I'm always suprised by how hard Freedom House grades Russia. They deserve a 4,4 or a 5,4 possibly I would hardly put them on the same level as Syria and Rwanda even if Putin is quite authoritarian. To put it into prospective Tajikistan has the same score and they haven't held an election since 1995. At least Russia goes through that formality and allows some opposition. They should be allowed to be a part of the partially free catagory not form a block with China and Syria.
I disagree. Russia does not tolerate dissent anymore.They have more than Tajikistan or Egypt. While the free press is reeling under Putin its not in the utter state of distress that it is in other nations with the same rating.
So was Yeltsin's. Puting was hand picked by Yeltsin in 2000 to be his successor. So it's not really a whole lot different than any other time in post-Soviet history.
True but the holding of elections with multiple candidates should at least merit them slightly higher than a 6, or 5. I'm not talking higher numbers but something in the partly free catagory.
True I wont fault you there.
Not really. Yeltsin was as authoritarian as Putin is, as we can see by his supressions during his first term, however by Yeltsin's second term his health was failing and his underlings were struggling to place themselves in the position to be Yeltsin's hand picked successor so he was not able to dominate the scene as much as Putin is. Yeltsin also had to deal with general discontent from the Russian people due to poor economic management whereas Russia under Putin has seen strong economic numbers stemming from high oil and natural gas prices.
