For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       "A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." This was Churchill's famous description of Russia. But is it all a good deal less complicated than that these days? Jonathan Dimbleby has recently spent two years travelling around Russia – with a TV series and book tie-in to prove it. He is a disturbed man as he reflects on the experience – and it's not just the 650,000 Russian children who are alcoholics. "The Russians are different to us," he says. OK – but how? As he travels this vast land, he discovers sloth; corruption (30 billion dollars worth a year according to independent estimates) but most pertinently of all, a general turning away from what Russians regard as the fanciful dreams of Western liberty. At the nub of Dimbleby's concern is the fact that they are not sleep-walking into a totalitarian state – but actually welcoming it. As one wealthy Muscovite said, "We are free. It is a dictatorship, of course, but we are free." And in a way, Russians are free; just as the Chinese are free. Free to make money, spend money, worship their God, and travel. In fact, they are free to do anything as long as they don't become political. If press freedom is an accurate gauge of authoritarian rule, then Russia is in trouble. There is no independent "4th Estate" to speak of. Twenty one journalists were murdered in Russia last year, which puts it behind only Columbia and Iraq in the killing of dissenting writers. Peter Hitchens – a famously disillusioned Russia-watcher – writes this: "This is a place where the worst has already happened and is quite likely to happen again. Most of the people you meet will be a lot younger than they look, hurried briskly towards old age by fear, pain loss and shortage. Even the pretty gardens are often secret graveyards. Dig too deep in reality or metaphorically, and you will quickly find skulls and bones." Yet Putin walks on water in the popular mind, for two main reasons. First, he has skilfully used perceived American aggression to revive long-held nationalist paranoia. And second, oil. What else does he need? A demon without, gold within and the nation is his. Some say he is more honest than western potentates. Leaders like Putin and Ahmadjinijad do not need the public vote, and therefore do not need to pay lip service to democracy, as Western leaders must. All national leaders want the same thing in the end – the earth's resources. Which is why Bush was keener to bring democracy to Iraq, than Zimbabwe. There are dissident voices. The distinguished bio-chemist Sergei Kovalev says: "It was better under Stalin. At least everyone knew it was a sham." But really, most Russians seem very aware it's a sham – yet like it. "Better a sham than a shambles," they say, as another vodka goes down the hatch. "We don't need democracy – we need strength!" More writings © Simon Parke