Who says that is the question, MSNBC?DrYouth wrote:The question is whether Russians will follow the modern western model of a sovereign accountable to the rule of law, return to the model of sovereign as deity...Smitty-48 wrote:Well, as I say, they rule by paranoia, not just the Bolsheviks, the Czars before them, this is why I say the Moscovy Russians are as Western as apple pie and baseball, they're Slavic, but they're Holy Roman Slavs, under the Double Headed Eagle, the two heads originally representing Rome and Constantinople, the Russian intrigues are the closest thing we have to the Roman world now.
The Czarist empire may have extended into the East, but St. Petersburg is in the West.
The jury is still out... it could roll either way.
Investors are betting on property rights and stable markets... and for that rule of law is needed... to some degree anyways.
If the oligarch in chief gets too greedy... the goose will stop laying... but the other oligarchs will likely stop him from doing so...
If business continues to grow the middle class will become more empowered and the potential for increased accountability is there... that is the western secret sauce... but there are many hurdles to cross and the possibility of military coup and oligarch power grabs loom in the interim.
Fascism is as Modern and Western as apple pie and baseball, and it can be extremely profitable too.
Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, all Modern and Western last time I checked.
Franco ruled until 1975, I don't recall the sky falling.
