Godfather:

Because Russia is becoming a key player once again in global geopolitics, the US and its European allies need to develop a clear-eyed vision of the new system Russian President Vladimir Putin is constructing. The conduct of Sunday’s parliamentary elections offers a clear and unpleasant indication of wh-ere Putin’s “sovereign dem-ocracy” is headed. The destination is not a revived version of Stalinist despotism. But neither is it a system that bears any resemblance to the liberal democracies.

Putin portrayed opposition as tools of Western secret services. He likened them to the democratic movements that won recent elections in Ukraine,

Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan — former Soviet Republics

that became independent after the Soviet Union’s demise in 1991. This was more than the sort of appeal to patriotism that conservative politicians commonly use in the West.

Then there is the question of Putin’s hold on power after he cedes the presidency next March to a successor. The picture that emerges is of a party-state in the political mold of the old communist system. A crucial difference is that Putin’s role will be to keep peace between the Kremlin factions who control not only the government but also Russia’s fabulously lucrative oil and natural-gas conglomerates. Pu-tin is shaping a Godfather-state in Russia. — The Boston Globe