yeltsin and gorbachev defend russian democracy

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on monday, russian president vladimir putin said the country needed a government with "a single integrated organism with a clear structure of subordination." hm ... sounds very familiar. anyone for the soviet union, circa 1980? opposition leader grigory yavlinsky says the "reforms" (aka: power grab), will lead to critical decisions being decided by "one man in one room," according to an opinion piece by wall street journal europe editor matthew kaminski today (sept 17). putin says a stronger central government is needed to fight terrorists in chechnia. apparently, he believes provincial governors being directly elected somehow aids terrorists. whatever. in recent interviews with mosnews, former leaders gorbachev and yeltsin warn against backsliding on democracy. (see article below.) all this as chinese president hu j1ntao says western-style political systems will lead china down a "blind alley." actually, i think staying away from government transparency and accountability is guaranteeing your populace will be politically blind. ts =========================== Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin Speak out Against Putin’s Reforms Created: 16.09.2004 23:59 MSK MosNews The Soviet Union’s last president Mikhail Gorbachev and Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin expressed criticism regarding Vladimir Putin’s proposed reforms of Russia’s electoral system. The statements by Yeltsin and Gorbachev were made in exclusive interviews to Moskovskie Novosti (The Moscow News) weekly, and will be published in the paper’s Friday issue. MosNews, which is a partner publication of Moskovskie Novosti, posted a full translation of both statements on our website on Thursday. Our common goal is to do everything possible to make sure that bills, which, in essence, mean a step back from democracy, don’t come into force as law. I hope that the politicians, voters, and the president himself keep the democratic freedoms that were so hard to obtain, — reads Mikhail Gorbachev’s statement. The Soviet Union’s last president, who ruled the country from 1985 to 1992, is convinced that Russian authorities “must search for political solutions, negotiate with the middle-of-the-road militants, separating them from the unappeasable extremists”. His successor Boris Yeltsin, whose second presidential term ended on December 31, 1999, with a surprise announcement of his voluntary resignation (Vladimir Putin was named acting president for three months before being elected in March 2000), called on the Kremlin to refrain from undermining the existing constitutional framework, despite the necessity of fighting terrorist threats. I firmly believe that the measures that the country’s leadership will undertake after Beslan will remain within the framework of democratic freedoms that have become Russia’s most valuable achievement over the past decade. We will not give up on the letter of the law, and most importantly, the spirit of the Constitution our country voted for at the public referendum in 1993. If only because the stifling of freedom and the curtailing of democratic rights is a victory by the terrorists. Only a democratic country can successfully resist terrorism and count on standing shoulder to shoulder with all of the world’s civilized countries, — Yeltsin says in his statement. Boris Yeltsin’s statement is viewed as a surprise move by many observers in Moscow. Unlike Mikhail Gorbachev, who is still active on Russian political scene, Yeltsin chose to refrain from public comments about Vladimir Putin’s politics after his retirement. Recently Boris Berezovsky, an exiled tycoon, renowned for his criticism of the Kremlin and Putin, published an open letter to Russia’s first president, urging him to speak up and reminding him of his responsibility for the establishment of Russian constitutional democracy. Yeltsin makes no mention of Berezovsky in his statement, but some observers are linking his decision to break his silence with the exiled oligarch’s request. http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/09/16/exleaders.shtml