EDITORIAL
For Little Dima Medvedev, a Knife in the Darkness
An interesting thing happened a few days ago. Moscow “Mayor” Yuri Luzhkov was fired by Russian “President” Dima Medvedev, and the so-called Mayor was soon lashing out publicly at the so-called President. Luzhkov, of course, is a very popular fellow in many Russian quarters, and his words carry weight. Not a word was said about Vladimir Putin. In fact, it was almost as if Putin had planned the whole thing, just to kill two competitive birds with one stone as he prepares to become “president for life.”
And who can say that this is not precisely what has occurred?
No sooner had Luzhkov been booted out of office than he told CNN that Medvedev had not taken charge as “calamities, terrorist acts and bad harvests” unfolded during his two-year presidency. “When he fires or reshuffles officials, proposes projects on paper, those things are being taken quite skeptically,” Luzhkov said. “Any initiative is good, but it must lead to actual results, which has not been happening so far.”
If Vladimir Putin were running against Medvedev in the next presidential “election” in Russia, isn’t this exactly what he’d want to say himself? And wouldn’t it be so much better if somebody else said such nasty things, while Putin remained clean and above the fray? If so, wouldn’t it be best if that person were one of the most powerful in Russia?
Of course it would. Is it just a coincidence that Luzhkov did not have a single negative word for Putin? Of course it is not.
Once again, Putin the proud KGB spy has made a mockery of civil society in Russia, proving that his craven fellow citizens will not lift a finger or even raise an eyebrow as he plays with elected officials as if they were puppets in his own personal theater. Indeed, the entire cowardly planet appears to be ready to stand by and watch, just as it watched Stalin and Hitler, while Putin consolidates power in his malignant regime and brings a neo-Soviet state to Russia.
La Russophobe 