A strong Putin has meant a weak Russia. Trump’s America would be no different.
By Scott Gilmore SEPTEMBER 24, 2016
Donald Trump is a self-professed admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership. He and his more incredulous supporters will likely see this week’s Russian election as further proof that Putin is a “strong” leader. But a strong Putin has meant a weak Russia, and its worth considering what this means for a Trump presidency.
The vote in Russia went badly, as they do. Putin parliamentary allies won easily, as was expected. And, as was expected, evidence of widespread voter fraud emerged immediately. There was footage from surveillance cameras showing election workers literally stuffing ballot boxes. Western journalists observed specific polling stations and reported official vote counts far higher than the actual number of voters who showed up.
According to the Moscow Times, statistical analysis of results show that up to half of the votes for United Russia, Putin’s ruling party, may be fraudulent. And the Russian physicist Sergey Shpilkin compared the distribution of votes cast to a normal bell curve and concluded that the real voter turnout was probably just 37 percent, implying more than a quarter of all votes counted were never actually cast.
Russia has never been considered a bastion of law and order, but in the past decade under Putin, corruption has flourished. But don’t take my word for it, ask the Russians. Transparency International surveys show that 79 percent of Russians believe it is a serious problem. A startling 85 percent of Russians believe that “government is run by a few big entities acting in their own interest.” The percent who believe the court system is corrupt? 84 percent. The police? 89 percent. Politicians and public officials? 92 percent.
In January of this year, senior US Treasury officials went on the record stating that Putin himself was corrupt and that the US government had known that for years. Adam Szubin, the Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, stated: “We’ve seen him enriching his friends, his close allies, and marginalizing those who he doesn’t view as friends using state assets.” (One is reminded of the fact Trump used 9/11 recovery funds for his own benefit.)
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/09/23/strong-putin-has-meant-weak-russia-trump-america-would-different/IDtkuL9nGHcwOl1vNatZtK/story.html
