If you passed the Russian House within the past week on TalbotAvenue, you probably noticed a large banner with a combination ofEnglish and Russian words on it.
The banner excitedly announced a countdown to Russian PresidentVladimir Putin's birthday. You also might have noticed numerousflyers around campus with the words "Celebration of the Year,"again regarding Putin's birthday.
Given how Russia is now headed towards a creepy, Czar-likeauthoritarian statehood, I was absolutely shocked and dumbfoundedthat such a celebration was occurring at Tufts.
Since President Putin took office in 2000, he has passed andproposed major reforms to the Russian political system thatcompletely undermine the development of democracy in his country.Currently, most of Russia's new channels are government controlledby the Kremlin, and newspapers must cope daily with heavygovernment influence. Following the Chechen terrorist attacks on aMoscow theater in 2002, Putin passed a bill that restrictedjournalists' access to terrorist attack sites. The Kremlin was notpleased that journalists had revealed that in fact, the deaths ofover 100 hostages were because of the gas used by Russian policeand not because of the gunshots of terrorists, as the originalreport had claimed.
But most importantly, in response to the tragedy at a school inBeslan in which over 300 people died, Putin has proposed strikingchanges to the process in which regional governors are elected.Currently, these leaders are elected by the local population; underPutin's proposal, the governors will be proposed by the Kremlin andthen elected by local parliaments. As a result of these reforms,Putin has established significant central governmental control overhis country, much to the dismay of President Bush and other Westernleaders.
So with the progression of democracy seemingly stunted andreversed in Russia, I couldn't believe that Tufts students werecalling his birthday "The Celebration of the Year." But then Iremembered how Putin's birthday celebration took place throughoutRussia, as news channels broadcasted his biography and Russianstook shots of vodka in honor of their President. It is part ofRussian culture to idolize or even deify their national leader nomatter what the man does. Stalin, Brezhnev, and Khrushchev allreceived lavish birthday celebrations even though each wasresponsible for millions of deaths. Granted, Russians wereessentially forced to celebrate the birthdays of these past Sovietleaders, but almost 14 years after the fall of the Soviet Union,Russians still display the same habits as their parents andgrandparents.
Though there is dissent within the Russian population concerningPutin's reforms (even former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev andRussian President Boris Yeltsin have criticized Putin's electoralsystem proposals), there are disconcerting implications concerningthe direction that Russia is heading . As the United States isfighting to spread democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, the largestnation in the world geographically does not seem to be embracing atrue representative democracy as the ideal system of government.Will Putin's reforms, if passed by the Duma, Russia's parliament,undermine America's fight to spread democracy throughout the world?If the majority of Russia's population favors Putin's reforms or atleast does not protest them, will the United States continuecriticizing Putin for his reforms or even threaten the country withsanctions?
As a result of these pressing questions, the next president ofthe United States will be faced with another difficult and crucialforeign policy decision of how to approach relations with Russia.Yet regardless of what happens in the future concerning the stateof democracy in Russia, it seems apparent that people in Russia,and students at Tufts, will celebrate Putin's birthday for years tocome.
Stephan Vitvitsky is a junior majoring in political scienceand economics. He can be reached via e-mail atstephan.vitvitsky@tufts.edu.
