manager) of the polling station, this one then claimed that there had been already 3000 voters and that the office(desk) had opened at 7:30 am. But of course it was impossible to him(her) to supply the registers of vote to guarantee its comment ", explains the journalist of "New Times".
There were several other similar cases in the other similar places among which some people were able to be advanced by activists on the Internet. The authorities used these polling stations which they call complementary(additional) to cheat in any discretion: at this time of year, these places are deserted as a rule(in principle). " Everything was forged ", Zoya Svetova denounces(cancels).
Videos alignments(on-line publishing)
If the Russians are used to hear about frauds during the elections in the country, they are not on the other hand direct witnesses of the unrefined trickeries used(employed) by the power. Now, the big novelty of this ballot is the alignment(on-line publishing) of videos turned(shot) in polling stations by the voluntary civic observers. Hackers that has respect paid by the power attacked(affected) on Saturday the sites of independent media such as "New Times" or " Echo of Moscow " or still of institutes of defense of the freedom of speech as Golos. These sites, which re-worked for the majority on Monday afternoon, had indeed encouraged the observers to send them as fast as possible their testimony if they noticed frauds.
Far from giving up the publication of their testimonies in front of the scale of the phenomenon, the observers, scandalized by the conditions of vote, published their videos on YouTube then Facebook or to twitter, as this one where we can see a member(limb) of the polling station marking quietly bulletins before being surprised by an observer:
" People were very mobilized for raising(finding) the frauds ", underlines Zoya Svetova. " They were not so passive as four years ago. They have enough frauds of it and enough Close(Plain) Russia. The problem is that there is really no opposition. The voters voted for the communists and for just Russia. But it does not mean that they support these parties. It is a protest vote against close(plain) Russia which they made. Because, in our legislation, if you vote for white, your vote is supposed to be for the party which arrived in head... "
Doomed to failure appeals(recourses)
And the appeals(recourses) are doomed to failure. In a country where the justice rarely shows independence in front of power, the complaints of the parties in front of the courts have only not enough luck(chance) to succeed. Certainly, it is the first time when videos showing flagrante delictos of corruption, stuffing of urns(ballot boxes), multiple votes are going to be able to be joined(contacted) to files, but the hope to see cancelled ballots is very low(weak). " The proofs of the scale of the fraud were able to go out ", underlines Zoya Svetova. " But we have no independent justice in Russia. The authorities are doubtless going to recognize some frauds here or there but it will not change the final outcome(exit) of the vote ".
" The problem of close(plain) Russia ", underlines the journalist, " it is that we cannot cheat eternally ". While the presidential elections are in three months, which we can expect? Is the legislative ballot going to teach a lesson to Vladimir Putin? To bring more respect for the electoral law or to by-pass her(it) on the contrary more discreetly? Difficult to establish a forecast at this stage(stadium). But the leaders of close(plain) Russia have it seems was afraid of not obtaining the wished result(profit). " If they obtain around the 55 % officially ", underlines Zoya Svoboda " it is that they obtained in reality around 25 % of the votes and they know him(it) very well " calculate this informed observer. " In front of this situation, I am afraid that they take abrupt positions. We go towards elections to a totalitarian climate. People hate more and more Putin and close(plain) Russia and I am afraid that the future president produces them by brutalities. "
Julietta Putina wrote:Your translation is both slanderous and disgustingly bad.
Terrible, terrible, terrible. It makes as little factual sense in French as it does in English.