ShareThis"A riddle, wrapped in an enigma, inside a mystery" is how Winston Churchill described Soviet Russia. He was speaking in October 1939, right after World War II commenced in Europe, but his words have direct importance for current developments.
Sunday's legislative elections in Russia have spawned intense controversy, centered on accusations that Premier Vladimir Putin's United Russia party committed widespread vote fraud. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has called for holding the elections again. Even with the alleged ballot-box stuffing, Putin's party registered a substantial loss in support in voting for the lower house of the state Duma.
The intense controversy is playing out before a vast global audience, thanks to pervasive Facebook, Twitter and other social media. This underscores how dramatically the context of politics has changed in Russia and nearly every other country, even as veterans of Soviet Communism try to employ heavy-handed repression that can no longer be kept private.
Russia's divided house is an especially important part of the ongoing global revolution toward democracy. This is due to the nation's strongly secretive political culture, and also the particularly ruthless methods ruling factions use to suppress freedom of speech, especially by political activists and investigative journalists.
In early 2009, near the Kremlin on a sunny day on a public street, activist attorney Stanislav Markelov was murdered. Journalist Anastasia Baburova was killed as well while trying to aid him. The hit man was a practiced pro, his pistol equipped with a silencer.
Markelov had publicly denounced the early release from prison of Col. Yuri Budanov, sentenced to 10 years for strangling a woman during the war in Chechnya. Budanov claimed she was a partisan sniper, but the court rejected his defense. Granting him freedom stoked controversy. Budanov in turn was murdered gangland-style in Moscow in June of this year.
Baburova worked for Novaya Gazeta, an opposition newspaper. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya of that paper was prominent in investigating human-rights abuses in Chechnya. She was murdered in 2006. Three men were tried before a jury on charges related to that crime, including directly aiding the triggerman, but ultimately all were acquitted.
In a dramatic interview with Voice of America after the killings of Baburova and Markelov, Novaya Gazeta representative Nadezhda Prosenkova stated that the newspaper's staff literally risked their lives simply by endeavoring to do their jobs.
The killings reconfirmed in bloody manner Russia's ruthless repression, especially of the media. While print journalists occasionally have been gunned down, the Kremlin has been more systematically repressive regarding television, which has been brought back under direct state censorship.
The repression provides a continuing test for the Obama administration. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has rightly condemned Russian election chicanery, sparking a snarling response from Putin. Nonetheless, the rule of law continues to expand, if unevenly, in the former Soviet Union and indeed nearly everywhere.
Long after the Cold War, Voice of America continues to have an important mission. Coverage of Russian abuses should be sustained.
Churchill also observed that "the key" to the Russian riddle was national interest. Russia desperately needs trade and capital investment. During the height of the Cold War, the Eisenhower administration wisely promoted educational exchange, and some commercial trade, with the Soviet Union.
A more open society is more likely to imprison killers and thugs. Our leaders should be like Ike.
(Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., and author of "After the Cold War." Reach him at acyr(at)carthage.edu.)
Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College. E-mail him at acyr(at)carthage.edu
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