Putin Wins Russia's Presidential Election – 2012

[FagunerAgun]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin claimed victory in Russia's presidential election on Sunday, with tears rolling down his cheeks at a victory rally attended by tens of thousands of supporters in central Moscow.

"I promised you we would win. We have won. Glory to Russia," Putin told the rally close to the walls of the Kremlin. "We won in an open and fair struggle."
Putin said the Russian people had clearly rejected the attempts of unidentified enemies to "destroy Russia's statehood and usurp power."

"The Russian people have shown today that such scenarios will not succeed in our land," said Putin, flanked by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev. "They shall not pass!"

Courtesy: Yahoo.com

Putin's re-election is good for Syria and Iran but a political set-back for the West. Last week, he clearly warned against military intervention in Syria or an attack on Iran in scathing criticism of the West on Monday as he laid out his foreign policy priorities less than a week before Russia's presidential election.

Putin said the West had backed the Arab Spring to advance its interests in the region, and that instead of promoting democracy the revolts had given rise to religious extremism.

Putin defended the Russia-China decision earlier this month to veto a United Nations resolution condemning Syrian President Bashar Assad's crackdown on protests, saying that Moscow wouldn't allow a replay of what happened in Libya, where NATO airstrikes helped Libya's rebels oust Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

[zsayeed]

balance of power and thought in the world

[FagunerAgun]

Originally Posted by zsayeed
balance of power and thought in the world

Good point zsayeed bhai.

Even though Cold War is over, the geopolitical, political, inter-relational symptoms of Cold War era still persist significantly in the detente between the West and Russia, one of those symptoms is mistrust.

The deep-rooted ideological, economic and political differences between the United States and Russia are occasionally intensified as a result of their mutual suspicions immediately after the Second World War.

That mistrust is even intensified by Israel as a long-term catalyst in the relations between the two camps. Israel is ready to strike Iran and the blame of this attack will first hit USA and her allies. May be time has come for Russia to stand up on her feet again and roar like a polar bear of the past. Barack Obama is not Ronald Raegan and Putin is not Gorbachev - Obama can't create another Cruise Missile like crisis in Europe to scare, bend and break Russia.

I firmly think stormy days lie ahead for US-Russia relations. Progress on issues like missile defence and NATO-Russia relations could suffer serious setbacks if the Syria and Iran crises deteriorate further because the Russian leadership will not significantly change as the West expected for a long time; the reason of the disappointment of the West is the election win of Putin's party in the Presidential election of Russia – a bigger hardline strategist in the continuum of the balance of power.

Plus the current US economic and financial turbulence reminds us of those of former USSR of 1991. Russia is in a better position at the moment to bargain, negotiate and play hardline with the West.

[zsayeed]

Good thoughts Fagun Bhai - astute and perspicacious!
God forbid the whole world starts thinking alike. You need competition in everything - that is progress. No one person should have the final say. No one institution either - that is why US has 3 branches and UK has the bicameral system. Checks and balances.

We have seen how volatile situations create group-think - the thought process shuts down. What has been done in Iraq was a result of group-think - and nothing good is yet to be seen out of there. The group think was so far fetched that even the great nation across the pond chimed in as well. What was the world thinking! And still is.

God forbid the day when all the world think alike.

[FagunerAgun]

Originally Posted by zsayeed
Good thoughts Fagun Bhai - astute and perspicacious!
God forbid the whole world starts thinking alike. You need competition in everything - that is progress. No one person should have the final say. No one institution either - that is why US has 3 branches and UK has the bicameral system. Checks and balances.

We have seen how volatile situations create group-think - the thought process shuts down. What has been done in Iraq was a result of group-think - and nothing good is yet to be seen out of there. The group think was so far fetched that even the great nation across the pond chimed in as well. What was the world thinking! And still is.

God forbid the day when all the world think alike.

a short and cute analysis that woke me up.

