Putin’s Russia Risks Fate of Mideast Regimes, Rights Group Says

Russia risks turning into an autocracy that resembles authoritarian regimes in the Middle East if Prime Minister Vladimir Putin prolongs his rule in 2012 elections, U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom House said.

“Another six years -- or more -- of Putinism beyond next year’s election would risk relegating Russia to the same category as that of many Middle Eastern states, where presidential tenure has been measured in decades rather than years,” Christopher Walker, director of studies at the Washington-based Freedom House, said in a report e-mailed today.

Putin, 58, who handed the presidency to his protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, 45, in 2008, to avoid violating a ban on more than two consecutive terms, has kept control as prime minister. He hasn’t ruled out running for president in March next year, which could give him a quarter-century in power under new six-year presidential mandates.

Russia is the world’s most corrupt major economy, according to Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index issued in October, sliding to 154th among 178 countries, alongside Tajikistan and Kenya.

“As venal Middle Eastern authoritarians give way to popular pressure for democratic change, Russia’s systemic corruption is becoming especially conspicuous,” Walker wrote in the report.

Saudi Example

Rising oil prices may prompt Putin to follow the example of Saudi Arabia, which is allocating funds to try and avert demands for political change, Freedom House said. That will only provoke more severe unrest in the future, according to the report.

Russia, along with other former Soviet nations, suffers from the same problems of poor governance and accumulation of economic power by political elites, Freedom House said.

Igor Yurgens, an adviser to Medvedev, said in January that Putin could trigger protests in Russia like those that toppled the leader of Tunisia if he seeks to return to the Kremlin. This was followed by the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February and violent unrest that have spread to Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria.

Freedom House highlighted the December conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former billionaire head of Yukos Oil Co., who was sentenced to another six years beyond his 8-year prison term for fraud.

Khodorkovsky has linked his imprisonment to his opposition to Putin, which the prime minister has denied. European governments and the U.S. criticized the verdict as a step back for judicial independence and Russia’s drive to attract investors.

Russia is the world’s 10th riskiest location for business to invest in, according to a survey of 196 nations by U.K risk- assessment company Maplecroft released in January. Maplecroft assesses factors including conflict, terrorism, the rule of law and the regulatory and business environment.

Link to article here.