Russian Democracy Has Disappeared?

Clifford J. Levy, New York Times

1. What is human rights? According t o the author, identify human rights issues the current political
regime in Russia have violated.
Human rights is a right that is believed to belong justifiably to every person. According to the article it states that
Russia has no respect for the law, theyre always trying to manipulate the system to benefit them in some type of
way. Also, the fact the Putin and Medvedev have come together to be one of the only people to run because they
cant consecutively but they can switch on and off which is exactly what theyre doing.

2. Identify political corruption issues Mr. Levy identifies in Russia today.

Some issues theyre faced with is they havent come up with any ideas to fix the values and provide proper
functioning of the institutions and mechanisms of democracy. Also with law they decided to use jurors as a judge
instead of a legit judge. This will cause a huge predicament because the people feared the authorities

3. How does Mr. Gorbechev, the previous Russian premier, feel about the current leaders? Why does he feel
this way?
Gorbechev believes that democracy stands in Putins way of ever becoming a great leader. He believes that the
Kremlin is an unqualified democracy by ruining opposing forces.

4. The caption for the picture on page one is titled, Batman and Robin. Explain this caption.
The reason it is captioned that is because even when Medvedev was the president at the time Putin still told him
what to do with the democracy and the reason is because theyre partners since they cant run in consecutive
terms. So Medvedev was technically in charge but Putin was always the main man.

5. According to the author and Mr. Gorbechev, democracy begins with?

Elections, accountability, and turnover.

6. In addition to the aspects of democracy identified above, which other key ingredient is necessary for a
democracy? According to the author, how does Russia meet this ingredient? Back up your answer with
facts.
The key ingredient that is important for democracy is representing the rule of law. Which Russia is frequently
manipulated to serve only the governments needs.

7. Identify two cases the author identifies where the Russian government has failed the democratic test.
When Mikhail offered support to an opposing party he spent several years in jail and had his company sold off to
Putins supporters. When Russia was suppose to get jury trails it didnt work because they where way to scared of
authorities.