Success of Putin and a lesson from Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin's party has won a landslide election victory, official results show. With nearly all ballots counted, his United Russia had 64.1% of the vote while the Communist Party only having 11.6% of the vote. This is clear sign of enormous support of Russian people on their national leader. Mr Putin is constitutionally obliged to stand down after his second term as president ends in March next year. Mr Putin announced earlier this year that he may seek the office of prime minister after his presidential term ends.

Putin entered into Russian politics by the time it was in the misery of poverty under political clownship under Gorbachev and Yeltsin, despite all the pledges from the west for new Russia. Territorial integrity of Russia has been under sever threats with Chechniyan war had been branded by west as another ‘miserable war’, ‘a war that can never be won’, etc. With weak leadership that has been dancing to the tune of West, large part of people was forced to have the same negative view as well.

It all has changed and Russia is now marching towards its supremacy again. However, this time it is not under old communist Russia, but new patriotic and national Russia which is stronger than ever.

There are many lessons to learn for Sri Lankan people from the contemporary Russian politics and there are some interesting parallels. Though we are a tiny emerald island in the Indian ocean, Sri Lankan people has great history and dignity as Russians!

Early Days of Putin
Vladimir Putin graduated from the International Branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad State University in 1975 and was recruited into the KGB. At the University he also became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and has never formally resigned from it.

Vladimir Putin was appointed one of three First Deputy Prime Ministers, which enabled him later on that day to be appointed acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by President Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin's main opponents and would-be successors, Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov and former Chairman of the Russian Government Yevgeniy Primakov, were already campaigning to replace the ailing president, and they fought hard to prevent Putin's emergence as a potential successor. Putin's law-and-order image and his unrelenting approach to the renewed crisis in Chechnya soon combined to raise his popularity and allowed him to overtake all rivals.

Both in Russia and abroad, Putin's public image was forged by his tough handling of the war. On assuming the role of acting President on December 31, 1999, Putin went on a previously scheduled visit to Russian troops in Chechnya.

First Chechen War
The First Chechen War was fought between Russia and Chechnya from 1994 to 1996 and weak political leadership under Boris Yeltsin resulted in Chechnya's de facto independence from Russia. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to control the mountainous area of Chechnya but were set back by Chechen guerrilla warfare and raids on the flatlands (including mass hostage takings beyond Chechnya) in spite of Russia's overwhelming manpower, weaponry, and air support. The resulting widespread demoralization of federal forces, and the almost universal opposition of the Russian public to the conflict, led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later. The conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen separatists remained unresolved; in 1999 it resumed in the form of the Second Chechen War.

Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War is a military campaign conducted by Russia starting August 26, 1999, in which Russian forces largely recaptured the separatist region of Chechnya. The Second Chechen War was started in retaliation for the Dagestan War and Russian apartment bombings. In late August and September 1999, Russia mounted a massive air campaign over Chechnya, with the stated aim of wiping out militants who invaded Dagestan the previous month. The Chechen conflict entered a new phase on October 1, 1999, when Russia's new Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that Russian troops would initiate a land invasion.

During the initial campaign, Russian military and pro-Russian Chechen paramilitary faced Chechen separatists in open combat, but eventually seized the Chechen capital of Grozny in February 2000 after a winter siege. After the full-scale offensive, Chechen guerrilla resistance throughout the North Caucasus region continued to inflict heavy Russian casualties and challenge Russian political control over Chechnya for several more years. Chechen separatists also carried out attacks against civilians in Russia, such as notably taking hostages inside a Moscow theater in 2002 and later doing so in a school in Beslan, North Ossetia in 2004.

In 2003, a referendum was held in Chechnya adopting a new constitution which declares the Republic as a part of Russia. The situation has been gradually stabilized with the parliamentary elections and the establishment of a regional government.

The Russians have succeeded in installing a pro-Moscow Chechen regime, composed of the former separatists, and eliminating most of the more prominent Chechen separatist leaders, including former president Aslan Maskhadov and leading warlord Shamil Basayev.

Second term
On March 14, 2004, Putin was re-elected to the presidency for a second term, earning 71 percent of the vote. A significant amount of Putin's second term has been focusing on domestic issues. According to various Russian and western media reports, Putin is extremely concerned about the ongoing demographic problems, such as the death rate being higher than the birth rate, cyclical poverty, and housing concerns within the Russian Federation. In his May 2006 annual speech, Putin proposed increasing maternity benefits and prenatal care for women. Putin has also been quite strident about the need to reform the judiciary.

In recent years, the political philosophy of Putin's administration has been described as "sovereign democracy". The political term recently gained wide acceptance within Russia itself and unified various political elites around it. According to its supporters, Presidential policies must above all be supported by a popular majority in Russia itself and not be determined from outside the country; such popular support constitutes the founding principle of a democratic society.

Domestic support and foreign criticism
Despite widespread public support in Russia, Putin has many critics. Reforms made under Putin’s rule have been criticized by independent Russian media outlets and many American commentators as antidemocratic.

During the term, Putin has been widely criticized in the West for what many observers consider a wide-scale crackdown on media freedoms. At the same time, according to 2005 research by VCIOM, the share of Russians approving censorship on TV has grown in a year from 63% to 82%. According to public opinion surveys conducted by Levada Center, Putin's approval rating was 81% in June 2007, and the highest of any leader in the world

Current state
Russian President Vladimir Putin's party has won a landslide election victory again and people of Russia have approved strong national leadership of United Russia Party. It was once ‘misssarable war of chechniya’ under feeble political clowns. There was a time when so called Russian leaders going after Western leaders to beg money. It has all changed now and it all needed strong determination and will power of people and great leadership from true born leader. The lesson for us is that whatever the political or economic view, the personality and strong bond of the leader to the people of the country play big part in success of the country.

(http://lankarising.blogspot.com)