Russia’s 9/11
After a decade of Putin’s rule, many Russians have lost faith in the promises of his agenda. The Ponzi scheme of great expectation has collapsed, and Russia is searching for a new direction. The question: Who will be allowed to shape it?
Parliamentary elections were rigged. A CNN opinion poll, conducted on the day of the elections, showed that more then ninety per cent of the respondents denounced the elections as fraud. The official results from the Russian Electoral Committee differed from sample polls. According to official results, the ruling “United Russia” party enjoyed almost fifty per cent popularity, with major opposition parties gaining less then ten percent of the vote.
It all seemed perfectly reasonable. First, the parliamentary elections with “United Russia” firmly in the lead. Then the election - or, rather, the endorsement - of Vladimir Putin as the country’s new old president. Few, if any, political analysts were expecting any changes in what seemed to be a done deal. Yet much has changed over the past week. Take a couple of Youtube videos with election officials throwing ballots into the ballot boxes, and an outpouring of protest ensued.
“Putin’s nomination as, effectively, ‘the president for life’ - this was the tipping point” says political activist Andrei Sidelnikov of the “Speak Lauder” movement about United Russia’s decision to nominate Putin for yet another presidential term during its November 27th Congress. “Putin’s presidency was turning into Putin’s reign with little prospect for change”.
Self-fulfilling prophesies of Russia’s greatness and its “pivotal” place in the world - under Putin this became Russian politicians bread and butter.
Zhirinovsly’s “Protect Russian” ideology, nationalists marching on the streets of Moscow and Petersburg in what the organizers call “Russian pride” - the wave of neo-nationalism was carefully orchestrated to the growing disillusionment away from social problematics. Deadly mixture of Imperial nostalgia and Soviet Chauvinism pouring from the cinema screens, book shelves and political rallies - rhetoric replaced hope, buffed up patriotism - desire to re-enter the community of nations on equal terms.
Hope, that Russia will ‘make it’ to the new, just, secure and prosperous society, that Russia will become a member of the European family, that tomorrow will be better, then today was strongest in the early 90s. It survived hunger and depravations of first Perestroika years, terrorism and the war in Chechnya of the early 2000, crackdown on civil liberties of the early tears of “Putin decade”.
Yet with another decade of Putin and his government in sight, many lost faith in these promises: “High unemployment, a repressive security apparatus and a declining population - Russia has no place in modern world, if nothing is done. And it has to be done now” says Russia’s famous contemporary artist Dmirty Vrubel, one of the active protesters for fair elections.