Global Studies II

Unit II Russia

Name: Sean Sehn

Date: November 18, 2014
Russian Democracy Has Disappeared?
- Clifford J. Levy, New York Times

Directions: After reading the article mentioned above, answer the questions below. Please
answer in complete sentence format.
1. What is human rights? According to the author, identify human rights issues the current
political regime in Russia have violated.
Human Rights are the basic morals and respect that every person is entitled to regardless of
religion or race. Although communism is gone in Russia, there are still ongoing problems. For
example, when the head of Yukos Oil spoke out against the government he was put in jail for seven
years without a fair trial. Another instance occurred when a newspaper journalist by the name of
Mikhail Beketov, was confronted right outside of his home and beaten senseless because he wrote
about corruption issues that the government did not like.

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

Vladimir Putin is responsible for many of the corruption issues that Russia is facing today. The
reason Putin gets away with this corruption is because he gains the admiration of his people
through lots of corrupted campaigning. Putin makes himself look like an admirable person; he is
fit, healthy, active, and not afraid to do physical labor for Russia. On one of his propaganda
images he went way over the line by pretending he found ancient Greek Urns in seven foot deep
water. The citizens thought it was obscene and knew it was a fake.

3. How does Mr. Gorbechev, the previous Russian premier, feel about the current leaders? Why
does he feel this way?
Gorbachev feels that the changes in Putin is promoting is only changing the citizens thought and
not the country nor the government. He thinks this is the case because the reforms are moving
at a very slow rate.

4. The caption for the picture on page one is titled, Batman and Robin. Explain this caption.
Putin chose Medvedev as his successor because he wanted to create a strategy for him to lead the
Nnation when he was not able to because he was unable to run two terms in a row.

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

elections_, accountablity__, 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.
Another key factor is the respect for rule of law. Russia is often influenced to serve the needs of
the government. Russia meets this factor thanks to the power that the police force holds on the
people. Eduard Limonov who was a leader of a banned opposition group quoted we still live in a
police state. According to Eduard, he believes that they have still not surpassed communism and
still need to take many more steps for Russia to truly become a democratic country.

7. Identify two cases the author identifies where the Russian government has failed the
democratic test.
In one case, there was a situation with a Russian journalist named Beketov. Beketov was writing
about the problems with corruption. He was warned to stop writing but he continued and as a
result, he was beaten senseless outside of his home from government personnel.
Although Putin believes Russia is Democratic, the people of Russia think differently. Since
Putin is disagreeing with all of Russia and lying about the government type means he is not taking
accountability and therefor does not pass as Democratic.