Seeing Red; Spreading democracy is a Bush theme. Back in Russia, guess who's defending democracy? The communists.

Byline: Michael Hirsh and Frank Brown

Back in the United States, George W. Bush was delivering thumping speeches to ecstatic crowds about how "the world is becoming more free" thanks to his administration's policies. But in central Moscow last week, on a narrow street outside the general prosecutor's office, a handful of demonstrators took a different view of the status of freedom in Russia under Bush's close ally and friend Vladimir Putin. "Our society is now lurching toward a dictatorship," said one protester, Vladimir Ulas. "Putin is making a mockery of democracy." Who was this brave voice, defending the principles that America holds dear? Ulas is the first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the Communist Party.

Such is the ironic trajectory of post-Soviet Russia these days. As President Putin continues to move his country away from democracy--putatively in an effort to stop future terrorist attacks--the Russian people's former oppressors, the Communist Party, are among the few voices still speaking out against his actions, if squeakily. Last week, in one of his boldest moves yet, Putin revived some of the cardinal structures of the failed Soviet Union. He announced that the Kremlin--not local voters--will start choosing governors by the end of the year. He also plans to make changes to Russia's political system that will deny voters the power to directly choose representatives in Parliament. Meanwhile, lawmakers loyal to Putin are proposing a raft of security measures that would further empower the KGB's successor, the FSB, restrict citizens' movement within Russia and enlist thousands of volunteers to act as the government's eyes and ears.

Almost as noteworthy as Putin's power play was the fact that there was barely a peep of protest about it throughout Russia. Boris Yeltsin, Putin's predecessor and Russia's first (some say only) democratically elected president, spoke out for the first time since his retirement to criticize the course of events--but he did so from a position of unassailable strength as the country's former ruler. More telling was the response of the governors themselves, who leapt to praise the move. The tiny protest of Moscow's communists was the only known public demonstration--kept small by a city order allowing only 20 people to gather--and was largely ignored by Russia's increasingly restricted media. On TV and in newspapers, commentators talked bluntly about the need for a return to Soviet methods after a horrific series of terror attacks, especially the hostage takeover of a school in Beslan that left at least 338 children and adults dead. "This crisis presented a good opportunity," said one analyst known for her sources within the Kremlin, Olga Kryshtanovskaya. "The idea is to take some of the best methods of ruling a big country that the U.S.S.R. had to offer--a more authoritarian approach. And, at the same time, to have a market economy."

President Bush offered only a mild, indirect rebuke: "As governments fight the enemies of democracy, they must uphold the principles of democracy." Behind the scenes, U.S. officials were just as casual. Putin's actions are "not surprising," one senior Bush official who deals with Russia remarked offhandedly. "Russia is not a democratic society." The official said that for Russians, the quality of their democracy matters less now than their fear ...