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MundoAméricaEuropa, ,

When an airplane owned by Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin plummeted in a fiery crash northwest of Moscow last week, observers in Russia and around the world immediately recalled two indisputable facts. First, that Prigozhin had openly challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin, and second, that countless others who had defied Putin have met untimely, violent deaths.

In the quest to understand what happened, one other fact was clear: The Kremlin was not the place to seek straightforward, credible answers. The Kremlin’s word is, shall we say, not a good source for independent, reliable truth.

In fact, when Putin’s spokesman dismissed claims that the state had Prigozhin killed as an “absolute lie”, it seemed a pro forma statement, one we’ve heard before as Putin’s critics, one after the other, meet macabre endings.…  Seguir leyendo »

Don’t Count the Dictators Out

MundoAsiaEuropaInternacionalOrden MundialMundoOriente Próximo, , ,

Two thousand twenty-two was not a good year for the world’s leading autocracies. In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping confronted the largest antigovernment demonstrations since the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989. Provoked by Beijing’s stringent “zero COVID” policies, protesters across the country made overtly political demands, calling for Xi’s resignation and an end to one-man rule. These protests erupted just when the Chinese economy was experiencing its lowest growth rate since 1976. The government responded by suddenly abandoning its zero-COVID program—a signature Xi policy—and letting the virus spread rapidly through the population. The reversal, and the estimated one million deaths that followed it, further eroded public trust in the regime.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden MundialEuropaUnión Europea, , ,

En este mes hace veinticuatro años que los intransigentes soviéticos, deseosos de detener la naciente transición democrática del país, detuvieron a Mijail Gorbachev y declararon la ley marcial. Millones de manifestantes reaccionaron invadiendo las calles de Moscú y otras ciudades de toda la Unión Soviética. Elementos decisivos del Ejército se negaron a aceptar el golpe y éste no tardó en desplomarse, seguido pronto por la Unión Soviética.

Aunque las condiciones económicas eran terribles en los últimos meses de la URSS, la población veía las libertades que estaban llegando y, a diferencia de lo que sucede actualmente, estaba dispuesta a defenderlas. De hecho, en los primeros años de la transición democrática que siguieron, la mayoría de los votantes poscomunistas no sucumbieron a la tentación de elegir a extremistas que prometían poner fin a los tiempos difíciles que estaban padeciendo, sino que eligieron al candidato más idóneo a su alcance.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, ,  

German leader Adolf Hitler and Soviet leader Josef Stalin were ruthless dictators who committed murder on a vast scale. But while it is impossible to imagine a Hitler statue in Berlin, or anywhere else in Germany, statues of Stalin have been restored in towns across Georgia (his birthplace), and another is to be erected in Moscow as part of a commemoration of all Soviet leaders.

The difference in attitude extends beyond the borders of the countries over which these men ruled. In the United States, there is a bust of Stalin at the National D-Day Memorial in Virginia.

In New York, I recently dined at a Russian restaurant that featured Soviet paraphernalia, waitresses in Soviet uniforms, and a painting of Soviet leaders in which Stalin was prominent.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, ,  

Hitler y Stalin fueron dictadores despiadados que cometieron asesinatos en una inmensa escala, pero, si bien es imposible imaginar una estatua de Hitler en Berlín o en cualquier otro sitio de Alemania, se han vuelto a instalar estatuas de Stalin  en ciudades de Georgia (su lugar de nacimiento) y se va erigir otra en Moscú con motivo de una conmemoración de todos los dirigentes soviéticos.

La diferencia de actitud se extiende allende las fronteras de los países en que esos hombres gobernaron. En los Estados Unidos, hay un  busto de Stalin en el monumento nacional al Día D en Virginia. En Nueva York, cené recientemente en un restaurante ruso en el que se exhibía simbología soviética: camareras con uniformes soviéticos y un cuadro de dirigentes soviéticos en el que Stalin ocupaba una posición destacada.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesTestimonios,

Josef Stalin died 60 years ago. Few people marked the passing of one of history’s greatest mass murderers.

Stalin was born in 1878 in Georgia, a province of Imperial Russia. Although he attended Orthodox seminary he did not inherit his mother’s religious faith. By his early 20s he was a Bolshevik agitator.

In 1922 he was chosen party General Secretary, originally a position of little power. Vladimir Lenin’s death in 1924 triggered a complicated power struggle. Stalin demonstrated political genius and by 1928 was in full control.

The following decade he inaugurated the Great Terror, imprisoning and killing millions. Several leading Bolsheviks were executed after infamous show trials.…  Seguir leyendo »