Poo

I am at worst minarchist libertarian and at best an anarchist, so you'll understand that nothing I'm about to say implies any particular advocacy for Vladimir Putin's Russia. But you know, for most of human history and in most of the world today, people have lived and do live under some or other form of autocracy. Hell, we live under a form of autocracy--I don't think you can reasonably dispute that our country as currently constituted involves a quadrennial or octennial replacement of one dictator with another.

That's not really the point, though. The point is this broad notion, well reflected in the tone of the linked article, that "democracy" is necessarily good, regardless of its outcomes. Of course, Russian democracy under Uncle Boris wasn't pretty, unless you mean pretty awful. It was also questionably democratic in any event. You may recall that Uncle Boris was the one who sent in the tanks. This is not a minor procedural point. Now I, for one, would not want to live under the watchful eye of Czar Vladimir, but it remains unclear to me why either I or the average Russian should be so outraged or disquieted about the marked improvement in almost every aspect of his life.