Elections in Russia – “We agree!”

political Russia Party dress. On Sunday, there are elections to the National Assembly, the State Duma. New this year are all opposition candidates who are legally described as “extremists” and thus either fled the country or are threatened with prison terms. Nobody doubts the outcome of the election, so the tension is related to – well, really – the disappointing bit. Because everyone knows that President Vladimir Putin still wants total control. There is still tension over how many people would venture out into the streets to demonstrate, and how ruthless the police would be – after which the courts would likely crack down on such people. This is how Putin manages his “governed democracy,” a democracy that becomes less and less democratic and more and more controlled with each election.

or run over. As for the political system developed and developed in Putin’s time, it is an almost ingenious balance between a system that at the same time gives a certain legitimacy, but in an open democracy would have been classified as illegitimate, because it is quite clear that it has been manipulated. . So far it has succeeded in its own way, and it has been a guarantee that authority has never been challenged. But in each election, it has become somewhat less successful, as it increasingly depends on the use of force. Hence, it also lost more and more of its legitimacy.

Roughly speaking, it did Russia’s political four votes. Most important is Putin. In the State Duma, this vote belongs to the party most supportive of the president, United Russia. The Conservative Party, nationalist, aggressive against every opposition, is the party that often says what Putin believes, louder than what the president and his administration say themselves. The party has a large majority in the National Assembly, a position it would like to retain.

the other sound It is a friendly opposition. One such party is called Just Russia, and it was started at the initiative of the Kremlin in 2006 to arrest voters who were more concerned with social issues than with nationalism and patriotism in United Russia. This is where the radical liberal democrats belong. The name is misleading, because the party is not liberal and does not have a democratic mentality, and the leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky is more of a stand-up comedian, cultivating confrontation and violent outbursts, rather than a serious voice. The party traditionally captures ultra-nationalists.

third sound Belong to the communists. The basic idea of ​​the party is Soviet-era nostalgia. But it is interesting that it attracts criticism of the high prices and the deterioration of the living conditions of ordinary people due to the sanctions and Corona. Average real incomes have fallen by more than ten percent since 2013, the year before the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions began. Pavel Grudinin was the party’s presidential candidate in 2018, receiving nearly 12 percent of the vote. He is a popular man – and the Communist is a successful businessman too – but he cannot run in Sunday’s elections, officially due to investments abroad. It becomes interesting how many votes the Communists were able to amass due to the growing social discontent.

Moreover; regulars Opposition, the fourth vote. Their husband, Alexei Navalny, made the disclosure of corruption and electoral cooperation among all parties not affiliated with Russia his case. This winter he was sentenced to two years in prison, serving a sentence in a penal colony. A year ago, he was poisoned with a nerve agent developed by the Soviet defense. He was flown to Germany, and miraculously survived. The West and human rights organizations say the forgery that led to his imprisonment is fabricated. The Kremlin denies this, and because it poisoned him, but finds it difficult to hide the traces of the poison.

Navalny Organization He was labeled an “extremist” this summer, a term that has also become part of the penal code, and several of his employees have left Russia, while others have been threatened with imprisonment. No one has the right to run for office because of the extremist nature. Navalny’s pleas for electoral cooperation also appear to be falling apart, despite a new vlog this week.

Demonstrations From this winter beaten. A campaign to silence critical journalists succeeds. The large online organization Dozjd is one of several organizations described as a “foreign agent”, which makes funding difficult, so who would give money to someone portrayed as a traitor?

Putin’s Kremlin More desperate than ever to crush his critics. Therefore, inviting everyone to agree is – say – talk.