Russian journalist Julia Latynina writes in Washington Post:
The right to commit crime has become part of official privilege. If the victim doesn’t raise a fuss, no one is punished. If the victim appeals to the public, he or she is harshly punished. The very fact of appealing to the public is perceived as a challenge to the regime. But who laid down these rules of the game? Who never punishes his friends? Putin.
Latynina forgets that Russia is a democracy which is undergoing strong development where old structures are being replaced by new ones. Rather than dismissing the Russian democracy and placing it on a countdown to Mars, it should be taken to account.
There is reason to believe in the Russian democracy. There is far more hope for Russian democracy than the Chinese. There are differences between a slow, steady democratic development and a fast market economy with limited democratic rights and freedom.
There are differences in the color red.