I think you mean groupthink - a groupthink model – a quantitative study in Cold War - the hypothesis of this model was being built over the 19 crises during the Cold War. In turn, this groupthink was a direct political and diplomatic outcome when in 1947, Harry Truman declared NATO Pact – which immediately gave rise of WARSAW Pact.

The groupthink model was based on the fear of communism and imperialism along with deep mistrust. This groupthink strengthened both groups but persisted in the world with mounting tension and uncertainty with a threat of another deadly war.

The core assertion that the existence of certain antecedent conditions within the groups of decision makers resulted in defective decision-making process, which in turn, are linked to poor policy outcomes, often fell short to face a rational and peaceful outcome of the crises, furthermore, escalated to war and bloodshed.

Thus most of the political decisions are the product of a collective effort of these groups that the world helplessly observed in Iraq War, Vietnam War, and Afghan War etc.

The fear of NATO was communism until 1991. After the collapse of USSR, the fear of communism was considerably getting weak and weak, and then at last, it turned to be Islam phobia.

The only benificiary of this faulty but effective in some ways groupthink model is Israel for her existens and expansion. Her illegal expansionism is already mixed up with the Islam phobia - a ghost much smaller in real life than it is portrayed by the groupthink.

***zsayeed bhai, I tried to sharpen my dusty/rusty IR knowledge. Any opportunities for growth will be appreciated than depreciated. pock pock .

[zsayeed]

^ nice post FA Bhai. Groupthink is what I meant. It has not worked. The Bay of Pigs was the first dire debacle. And in 2001-2006 with majorities in House, Senate and Executive branches it went rampant with dire world situation.

Groupthink does not work, it is a fallacious precedent to dire actions.
For example take the WIKI analysis
High group cohesiveness

Structural faults:
insulation of the group
lack of impartial leadership
lack of norms requiring methodological procedures
homogeneity of members' social backgrounds and ideology

Situational context:

highly stressful external threats
recent failures
excessive difficulties on the decision-making task
moral dilemmas

It is what in genetics would be referred to as in-breeding. And with sufficinet in-breeding the outcome will be deformed - as with so called 'moral' decisions that have been taken in very recent history. It is an Achilles Heel in the so called world of checks and balances, there were no checks neither balance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink#Causes

You are far too modest, it is clear from your writings you are much more well versed in IR and have good handle on analysis of IR.

[Nadim]

Good for him and Russia. congrats

[PoorFan]

Every other opponent of Putin got hardly single digit percentage of votes, which means without him Russia would be in another mess like days after Gorbachev. Though we hear there was vote rigging as well as strong opponent were barred from election, anyone knows bit in detail on this regard will be nice to know.

From Russia's perspective I think he is the one who brought back strong Russia in the world, her economy and her presence in international affairs. But huge corruption in the govt. and killed/missing journalists who criticize his policy and him is a big big concern. And if he stay in power for next 12 years ... I am not sure which way Russia will end up, good or bad, at the moment though, it seems he is the best choice.

[zsayeed]

Does BC have no members in Russia?

[FagunerAgun]

Originally Posted by zsayeed
Does BC have no members in Russia?

Too cold up there. Few thousand Bangladeshis are only in Moscow.

[FagunerAgun]

Originally Posted by PoorFan
Every other opponent of Putin got hardly single digit percentage of votes, which means without him Russia would be in another mess like days after Gorbachev. Though we hear there was vote rigging as well as strong opponent were barred from election, anyone knows bit in detail on this regard will be nice to know.

From Russia's perspective I think he is the one who brought back strong Russia in the world, her economy and her presence in international affairs. But huge corruption in the govt. and killed/missing journalists who criticize his policy and him is a big big concern. And if he stay in power for next 12 years ... I am not sure which way Russia will end up, good or bad, at the moment though, it seems he is the best choice.

Agreed.

In internal affairs, Russia is still a very volatile country and I don't expect any paradigm change in the offing.

