Russia is an 'entire society' that is becoming 'morally corrupt to the core.'

If you think that statement was made by a reckless, rabid, rampaging Russophobe, think again:  It was made by Vladimir Ryzhkov, a fourteen-year veteran of the Russian parliament.

And when you read his evidence, you may think Ryzhkov was being much too easy on his country.

Ryzhkov explains how Vladimir Putin's party of power, United Russia, managed to go from 35% voter support in polls in the region of Tambov in April 2011 to 65% support at the ballot box a month later.  And it wasn't a Trumanesque comeback.  It was truly epic and terrifying fraud.

Using its direct influence over their jobs and salaries, United Russia gathered up university professors and ordered them to force their students, on pain of being flunked, to forge ballots and then travel around the city stuffing ballot boxes with them.   Meanwhile cops and election officials blithely looked the other way.

Ryzhkov believes that one-third of the votes cast for United Russia in the local elections -- a mind-boggling total of over 100,000 in a region with a total population of just over one million -- were illegal.

And the scale of the fraud wasn't the most horrifying fact about the election.  Ryzhkov writes:

That thousands of ordinary and otherwise respectable citizens -- teachers, doctors, librarians and administrators -- were more than willing to participate. These are people who are responsible for the physical and moral well-being of others. Their relatives, neighbors and colleagues also knew of their participation. What's more, thousands of young people driven by cynical United Russia slogans of "patriotism, stability and spirituality" stuffed ballots to keep the party of crooks and thieves in power. Hundreds of newly reformed "policemen" -- who were supposed to be an improvement over their predecessors, the militsia -- were all too willing to close their eyes. 

In other words, many Russians in Tambov were willing to help their government shaft their fellow citizens just for the fun of it.

That's a theme in modern Russian history. During the time of Stalin, Russians fell over themselves trying to turn in their neighbors and send them off to concentration camps in Siberia.

The World Economic Forum has also recently confirmed the devastating consequences of corruption in Russia.  Because of it, the WEF concludes, Russia is bringing up the rear in the BRIC group of developing nations.  And the World Bank has confirmed that it is the failed policies of Vladimir Putin that have led Russia to be increasingly non-competitive on the economics front.

Ryzkhov did not leave the parliament of his own accord.  He left in 2007 when Putin's axe fell on the Duma.  All the members of the true opposition parties were forced out of the body just before Putin was required by the Constitution to step aside in favor of Dmitry Medvedev, his puppet ruler.  Putin made sure that during his interregnum there couldn't be any trouble from the legislature.  Then he shamelessly rigged Medvedev's election as well.

Putin has restored the melody of the Soviet national anthem, actively worked to rehabilitate Stalin, and his latest move is to bring back the infamous black trenchcoats of the NKVD.  He has pursued cold-war confrontation and neo-Soviet imperialism instead of economic modernizing and political development.  And he's chosen to ram all this down the throats of the Russian people in rigged elections backed up by brute force.

And through it all, Barack Obama remains silent.  He does not care if Russia is rigging elections, does not care if it is reviving the USSR.  He does not care about American values or about American security. All he cares about is the fact that Russia's dictators seem willing to help him create the illusion of foreign policy cooperation over issues like Iran that Obama can use as chips in his reelection bid.

He has staked his Chamberlainian presidency on making deals with a nation that is becoming morally corrupt to the core.