[LINK] A Russian coup?
Mar. 3rd, 2009 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldVia Itching for Eestimaa, I've been pointed to a post in the Stanford Review's Bellum, "Russian Elections: The Latin American Model" that suggests that the biggest threat to the Putin-Medvedev regime isn't going to be popular disaffection--their political vehicle, United Russia, was popular in the recent elections--but rather from the military.
Thoughts? The impression I've had of the Russian military is that it's relatively depoliticized and too fragmented and demoralized to serve as an alternative power centre, but I'm not a Eurasianist, never mind a Latin Americanist.
Everybody with power is trying to steal as much as fast as they can. The real danger to the regime is a coup by the captains and majors who do the grunt work of running the state and don’t have enough hard currency to go into exile. This was the pattern of Latin American regime change circa 1970 and stands as the best historical analogy to present-day Russia.
Thoughts? The impression I've had of the Russian military is that it's relatively depoliticized and too fragmented and demoralized to serve as an alternative power centre, but I'm not a Eurasianist, never mind a Latin Americanist.
