Twenty+ years after the Soviet Union’s implosion under Gorbachev’s disastrous policies, Russians, Ukrainians, and Lithuanians are disgusted with the direction of their countries and disillusioned with multi-party politics and “the free market”. The Pew Research Centre Poll tells the story of radical disillusionment:
Russians, Ukrainians, and Lithuanians indicate they want a deepened, real democracy, with a fair judiciary and free media. However, they do not believe their post-socialist countries have delivered these institutions.
(And since the beginning of the Global Economic Crisis the disquiet with the global financial system has gone viral. According to the result of a 27-nation survey published in the German magazine Der Spiegel 2 years ago, only 11 percent reported being content with the capitalist system’s functioning. Further, 23 percent believe the free market economy is inherently flawed: Only in the US and in Pakistan were at least one in five happy with the current economic system.)