Putin on the fritz.Russia watchers remember the late 1980s and early '90s as a time when tyrannies toppled and the archetypal ar·che·type n. 1. An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype: "'Frankenstein' . . . 'Dracula' . . . 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' . . . Evil Empire was dissolved dis·solve v. dis·solved, dis·solv·ing, dis·solves v.tr. 1. To cause to pass into solution: dissolve salt in water. 2. . The intervening years, alas, have shown that building a free country is more than a matter of switching flags and ordering new stationery The term for boilerplate in the Eudora mail client, starting with Version 3.0. Stationery files are stored on disk and brought into new messages or added to replies. See boilerplate. : The latest survey from the watchdog group Freedom House downgraded Russia from "partly free" to "not free." The country has fallen to its 1988 level, now sharing a "political freedom" rating with Iran and Lebanon and a "civil liberties" rating with Egypt, Qatar, and Chad. Much of the blame lies with President Vladimir Putin, whose penchant for "managed democracy" has manifested itself in stronger state control of the press and the cancellation of regional elections. But it's worth noting that the decline into unfreedom from a post-Soviet plateau begins in the late '90s, before Putin took office. The president is not the only problem in Russia, and the country's slide into authoritarianism authoritarianism Principle of unqualified submission to authority, as opposed to individual freedom of thought and action. As a political system, authoritarianism is antidemocratic in that political power is concentrated in a leader or small elite not constitutionally could outlive out·live tr.v. out·lived, out·liv·ing, out·lives 1. To live longer than: She outlived her son. 2. his departure. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] |
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