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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte are both considered “strongman” presidents. Photo: AP

Letters | Leaders like Duterte and Putin show that dictators have their downsides. However, so do democracies

  • Checks and balances bring turbulence, and a free media can mean the freedom to lie to the people
Russia
The famous Yiddish literary lion Sholem Aleichem gave a very accurate description of a Russian’s political awareness: in a series of short stories first published in 1894 the protagonist, Tevye the Dairyman, says that the best blessing for a tsar is “Bless him and keep him away from us”.
We don’t even have the Russian for “vote out” but do for “oust”, as that’s exactly what a Kremlin ruler’s retinue does to him if our shops are empty – Nicholas II in 1917, Khrushchev in 1964, Gorbachev in 1991.  Your article “Duterte is the Putin of Asia. Maria Ressa is the proof” (March 4) has unwittingly found that Filipinos have a lot in common with us Russians.

As a 56-year-old Russian citizen who has lived through very turbulent times I vouch that having a state-controlled media is like being a student at a lecture – you are either told the truth or (unlawfully) a lie. However, having a free media is like being surrounded by quarrelling fishwives – at best, you hear the truth with a pack of lies and at worst, the latter only, and in both cases perfectly lawfully.

Checks and balances may be a great democratic instrument but often applying them is akin to changing horses in midstream, with Brexit leaving the United Kingdom in a kind of limbo and the constantly rotating leaders of India leaving that largest democracy on the planet of 1.3 billion people with antediluvian Soviet fighter jets, one of which has recently been shot down in Pakistan.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte may have become Putin of Asia but a dictatorial macho leader is not unheard-of: in the Middle East many years ago one named Moses was leading, unelected, his people through a wilderness till the last born in Egyptian slavery died. And we know the rest.

Mergen Mongush, Moscow

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