Putin and the Fatima Revisionists: Perfect Together

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        Suppose the Democratic Party held the White House. Suppose the Democrat president had seized control of ABC, CBS and NBC television networks. Suppose further that the same Democrat president’s attorney general had secured federal indictments or arrest warrants for all the wealthiest and most influential supporters of the Republican Party, and that the Democrat-controlled House and Senate had passed legislation outlawing public criticism of incumbents during any election. Then suppose that during "elections" for Congress ABC, CBS and NBC covered only the Democrat candidacies. Finally, suppose that as a result of these "elections" the Democrats achieved overwhelming dominance in the House and Senate, reducing the Republicans to a tiny, ineffectual minority.

        Suppose all of these things and you will have a very good idea of what Vladimir Putin considers "free elections" in Russia. I am referring to the recently completed "elections" for the Russian parliament, or Duma, in which Putin’s "United Russia" party — surprise, surprise — swept to an overwhelming victory and now holds 2/3 of the seats in the Duma, based on a voter turnout of 37%.

        As reported by The New York Times on December 9, 2003: "United Russia, the party defined almost entirely by its fealty to Mr. Putin, swept to overwhelming victory on Sunday after benefiting… from fawning coverage on state television and official support at all levels of government." According to the Times, "International observers on Monday criticized Russia’s parliamentary elections as a step backward in the country’s democratic transition, only moments after Vladimir Putin described them as ‘free, honest, open and democratic.’" A report by 500 international observers concluded that the "elections" had "called into question Russia’s willingness to move towards European standards for democratic elections." Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of one of the "liberal" parties that was shut out by the Putin machine, put it much more succinctly: "We now have, again, a one-party Parliament. Russia has had no such Parliament since Brezhnev."

        It seems the Communist Party has suffered a setback in the "elections," losing about half its strength; but the Communists still received more votes than the "liberal" opposition parties that did not get into the Duma. This means that the repackaged communists of Putin’s "United Russia" Party and the overt communists of the Communist Party together now comprise virtually the entire Duma. As a result, the only numerically significant "opposition" to Putin’s authoritarian regime in the Duma comes from… the Communist Party of Russia!

        The Fatima revisionists of the neo-Catholic establishment have lately taken to claiming that the conversion of Russia prophesied by Our Lady of Fatima really meant nothing more than "freedom of choice" for the Russian people. But the Fatima revisionists cannot demonstrate the existence even of their laughable substitute for the religious conversion of the Russian people Our Lady promised. Rather, the Fatima revisionists find themselves agreeing with Vladimir Putin that Russians have freedom of choice today. Putin and the Fatima revisionists: perfect together.