George W. Bush is Just as Much a Dictator as Vladimir Putin

Bush and Putin are alike in more ways than you might think.

Putin and Bush are both members of the Group of 8 industrialized nations. They economically dominate and influence the rest of the world. Russia is using its oil and gas holdings to bully the West-leaning republics of Ukraine and Georgia, while the U.S. intimidates other countries with its military and economic strength.

It would be bad manners for one of the Group of 8 to call another member a dictator, even if it is true. Yet, W. Europe is cringing that Russia’s turn to lead the Group of 8 has coincided with a tendency to disconnect gas service to those who oppose the Kremlin’s policies.

Do you think Putin is pursuing democracy in Russia, any more than Bush is in the U.S.? Our civil liberties under Bush have eroded, while the powers of the chief executive have increased. Our democratic freedoms are slipping away.

The situation in Russia is worse still. Recently, advocacy and human rights organizations have been forced to reregister in Russia and this jeopardizes their continued presence. The Kremlin has accused the British of spying and may have fabricated the evidence in order to stifle any criticism from outside groups.

Bush thought Putin had in mind to pursue ‘democratic’ reforms. He overlooked certain things about Putin’s behavior which would have told him otherwise. Neither Putin nor Bush wants what they say publicly because democractic freedom has been restricted in Russia and the United States.

Putin and Bush are obsessed with consolidating power with little oversight to diminish that role. While Bush serves as a mouthpiece for a multitude of corporations pursuing unlimited free-market deregulation, Putin consolidates power primarily in the Kremlin which he envisions to be Russia’s sole powerful corporation - Kremlin Inc.

Peas in a pod?

Bush has said several times during his political career, it would be so easy to govern in a dictatorship.

Through Cheney, there has been an expansion of Bush’s presidential powers: writing energy policy with oil execs, abrogating longstanding treaties, and using 9/11 as a pretext to go to war, decreasing American’s civil liberties, scrapping the Geneva conventions and spying on American citizens.

Putin has expanded the powers of the Kremlin by: making governors regionally appointed, rather than elected; taking state control of the media; issuing new rules restricting non-governmental organizations (charities), rigging elections; and curtailing the powers of any opposition parties. Putin has flexed his economic muscles to punish Ukraine and Georgia for pursuing Western reforms by inflating gas prices, and he has interfered in their democratic elections by sponsoring Kremlin-backed candidates. Putin has quadrupled the gas pricing to Ukraine and is rumored to be involved in the sabotage of both gas lines and power supply to Georgia. Putin meanwhile is blaming it on the terrorists from Chechnya. Putin misrepresents Chechnyans as followers of Al Qaida, when in fact the Chechnyans are radicals created by ethnic strife.

How do Putin and Bush compare as dictators?

The power of oligarchs plays a big role in the government of Putin and Bush. Putin, like Bush was brought to power by the oil barons. Unfortunately, in Putin’s case, he decided that he didn’t need them to tell him how to run the Kremlin. Mikhail Khodorofsky, Russian’s wealthiest man, has been sentenced to hard labor for getting too involved in politics. Loyalty is very important to Putin and to Bush, whereas competence is incidental.

Both are first term War presidents, who label all dissidents as terrorists and rein in civil liberties under the guise of reducing the terrorist threat. Bush’s war is with Iraq and Putin’s with Chechnya. War is a means to combat terrorism at home; however, it is the terrorism that grows worse from their war. Putin claims that the Chechnyans have recruited Al-Qaeda to help with its war. But the history of the Chechnyan war goes back hundreds of years to Peter the Great and involves years of ethnic strife.

Putin decided to institute discipline in Russian society by using a system known as the vertical of power – a single chain of command with himself at the top. This system abhors competing power centers, whether parliament, media, regional governors, courts, opposition parties, or non-governmental organizations. Putin wasted no time setting into motion a plan to eliminate rival influences. Bush chose the ‘unitary executive’ theory to allow himself greater control.

As Alexei Bayer writes in his recent article, George and Vladimir Yawn at Democracy, featured in the Moscow Times,

“In 2001 when Bush got a sense of Vladimir Putin's soul by looking "the man in the eye," it rang strangely true. There actually are close parallels between the men who, at the start of the new millennium, stumbled upon the presidencies of the two former Cold War rivals.”