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Is Russia Truly Democratic?

Since the fall of communism, former Soviet Union has been trying to become democratic.
However, today, Russia is just the opposite. Even though Russia likes to say that theyre a
democracy, they really arent. A democracy requires people to have equal rights and freedoms.
Its been clearly shown throughout history that people in Russia do not have equal opportunities.
There is no freedom of press, no freedom of religion, no fair elections, and more things that
make them undemocratic.
Reporters are still imprisoned and killed to this day because they write about the problems in
Russia and things they are opposed to. With everything going on that could make Russia look
bad like the Ukrainian Crisis and the war with Chechnya, they need to make sure they have a
tight leash on the media. Russia recently passed two laws that let them have certain control
over the internet and the things that are posted. They are allowed to take down websites and
ban people from using the internet. What they are not allowed to do is kill people for posting
things that they dont like, which they do, and thats a huge reason as to why they cannot be a
democracy.
Russia is becoming antisemitic again which shows no change from pre-Soviet days when
Russification and pogroms were in place to make Jews and individuals of other races become
Russian and speak Russian. People are vandalizing synagogues and other places by drawing
swastikas on the walls. They are also becoming more opposed to Muslims inside their country
because of the recent attacks from terrorists. I would also think that they are more nervous
because of the things going on in Chechnya, so they are cautious of certain people.
After Putin served one term as President in Russia, he wanted to serve another term and since
Russia claims to be democratic, they follow the first Constitution and according to that, you
cant run more than once. So, he appointed Medvedev, but really, he took over. Do you ever
hear of Medvedev representing Russia? No. Thats because Putin just used him so he could
continue to have power. This is clearly not democracy because a democracy has fair elections
and doesnt bend the rules like Putin. In 2012, when Putin received 64 percent of votes for a
third term as president, people planned protests. He planned for the biggest anti-Kremlin
protests since 2000, when he rose to power. People didnt like how he won no matter what and
they werent necessarily against Putin, but against the fact that they didnt have direct decisions
on their government like a normal democracy.
Its clear that Russia has made huge changes since Stalin and communism, but its still not a
democracy like the people want. The United States took a long time to become really
democratic and were still working on things. Russia is still relatively young, especially looking at
when they started to try to become democratic. They still have a lot of problems to fix and things
to overcome, so as of right now, Russia is not a democracy because they violate basic human
rights.

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