STOLYPIN: Bastrykin’s manifesto for the 'North Koreanisation' of Russia

This post is quite funny. Everything that Galeotti attributes to Russia has been true in spades of the US since 9/11. In fact, the US is far worse in some areas.

The American elite simply cannot recognize that they are projecting their own "stuff" on others, as psychologists would say.

Americans also fail to recognize that security and order are more important to many peoples than the American conception of individual liberty. 

Moreover, the author admits that Alexander Bastrykin is not even close to Putin.

The most recent and striking comes from Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigations Committee – a powerful body which in US terms is half-way between the FBI and the Office of the Attorney General – who is often one of the most authoritarian outliers in the apparatus. In an extensive piece in today’s Kommersant newspaper, he sets out what in many ways could be considered a manifesto for Russia’s comprehensive declaration of independence from the world.

To an extent, one can discount this precisely because Bastrykin is an outlier. Furthermore, as a figure who lacks any close personal relationship with Putin or a strong network of allies (quite the opposite, he has a talent for collecting enemies), Bastrykin often must play the role of the attack dog. One of his functions is to bark and growl fearsomely enough so that any less rabid repressive measures adopted end up looking like moderate compromises.

In addition, most of what Bastrykin has been put in place in the US since 9/11. For example, it is very doubtful that Russia has anything as comprehensive and sophisticated as US domestic espionage aka total surveillance. Russia just this week established the National Guard as a unification of domestic security under a single command, similar to the Department of Homeland Security in the US.

BNE News

STOLYPIN: Bastrykin’s manifesto for the 'North Koreanisation' of Russia
Mark Galeotti is Professor of Global Affairs at the SPS Center for Global Affairs, New York University and a Visiting Fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations

Also

The so-called liberal opposition that isn't. It's actually pretty funny.

One of the top opposition leaders promoted by the West is Aleksey Navalny, but as the post points out, he has zero qualifications to be the president of the Russian Federation. He would obviously just be a sock puppet.

As Navalny has never served in any official capacity, most Russians find it hard to understand why he should be considered a candidate for the top job.

MOSCOW BLOG: Caught with its pants down, Russia's opposition blows up

Ben Aris in Moscow