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The Moscow Times reports more shockingly bad news for Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
In the most recent Global Peace Survey, Russia ranked a jaw-dropping #131 out of 140 countries under survey. Russia has the fifth-highest murder rate on the planet and is involved in turbulent military conflicts all across its southern border. It’s keeping company with Nigeria, North Korea, Columbia and Lebanon, not the other members of the G-8 democracy club.
Russia is shown above in the map colored blood red, with a “very low” score for peace (i.e., it has the lowest rating you can get).
Russophile propagandists will point out that the United States didn’t do so well either, coming in at #97 on the list and ending up in the “low” category. But that’s far better than Russia, and the United States is one of the freest countries in the world. So it’s natural that it would have less peace and order than a nation that is ruled as a dictatorship – and yet, where Russia is concerned at least, it doesn’t.
In other words, Russia offers its citizens the worst of all possible worlds. It deprives its people of all the benefits of a free society, yet it doesn’t compensate them by giving them the “peace and order” benefits of an authoritarian society.
And the Russian government’s response was entirely predictable. Think they might be concerned that Russia is in crisis and want to take action? Think again. The Moscow Times quoted Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a think tank that tracks security challenges and Russia’s arms trade: “There exists a huge number of misconceptions about Russia and other countries, and they are reflected here. There is no doubt that this ranking reflects an Anglo-Saxon outlook on things.”
In other words, it’s not Russia that has the problem, it’s the “Anglo-Saxons.” Never mind that the United States didn’t make the top 75 countries on the list, Russians are instantly sure that the only possible explanation for such results is a massive anti-Russian conspiracy.
This is exactly the way the old USSR used to react to bad news. Kill the messenger. That attitude prevented the USSR from reforming, and led to its collapse. It’s quite comical, in fact, to watch the Russophile propagandists try to decide whether they should attack America for coming in low on the list (but, uh-oh, that means the list is reliable, and Russia’s score is even lower!) or attack the list itself (thus exculpating America’s poor result). Or, it would be funny if it weren’t so very tragic. This too smacks of the bad old days of the USSR.
Can we expect anything different than the USSR’s fate from Vladimir Putin’s Russia if it acts the same way?
RSS 
United States is one of the freest countries in the world and Russia is an evil state. Oh! Kima is back with another sinister argument against Russia. but that is your opinion and mine goes exactly opposite to it. Russia is colored red in the map your post shows, no matter, you can paint it gray or green...your choice. but look at your country and it does nothing different. in the other part of the world, where it failed miserably and painted the soil red, but it's never US but someone else. isn't it. Just take the example of Blackwater episode in Iraq and that is enough how it is painting Iraq Red in cold blood.
and the world body is fearing the rise and wicked aggression of the American Fascism and russia with its allies are making efforts to prevent its spread. world has been dragged to a fearful brink of clashes and that seems inevitable while russia forming its alliance with china and Iran to start using oil and gas as a potential weapon.
The former USSR defeated Hitler’s fascism in the Great Patriotic War, the Russians now, with its newfound allies, can defeat American Fascism in this century. Hopefully this will be done through economic means. Any clash will be too violent at this moment.
And as far as the above survey is concerned, it hardly makes a difference as long as Russian ppl are happy and politicians are keeping their promises.
Kim i have a question. if Putin wants Russia to be as it was in the Soviet times and most Russians agree with him: what problem US or any other opposing country have? this is true that the life was certainly better for the common folks back in USSR days. why you want others to grow with the so called Western principles of freedom and democracy in their mind? we don't need that actually.
What makes you think the people of Russia are happy? They have the world’s fifth-highest murder rate and the average Russian man doesn’t live to see his 60th year of life. Would YOU be happy under those circumstances? I think not. Moreover, even if Germans were happy under Hitler while he was murdering the Jews, that wouldn’t mean it was a positive, constructive happiness. Your comments are full of ignorance and lacking in facts.
DENIS:
America’s score is much better than Russia’s no matter what you think of American freedom. American people live longer, earn more, and have a far higher standard of living. Russia is a dictatorship and ought to have one of the highest scores in the world for peace and order. Instead, it has one of the highest. That indicates total, absolute failure by the Putin government.
Truth hurts, doesn’t it? Sorry, dear. If you can’t handle the truth, don’t read this blog.
