THE RULE OF LAWLESSNESS

9. In his inauguration speech, Bush sweepingly declared that the United States would champion liberty and challenge repression in every corner of the globe. The speech placed Bush at loggerheads with Putin, who has dismantled many of Russia's democratic institutions and threatened private property rights. The U.S. and Russian leaders' differing approaches toward democracy reveal a profound values gap.

When they met in Santiago, Chile, last November, Putin lectured Bush about how Russia's history dictates that it adopt a limited form of democracy. In Bratislava, however, rather than debating various styles of democracy, Bush emphasized universal principles, including a free press, protection of minority rights, political opposition and, most importantly, the rule of law, which is a crucial guarantee of private property and individual liberty. In turn, Putin changed his tune and acknowledged that democracy should indeed follow certain fundamental principles.

Private ownership and property rights, two of the fundamental elements of democracy, have a short history in Russia. Without long­standing traditions to counterbalance it, Putin's authoritarian model enables officials to easily manipulate state institutions and laws, diminishing individual freedom from government interference. As a result, Russian citizens reportedly pay more than $30 billion per year in bribes to secure business licenses, avoid taxes, win court cases and gain access to medical treatment, education, housing and transportation. Official corruption has become a socially accepted norm that inhibits the growth of civil society.

To establish the rule of law in Russia would require the government to completely change its course. Yet it seems intent on doing just the opposite. The Kremlin used purportedly independent legal institutions to renationalize Russia's largest private oil company, Yukos. But Yukos is not an isolated incident. Nor is it the most important. From the beginning of Putin's presidency, the Kremlin has used government institutions in the name of vaguely defined state interests to take private property from Russian small businesses and foreign investors who are adding value to the economy. To disguise this creeping expropriation, the Putin administration has created a dependent judiciary. As a result, Russia lacks several fundamental building blocks of a market economy, the freedom to engage in commerce based on an enforceable contract and guarantees of private property. (The Moscow Times, by Matthew H. Murray, February 28, 2005)

^[1] русс, фонд «ARC—благотворительность»

^[2] Castro Street is the heart of San Francisco's Gay District