Autocrat, schmautocrat!   Can you invest in it?  An article in today’s NYT demonstrates why the business section is always an eye opener.   The lack of concern about democratic freedoms is such a refreshing change!  If Russians are willing to put up with a hefty dose of unsavoriness because they “love being middle class,” who is the international business community to complain?  In an overall quite interesting article, there are two observations I thought notable.  First:  

“When it comes to China and globalization, new books shoot out the assembly line like those bon-bons in the “I Love Lucy” episode; workers can’t box them fast enough. Though Mr. Putin and Russian elites, no less than their Chinese counterparts, grasp the power of market barometers and fiscal discipline, it is China that American analysts typically offer as an example of world-transforming economic success. Russia is portrayed almost exclusively as an authoritarian menace. So here’s a trick: A first step toward understanding Russia would be to read the press and academic accounts on China — and then substitute the word “Russia” for “China.” (This works in reverse as well.)”   

Second, the perception of democracy promotion exemplified by the sentences below is not a rarity, but I’ve never seen it put in party-international terms before.

“Mr. Trenin advises American policy makers to drop what he sees as their attempt to form a “Democratic International,” which he defines as a mirror image of the old Communist International, or Comintern, but which seeks to unite all the world’s democracies. Instead, he advises banking on a new global capitalist club, which includes Kazakhstan and China as well as Russia.”Â