Gorilla's Blog

Russian President Medvedev says he can’t imagine running against actual Russian ruler Prime Minister Putin in next year’s Presidential contest.

And he’s right: whatever Vlady wants, Vlady gets!

What’s more tiresome is the refusal of Russian reporting to acknowledge what the country is: a dictatatorial kleptocracy only interested in staying in power.

Gorilla says: “You can take the tyrant out of the Presidential box, but you can’t make him think!”

Here in the US, we haven’t put a single banker in jail, despite a financial disaster caused by bankers. We’ve tortured people by the dozens, yet no one has been held accountable.

In Russia, the Kremlin’s contempt for the rule of law continues: first, by allowing people like Khodorovsky to loot the country in the 1990s, then by allowing thugs like Vladmir Putin to loot the country today.

And who is our Secretary of State defending?

The robber baron, of course: “This and similar cases have a negative impact on Russia’s reputation for fulfilling its international human rights obligations and improving its investment climate.”

We, on the other hand, allow banks to loot foreclosed homes without so much as a bleat of anger.

And let’s not mention the ongoing joke that is Guantanamo, the continuation of warrantless surveillance, and the targeting of American citizens for assassination.

Gorilla says: “When you’re not serious about the rule of law at home, tyrants abroad will only laugh!”

Not having enough power already, Russia’s FSB may now “”warn officially an individual about the inadmissibility of actions that create the conditions for the commission of crimes”.

So, we’re back to the good old days, when anyone with a dissenting opinion or in possession of inconvenient facts about the regime may be subject to warning, detention, or, if you’re a reporter, execution.

Not that this changes much, it’s an entirely undemocratic regime run by what’s left of the KGB anyway.

Gorilla says: “No more elevator shoe jokes about Medvedev, comrades!”