“Uncle Joe” is what Franklin Delano Roosevelt called Josef Stalin to make the United States’ alliance with the murderous dictator more appealing to the American public in World War ii. Because Stalin was an enemy of Hitler, the Allied powers considered him a friend. As a result, they ignored the gulags, slave labor camps and murderous repression, and when World War ii ended in 1945, the U.S. and the United Kingdom allowed the whole of Eastern Europe to be swallowed into Stalin’s tyrannical control. But the dangerous reality soon became clear: A mere one year later, Winston Churchill gave his famous “Iron Curtain” speech calling for an Anglo-American alliance against the Soviets. The tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union escalated into the Cold War, which lasted until the early 1990s.

Today, after a brief period of democratic reform in Russia, we are witnessing a return to the kind of iron-fisted government that characterized the nation through most of the 20th century. Under the rule of President Vladimir Putin, democratic reform no longer exists.

Putin’s recentralization of power in Russia since his election in March 2000 is plain for all to see. The U.S., however, heavily occupied in the Middle East, has failed to use its influence to prevent the nation from reverting to its Soviet-era past. Instead, it treats Russia as a partner, especially in the war against terrorism. President Bush has called Putin his good friend.

When Putin, in the name of fighting terrorism, changed the law so regional governors were no longer elected into power but appointed by the president, the U.S., desperate for allies in its own war against terrorism, did not protest.

When Putin prosecuted Mikhail Khodorkovsky, president of the Yukos oil company and a source of funds for many political opponents of Putin, and seized control of the oil company, President Bush blocked resolutions denouncing the move introduced by the Democratic Party.

Putin has used overwhelming force to clamp down on any political opposition, nationalize industries, tighten state control over the media and create laws to further his political party. These anti-democratic initiatives have done little to diminish Russia’s standing with the U.S. and other Western nations.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told the press in March that he hopes Russia will enter the World Trade Organization by the end of this year. The U.S. entered its last stage of negotiations with Russia last November over its membership in the wto. After 14 years, it looks like the West will finally let Russia into an organization that is built on the practices of free trade.

“We need to embed Russia firmly inside the international trading system,” said Mandelson. “Membership will both seal Russia’s re-emergence and drive further reform and evolution of its economy.”

Mandelson’s statement is interesting, considering Russia’s economic condition. The majority of the population of one of the world’s fastest growing economies lives on the edge of poverty, with 20 percent living below the official poverty line. Yet the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Since Putin came to power, the country has paid off its $22 billion in foreign debt. Its government is sitting on $103 billion cash, and Russia has 20 more billionaires than last year.

Entering the wto is clearly not going to inspire economic reform in Russia’s economy—not when those in charge are only getting richer.

The West will continue to ignore Russia’s return to a dictatorship as long as it can continue to make bargains politically and economically. This is strikingly similar to what the West did with “Uncle Joe.” Its silence and willingness to negotiate with Stalin helped to create the monstrous Cold War enemy that it faced off for the next half century.

The lack of political will in the West to stand up and recognize the reality in Russia will only encourage Putin to further extend his tyrannical control. And just as Stalin came back to haunt the West, especially Europe, a new dictatorship from Russia will once again threaten Europe. To learn more about this coming showdown between Europe and Russia, read Russia and China in Prophecy.