But in international affairs, and in detente in the continuum of balance of power to regain her fair share in world power, dominance and resources like the past, Russia under Putin's leadership has been getting strong and stronger.

[FagunerAgun]

Originally Posted by zsayeed
^ nice post FA Bhai. Groupthink is what I meant. It has not worked. The Bay of Pigs was the first dire debacle. And in 2001-2006 with majorities in House, Senate and Executive branches it went rampant with dire world situation.

Groupthink does not work, it is a fallacious precedent to dire actions.
For example take the WIKI analysis
High group cohesiveness

Structural faults:
insulation of the group
lack of impartial leadership
lack of norms requiring methodological procedures
homogeneity of members' social backgrounds and ideology

Situational context:

highly stressful external threats
recent failures
excessive difficulties on the decision-making task
moral dilemmas

It is what in genetics would be referred to as in-breeding. And with sufficinet in-breeding the outcome will be deformed - as with so called 'moral' decisions that have been taken in very recent history. It is an Achilles Heel in the so called world of checks and balances, there were no checks neither balance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink#Causes

You are far too modest, it is clear from your writings you are much more well versed in IR and have good handle on analysis of IR.

Wow! Another critical analysis on groupthink from a thinktank. Seems to me IR was your major.

zsayeed bhai, the bigger the failure of this poorly-designed groupthink is, the better it is convincingly and surely for Israel and the worse for the rest of the ME politically and diplomatically, because even though this under-whelming model did not work well for the West undoubtedly, however, some significant and lingering traits of this anecdotal model still exist exceedingly in the group in well-concocted polarisation and foresighted objective and strategic decision making for global dominance, power and resource-grab while carefully and simultaniously maintaining the most coveted and well-designed interest of Israel under the ghostly camouflage of over-whelming portrayal, by the groupthink, of 'apparently deadly' Islam Phobia.

[BANFAN]

Congrats Putin, although it was known given his popularity in Russia. I'm not talking from the media but through my personal feelings after visiting Russia several times and from the feed back of many common russians that I'm in contact with. I love him as a leader. He is the best president of Russia in post soviet era. He has resurrected Russia from garbage of Yeltsin. He is also good for the world, or the crazy war mongering western neo nazi colonialists will ruin the world. Russia is not as aggressive as soviet union to be able to stop all the western aggressions, but his approach will keep things in certain limits/control.

[FagunerAgun]

BANFAN, thanks for this post. It makes us understand the role of the media in the West. I hope Putin will resurrect the economy and play a greater and bolder role in the balance of power.

[bujhee kom]

A big congrats to Vladimir Putin....I admire Putin and I have the greatest of respect for this man, leader! Salute...although their is some corruption, man-handling with ballots here and there during this election, I know he still deservingly (spell+!) won this election....May Putin bring glory to the great nation of Russia, I would go to a rally to support him and take his leadership and call him my boss any day! Russia and the Russian people are extremly rich in history, art, understanding of life, literature, music and all the other things that a human being needs beyond technology, arms and science! This rich nation can only be better under such good leadership! All the best to President Putin and Russia!


Regarding Russian action/mistreatment, massacre, organized rape of the Chechen people, the Georgian muslims by the russian forces/troops....I understand nobody wants to give away their province, land, people, nobody wants to let another destroy theri united federation and a greater country, but I hope and pray that President Putin would be kind, humane and more tolerate toward the Chechen people's cry and try to understand them, help them, co-operate with them, not just systemically destroy them, it is Russia's duty, responsibilty to act humane and understand the pain of the Chechen people if she wants to maintain this whiole federation a united org. I do denounce a specific Chechen seperetist Terrorist groups taking hostage and later killing of 100+ russian school children, I despise this cowardly utterly blinded hateful act....things like these will only hurt the Chechen people and her cause!

[cricheart]

Whatevr...
President -> Prime Minster -> President
Seems they are passing "Yes-No vote" era ..