Red SquareLeonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg: Russia Missed Its Chance to Be Like America
Many Russians feel the U.S. and their country are much alike. Both are vast, they share a sense of adventure, along with underlying lawlessness and violence, and in both, the infrastructure often is an afterthought. So what is keeping Russia from turning into another America -- a democratic nation and an economic powerhouse?
Russia got its chance in the early 1990s, but it was largely wasted. The first post-Soviet decade brought almost unlimited liberties, but also rampant corruption and economic decline. During the second one, the liberties gradually eroded and the economy improved thanks to high commodity prices -- a mirage, as became clear by the middle of the third decade. So is it just that Russians are not suited to building the kind of society that has ensured America's prosperity?
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WNU Editor: I asked this same question to a senior Russian diplomat at the UN around 1990. His answer .... it took the U.S. 200 years to be where it is today .... modern Russia is only a few years old .... it is going to take a few generations, but eventually Russia will be like the U.S.. Sighhh .... it has been 25 years .... it made sense then .... and it is certainly making sense now.
7 comments:
I don't think that no one should look at the U.S is a role model. By being American I can say that it has many good things and also many bad ones,at the end of the day what makes a country great it's their borders their culture and language.
Unlike the European countries that are loosing their identity.Russia is in the right direction ,the west is signaling this by looking at Russia as a threat to their geopolitical,economic monopoly. if you want to have a reference point of how this is at work in Europe, Bulgaria should be the example of this soft characters warfare between Russia and the west .
Russia being democratic? Ahah todays is 06/03 not 01/04 lol. Russia right now is a disgrace, corrupt, criminal and a racist state.
It is an ebb & flow type of thing. You got to constantly take out the garbage or it overwhelms you like when the trashmen strike in a major city.
You always got to have a motive force for good.
America can quite easily become a dictatorship.
I think going the other direction takes 3 or 4 generations of work.
Russia is less racist than Sweden or Norway.
Be like America?
I hope more less greedy and warmongering like the U.S. is.
Democracy is a good thing in itself, but are the democratic country from west that want ruin Russia. So, why you expect from Russians?
As for the claim of Kasparov... very false and arrogant the part that accuse socialism to erode the human spirit.
Unless he think that the business spirit and free market are the only that define human spirit.
Very typical of rich people is to consider their values the only that must count for everyone.
See the peoples victim of capitalism, from Native Americans to Greeks, if their spirit is high or crushed on their very base.
America is not "a democratic nation and an economic powerhouse." It is a bankrupt bankers dictatorship, a police state that spies on its own population that wages perpetual warfare abroad. We have the greatest Constitution ever composed, but we've breached far more often than we've honored it, especially under the rule of the current president and his immediate predecessor. Instead of a model to emulate, we are a country ruled by a parasite that others, including Russia, should want to free us from.
More like America?
I don't see it and, judging by this poll, neither do quite a few others.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/your-voice-matters-choose-best-russias-leader-last-100-years/ri12634?utm_source=Russia+Insider+Daily+Headlines&utm_campaign=c291640208-Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c626db089c-c291640208-227205149&ct=t(Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014)&mc_cid=c291640208&mc_eid=630ea7d1c3
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