If Russia wins, democracy fails; If democracy wins, America fails

A. R. Farrukh Ahamed :
This is not so far away to recall; it is just three decades ago when the Soviet Union collapsed. On 2 September 1991, Time’s cover wrote, “The Russian Revolution: Serfdom’s End. A thousand years of autocracy are reversed.” In December of that year, the Soviet Union failed, its fifteen republics became independent countries, and Russia became a democracy for the first time since 1917 – better to say, for the first ever in its history.
It is today over thirty years since Russia transformed into a democracy, but no one now classifies the country as a democracy. Political scientists argue the fall of democracy in Russia must rank as one of the most consequential setbacks in the new era for the people of the country after 1990.
Today, Russia is gasping in a war with Ukraine – one of the most significant states of former Soviet Russia, and now the nearest neighbor of Rush Federation. As the days pass by, the war between Russia and Ukraine has become more deadly. The Russian leadership is now thinking to use its nuclear arms, meaning that Russia is almost near to defeat without using strategic atomic weapons.
President of Rush Federation Vladimir Putin recently remarked, “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” apparently trying to roll back on his warning after the Ukraine invasion that Russia is a “potent” nuclear power and any attempt to interfere would lead to a “consequences you have never seen.”
However, Ukraine emerged as a highly pluralistic but unstable democracy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The country’s political system developed along two parallel paths through the 1990s, combining a liberal democratic façade with the post-Soviet oligarch-controlled distribution of power and resources. On the road to democratic consolidation since the country’s independence in 1991, Ukraine has reiterated its commitment to democracy. By 2004, the assistance of international actors helped empower Ukrainian democrats, civil society organizations (CSOs), and journalists to expose electoral fraud. In 2014, the Revolution of Dignity ushered there in an ambitious democratization and decentralization process that continues to this day in the country.
It is nearly seven months into Russia’s assault, but Ukraine still stands strong. With President Volodymyr Zelensky, the country has become a bulwark against authoritarian aggression. Ukraine’s resistance against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invading forces has now become an example of war against the oligarchy. With impassioned speeches such as an address to the United Nations Security Council Zelensky accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
The third force that plays a major role in influencing the Russia-Ukraine war is the USA. Though it is commonly acknowledged the US is historically a democracy, now with the role played by the country for over two decades, it is ironic to claim the character it carries is actually bearing the ideals of people’s aspirations around the world.
It is no secret that the United States of America has been maintaining military bases in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. War against Iraq by George Bush of America along with the Prime minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair remains controversial since weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq as stated by the chief inspector of the Atomic energy agency on 18 March 2003. Besides, the United States lost the 20-year war against the Taliban in the mid of 2021 with a massive massacre of life and property in Afghanistan.
Moreover, election in the United States does not remain non-controversial. The election in November 2000 became controversial between Al Gore of the Democratic Party and George Bush of the Republican Party. The election in 2021 has also become controversial since Donald Trump did not accept the result which went in favour of Joseph Biden of the Democratic Party. On January 6, 2021, insurgents stormed the US Capitol, an act of domestic terror without parallel in American history, designed to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. In a resolution six months later, the House of Representatives called it “one of the darkest days of our democracy”. Former President Donald Trump left the White House with more than 700 pages of classified materials, including some at the highest levels of classification. No president ever in US history has done such a heinous act in the recent past. The USA is now a democracy declining with the onset of the rule of Donald Trump and thus termed nearly an ‘illiberal’ democracy. However, President Joe Biden is trying to recover its image, but how successfully he can do it is now a question. Mr. Biden with his vast political expertise has successfully been able to allure Russia to fight a war with Ukraine. In the case of Taiwan, China, always fuddled with business interests, has avoided another trap of war produced by America in the Pacific. Russia is now looking for an opportunity to use the atomic weapon in Ukraine citing the example of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US horror made in Japan in 1945.
It is now obvious from the recent activities of world powers that democracy is not the priority in the present global order, though rhetorically, the absence of democracy seems to be the cause of every dispute around the world. In fact, so much is done by America for democracy only to gain its own interest. Therefore, peace remains elusive as war still prevails over the reconstruction of human civilisation. True it is, if democracy wins all over the world, America is supposed to be failed, like if Russia wins over Ukraine, democracy must fail.

(The writer is a PhD researcher on Human Rights Education).