Russia

In today's roundup: China, USA, Russia, Cuba, Ireland, EU and Zimbabwe. Photo of a water tank in Cuba from the Generation Y blog.

President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party won a sweeping victory on Sunday in the Russian national elections.

Putin's party was expected to win the election. However, international organizations say that the elections were rigged. Putin denies the claim and has said that the recent elections mirrors the internal stability in Russia.

Putin has been president of Russia for two consecutive terms, which is the limit in that country. Putin is expected to step down after the presidential elections in the spring, however, he has indicated that he intends to remain the most important person in Russian politics.

For God, Tsar and Fatherland

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In an age of multinational corporations and billionaires that control global markets, our traditional understanding of the state as a central figure in world politics has drastically changed. Globalization, in its current form, has rearranged the way global commerce functions. With many countries economically susceptible to the fluctuations of capitalist markets, our understanding of who rules the world has to consider the tremendous influence multinational corporations have.

Today's feature film, God, Tsar and Fatherland, is set in Russia and provides the perfect setting to witness the achievements and disastrous flaws of capitalism. Emulating his idol, Vladimir Putin, the central figure of the movie Mikhail Morozov owns a village where he attempts to instil Russian patriotism through a hierarchical system of authority.

Full size cartoon available on The Economist.

Years ago, we assumed that capitalism and democracy went hand in glove, that capitalism almost inevitably led to democracy and vice versa. Now we cannot be so sure.

China has become a hotbed of capitalism but it is not a democracy by any stretch. Nor Singapore. Russia calls itself a democracy, and it is practicing a form of capitalism, but few would agree that its democracy is robust.

Indeed, even in the United States, as I noted this morning, capitalism has burgeoned over the last thirty years -- into what I call "Supercapitalism" in my new book by that name -- but democracy has become far less capable of reflecting what we want or need to do together, as citizens.

Emissaries from the EU, the USA, and Russia met with politicians from Serbia today to discuss the status of Kosovo.

While Kosovo's Albanian Prime Minister works towards the independence of Kosovo, Serbia does not want to lose the province. Since 1999 the region is under a transitional interim UN administration.

Read more about the background and the discussions on Al Jazeera online, in the International Herald Tribune and in the Southeast European Times. Find related articles in our news or on our del.icio.us-archive.

Join the global debate in our forums: Who rules the world?

After the Russian Prime Minister and Russia's cabinet resigned on Wednesday - three months ahead of parliamentary and six months before presidential elections - the Parliament confirmed Putin's nominee as the new Prime Minister today. The soon-to-be Prime Minister, Viktor Zubkov, emphasized Russia's defense industry as well as its mineral wealth and agricultural development in his most recent speeches, indicating that he will follow up on President Putin's agenda.

Read more about the fast rise of Viktor Zubkov and some political background on Al Jazeera, in The Hindu, Mail & Guardian, Times online and BBC News online. Find out more about the candidate on Reuters and about Russian politics by watching our documentary: For God, Tsar and Fatherland.

Join the global debate in our forum: Who rules the world?

Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated the campaigning season for elections of a new parliament and a new head of state in March 2008. Monitoring groups and critics expect the elections to be less democratic and transparent than ever, due to restraints for oppositional parties to start campaigns. In order to do that, these parties have to be approved by a central elections commission.

Read more about this on AFP, in Kommersant and in the Herald Sun.

Join the debate in our forum: Why bother to vote?

While Russia is strongly opposed to a UN plan of giving the Serbian province Kosovo independence, the UN administration that governs the Kosovo since 1999 agreed on a preliminary election date for the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo.

Read more about the situation in two articles on BBC News online Kosovo's election date and Russia's point of view.

Join the debate in our forum: Why bother to vote?