Cultural and Institutional reality

A tragicomic story on what’s essentially a result of bad institutions in Moldova.

I enjoy Igor Cobileanski’s works a great deal, but I think he misses the point when saying that he’s only illustrating a cultural reality specific to Moldovan people. The truth is that there wouldn’t be any “cultural reality” that he’s so fond of had there not been the corrupt institutional system guiding peoples’ incentives and behavior toward unproductive and destructive activities.  What Cobileanski should really be getting at is not a romantic view on Moldova’s cultural reality as he states, but rather a disturbing institutional reality which, I believe, is sadly the case for all of the “failed” ex-soviet democracies (Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan).

The Stalin-Putin joke, or C КГБ Вперёт!

People at STAFORD Intelligence are celebrating “the 10th anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s assumption of a leadership position at the Kremlin” this weekend. Below is an excerpt from their “intelligent analysis” of Putin’s role for Russia:

[...] Russia is a tough place to rule, and as we’ve implied, STRATFOR is mildly surprised Putin has lasted. We don’t think him incompetent, it’s just that life in Russia is dreadfully hard and the Kremlin is a crucible, and leaders often are crushed swiftly. Before Putin took Russia’s No. 2 job, former President Boris Yeltsin had gone through no fewer than 10 men — one of them twice — in the position.

But Putin boasted one characteristic that STRATFOR identified 10 long years ago that set him apart. Putin was no bureaucrat or technocrat or politico; he was a KGB agent. And as Putin himself has famously proclaimed, there is no such thing as a former intelligence officer. This allowed him to harness the modern incarnation of the institutions that made Russia not just possible but also stable — the intelligence divisions — and to fuse them into the core of the new regime. Most of the Kremlin’s current senior staff, and nearly all Putin’s inner circle, were deeply enmeshed in the Soviet security apparatus.[...]

I am celebrating the spontaneous intelligence in this new joke with a good laugh; a joke so very popular these days among people of the ex-USSR…

Stalin’s ghost appears to Putin in a dream, and Putin asks for his help running the country. Stalin says, “Round up and shoot all the democrats, and then paint the inside of the Kremlin blue.” “Why blue?” Putin asks. “Ha!” says Stalin. “I knew you wouldn’t ask me about the first part.” (Source: wikipedia)