Putin in Kremlin Rising

Since the beginning of time, Russia’s government has always been dominated by one centralized source of power. Pre 1917, this power was in the hands of the Tsars and Post 1917; this power fell into the hands of the President. Regardless of the title of the head of government, the same style government remains the same: authoritarian.

The question posed, is Russia heading towards democracy or towards complete authoritarian government is not an easy question to answer. If a person looks at the Russian government without bias from any perspective, then yes, the government would appear to be more democratic than in the past. Elections are held, media reports on the news, there is a separation of powers within government, and there is a written constitution. If you let your own Western, biased perspective in, things start to look a little different. Elections are held, but it is limited who can run and if the votes are even tallied correctly. The media reports on the news, but only the news that sheds a positive light on the government in power. There is a separation of powers within government, but the leaders of these separate braches are either selected by the president himself or by committees which were hand selected by the president, so either way, the president has control over who leads government. The constitution that is written has more of a symbolic meaning to the Russian people than it does legislative force. When looking at these different characteristics that make up a democracy and then looking at them in the way Russia has fit them into their own system of government, it becomes apparent that Russia was never headed for a democracy at all. Instead Putin has taken the authoritarian ways that Russia has always known and put a new face called ‘democracy’ on them. Although these ‘new’ ways and new policies are disguised as democratic, there is nothing democratic about them at all. Putin is brilliant in the sense that he has figured out a way to manipulate the people into believing Russia is becoming democratic, but in reality, Russia never left an authoritarian system of government. Government, especially Putin, found a way to disguise their authoritarian power into this new way which includes freedom and choice, but in reality just means Putin’s choice and whatever freedom Putin decides the people should have, which in his case- is none.