Latynina Analyses "Degradation" of Putin's "Closed Society"
Yulia Latynina comments that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Russia is a formidable instance of the degradation of a closed society.
In the conditions of a closed society, each level and each part of the system of governance is transformed into a state corporation with an interest in maximizing the area from which it can extort bribes. The system behaves as if each official, not only Putin, is the center of pseudo-governance.
In Russia, Latynina notes, a crime ceases to be a crime and is viewed as a privilege afforded the official. Then the siloviki cease to do what they were appointed to do - actually solve crimes. A subordinate carries out his boss's command only if it maximizes the subordinate's own good. And when the system does fill some kind of order, it cannot do so professionally. Latynina cites an example of this: the criminal case against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is accused of the physical theft of all the oil produced by YUKOS.