Friday, November 07, 2003 :::
 
Who cares about Russian politics? Well, it was just 10 years ago that the Soviet Union collapsed, it was just 86 years ago that the Bolsheviks seized power in the 1917 Russian Revolution. And it's today, right now, that Russia's biggest billionaire was arrested for fake competition. Check it:

Few Russians paid much attention when the state offered part of a fertilizer company called Apatit for sale to private investors back in 1994. Few, that is, except the four bidders. According to authorities, they were all one and the same.

The idea, prosecutors allege, was to create a fake competition through front companies and then have three of the "rivals" back out, leaving only the low bidder to seize the prize at a bargain rate. The ruse worked, authorities say, and the winner then failed to put up the money it pledged and sold off the shares before the state could take them back.

So just a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall et al, the debate in Russia between capitalism (good!) and communism (bad!) is still going on. And 42% of Russkies still seem to consider themselves friendly to the Bolsheviks.

Another poll, coinciding with Friday's 86th anniversary of the revolution that brought Vladimir Lenin to power, found that 42 percent of Russians would support or cooperate with the Bolsheviks if the revolt happened today, compared to just 10 percent who said they would fight them. The anniversary these days is officially celebrated as the Day of Accord and Reconciliation.

What do we see here? As nice as it is that Bush, at the helm of the world's reigning superpower, seems to be working towards the huge philosophical goal of a "global democratic revolution" (see his recent speech), we still see instances of corruptive capitalism and popular support for communism. Perhaps we should do as the Daily Show suggests, and start building bombs that can destroy ideas.

::: posted by Andrewski at 9:10 PM