– Russia’s former finance chief attacks Kremlin over fake democracy (Telegraph, Sep. 27, 2011):
Russia’s ex-finance minister dealt a fresh blow to the Kremlin on Tuesday, disclosing that it had asked him to lead a fake political party but that he had refused to take part in the deception.
Firing a parting shot at the Kremlin a day after he was unceremoniously forced out of his job for public dissent, Alexei Kudrin became the latest prominent insider to blow the whistle on Russia’s democracy as Vladimir Putin prepares to controversially assume the presidency for a third time next year. Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s third richest man, recently denounced the entire political system as a cynically state-managed sham, while former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has repeatedly warned that the country is heading for a revolution unless it undertakes serious reform.