Government Essay

The article “Russia in turmoil” is about the current, past and predicable state of the Russia, its political and cultural problems, relationship with the United States. The grudge erupted into the streets in 3 main protests in December, after Putin’s United Russia Party maintained control of the Russia’s lower house – Duma, after what was observed as faked parliamentary elections. Anger of Protestants shows that grip on power of Russian leader has weakened and shows questions about the vitality of the political and economic system he has created.
Public discontent with President rankled on December 24, when more than 85,000 people gathered in the streets of capital to demand for an end to his regime. However, demonstrates were normal people who just wished to protect their rights. With the help of the Internet and the social media, protesters showed a lot of banned materials. For instance, the video clip with Putin being booed in some sport event was removed by the state television, however, the unedited version was available online on YouTube.
In 2011 popular revolts that unsealed dictators in Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Tunis so called Arab Spring, and it is hard not to draw parallels between those protests and Russian movements. Nevertheless, Russian President still has the support of a large number of the people and is still the most famous leader in Russia. And people who came out to protest do not wish for revolution, they want changes. And it is unlikely that they were inspired by the Arab Spring.
It is assumed in this article that there is going to be other protests, and they will grow in size and quality, theoretically bringing down a regime. The first demonstrations were calling for new elections, than they will say that Putin is a thief, than that he is a dictator. Stephen Blank claims that Putin’s system cannot be reformed. This system must be transformed.
Another point that this article enlightens is the level of the corruption in Russia. Russia is among the world’s most corrupt nations, according to the corruption watchdog group Transparency International. The level of corruption in Russia is just stunning. Corruption costs this country as much as $320 billion annually. It is believed that unfortunately, corruption has become a main function of the Russian state itself.
The article also clearly shows how Putin’s government tries to conceal true and real problems with the help of the image of an enemy number one, represented by the United States. The article presents us with a very difficult future for relations between the U.S. and Russia. Both countries have used up the positive agenda and the problems related to the elections in both sides will only stress areas of dissonance.
All in all, this article perfectly shows us the reality of the current state of Russian Federation. Even though that it is the largest country, and one of the most powerful, still there are too much problems that must be solved, for the country to more prosperous, economically, politically and culturally stable. With the help of the comparison of the Russia with the United States, one can see in what way this country should develop to become a great country. The criticism of the government and particularly the President Putin, I think, shows that the truth has been revealed. This country demands a great change, not the revolution, but simple yet deep change, and this article completely describes why and how.
Personally I think and know that the situation in Russia can be seen from different sides. There is little doubt about the fact that corruption level and in general level of freedom in this country could not be compared with other European countries or with the U.S. I completely agree with the author and the critics in this article, as I think that changes are needed. Unfortunately, it is important to understand that Slavic people have absolute another mentality. The greatest problem of this country is by far corruption; because of it this country has a lot of other derivative problems. Corruption is in their blood. Even though that someone could say that this article may be accusatory, it shows the real truth of the Russian government, President and the country.
Great regret is that nowadays nothing has changed, and the conditions in which Russian citizens live are the same. Of course, it is possible to say that with the change of the government, with the change of Putin to someone, who is not his disciple, Russia could solve its problems, and maybe the tension between Russia and United States will be in the past and these two marvelous nations will become friends on political and cultural level.