Putin vs. the press

I know many will say it's not such a good idea to give the Bush administration suggestions on where to spread democracy next, but I'm not too worried. If the man doesn't read national newspapers, chances are he's not going to read the Indiana Daily Student. Nevertheless, I would like to suggest that Bush encourage Russia to swallow a heavy dose of liberty. I recognize that democracy there only dates back to 1991, so they're fairly new at this, but in light of recent events, I find it very hard to believe that Russia's system is healthy.\nJournalist Anna Politkovskaya was found slain in the elevator of her Moscow apartment Saturday. Apparently, she was in the middle of uncovering a torture and kidnapping story involving the Moscow-backed authorities in charge of war-torn province Chechnya. A fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Politkovskaya had worked tirelessly since 1999 to uncover human rights violations in the Chechen conflict and apparently had her life threatened for years because of her reporting. In Russia under Putin, this brings the count of journalists slain in contract-style killings to at least 13 -- 42 since 1992 -- making it the third-deadliest country in the world for members of the press after Iraq and Algeria. \nIn my opinion, President Putin truly understands the importance of a free press to a democratic society and seems to be on course to stamp it out. A true democracy cannot function without journalists. For all the checks and balances set up by the Founding Fathers to make sure tyranny and oppression don't corrupt our government, the best thing they did to guarantee this was granting Americans the rights of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Only with journalists and other citizens willing to question the decisions of their governments, and raise hell if necessary, can a government truly be held accountable to its people. The minute you eliminate this outlet, any democratic government easily has the potential to become a dictatorship. This, I am afraid, is what is beginning to happen in Russia.\nIf Bush is truly concerned about spreading democracy, he should visit Russia, a place that, if allowed to sink back into its former ways, could be a threat to other democratic countries in Europe and a place where freedom is not yet extinct, but certainly endangered. \nNow I know Russia is no pushover like Iraq. I know we can't invade Russia and declare victory in a few months -- after all, they have something like 12,000-19,000 nuclear weapons -- but we can invade it with ideas. We can invade it with examples of true democracy. I know it is easy to question whether the United States itself is a true democracy, but I think it's safe to say we get it a little better than Russia. \nSo this is my new suggestion to the Bush administration: Deal with Russia before the problem becomes too big for us to handle.