Putin's Palace
Right now Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has published a video in Russia about Putin’s Palace. The palace was paid for by Russian taxpayers and cost 1 billion dollars or 75 billion rubles. The palace contains a strip club, casino despite gambling being illegal in Russia, a hockey rank, a private movie theatre, and a bedroom suite with a sitting room, a bedroom with a TV, and a living room with a tv. I don’t understand why he just doesn’t stick with one bedroom but whatever.
Anyways as a result massive protests have started against Vladimir Putin. For the first time I actually seriously believe Putin could possibly be removed from office. It is unlikely more like 20% likely but possible.
If I could offer any advice for the opposition I will say that they should fight for something besides Putin is bad and propose new policies to make Russia a better place which they have in the past but I think it is necessary. Another idea is to simply call for a general strike and have the Russian workers go on strike and refuse to go to work till Putin and his government resigns and the Duma is dissolved allowing for new elections.
I also think Russia needs a new constitution to fix some of the flaws with the old one. The problem with the old constitution is that the President has term limits but can be reelected if he wasn’t president for four years. So Putin has been President for nine years from 1999 to 2008 and then prime minister for four years and then President since 2012.
I think it is better that the president is a ceremonial position and the real power in Russia is the prime minister. If the leader of Russia needs to maintain the confidence of the legislature then he is unlikely to become a dictator.
In Russia what is supposed to happen is the Russian President is supposed to handle foreign issues while the Prime Minister handles domestic affairs. In reality, the President has all the power and the Prime Minister is a figurehead. I think Russia is better off under a parliamentary system with Navalny as Prime Minister.
I think that is what the opposition needs to do in order to win and defeat Putin.
Putin is an authoritarian leader. It is obvious that he is one because he won reelection with 78% of the vote which never happens in real democracies. Nobody wins over 60% in the first round of voting unless they are a dictator. Putin should have stuck with 54% of the vote to make it more believable at least Erdogan made sure to win with 42% of the vote so no one will get suspicious.
Also, several people critical of Putin have died in several convenient ways. Putin’s political opponents and critics have died by committing suicide by shooting themselves three times in the back of the head, killed in botched robberies where nothing was stolen, perfectly healthy people dying due to heart attacks. Died in car accidents despite being one car and lack of icy road and people falling off a building to their deaths. That is what makes Putin dangerous; he doesn’t arrest people or kill people openly for opposing him. He disguises his murders as something else frames his opponents for other crimes instead.
I think people accept this because Russia doesn’t have a long democratic tradition like the United States and people in Russia don’t care if their country is a democracy or not as long as there is peace and prosperity.
Putin was very popular in Russia for years because he brought peace and prosperity in Russia despite being a despot and his rule was better than the chaotic Yeltsin years during the 1990s. I just hope one day once Putin is gone Russia is a democracy and that the Russian people can finally be under a democratic government.
