[Mb-civic] Russia's Downhill Slide to Dictatorship

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Russia's Downhill Slide to Dictatorship 
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Putin's regime parallels Weimar Germany.

By Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson, a professor of history at Harvard University and a senior research fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, is the author of "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire" (Penguin, 2004

January 9 2005

In an amateurish way, I am a Russophile. It was reading "War and Peace" as a schoolboy that convinced me I should study history at university. My favorite film of all time is still the Soviet-era adaptation of Tolstoy's masterpiece. Throughout my 20s, I was a Dostoevsky devotee. Even today I can think of few pleasures to match reading the short stories of Chekhov. And then there is the music. For me, Shostakovich's chilling, haunting Piano Quintet will always be the signature tune of the 20th century. 

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ferguson9jan09,1,1792856.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions 

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