EDITORIAL: Putin the Road Hog

EDITORIAL

Putin the Road Hog

Yet another international survey, yet another laughable, failing, third-world score for Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

This time, it was roads.

According to the World Economic Forum, Russia’s rank among world nations for quality of roads is a shocking #124.  The Moscow Times reports that  “data published by the World Bank suggests that Putin did not prioritize road construction during his rule, with spending on roads falling to 1.5 percent in 2009, compared with 3.5 percent spent by China, from 2.8 percent of GDP in 2000.”

This is just one more example of the absolute failure of leadership by the Putin regime.  While Putin has ignored Russia’s roads and spent money on cold-war provocation (and personal graft for his network of palaces), Russians have continued to favor him with sky-high approval ratings in polls.  As such, Russians get exactly the roads they deserve.

Now, as election season rolls in, Putin is scrambling to cover himself by spewing forth all kinds of promises about spending billions on Russia’s roads. But this money will take years to achieve results in the best case scenario, and Putin has done nothing to reduce rampant Russian corruption; that means it’s more than likely that most of the money will never see the light of day on a Russian road.

And the reality is that Putin has no intention of spending such money.  He has no intention of diverting money from his pet projects of personal luxury and cold-war aggression, and he has no intention of helping the people of Russia become more independent and prosperous. Independent, prosperous people are much harder for a dictator like Putin to control and dominate. Putin wants a submissive, helpless population that is at his mercy.

This is neo-Soviet thinking.  If the peole of Russia do not take immediate steps to control Putin’s actions, he will do to Russia exactly the same thing that the Politburo did to the USSR.