United Russia Party victorious: Putin is like and more than Brezhnev
National elections held on Dec. 7 resulted in a decisive victory for president Putin's "United Russia" Party with 37.1% of votes. Runner-up went to the Communist Party with 12.7% and Vladimir Zhirinovskij's ultra-nationalist party which obtained 11.6% of ballots cast on Sunday. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said that the government manipulated funds and the media in order to dominate elections. Even the United States expressed concern for the way in which the elections took place. Here Vladimir Rozanskij offers his expert commentary on the matter.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - Victory by Vladimir Putin's party in the national elections is the triumph of the Great Russian Spirit, of the successors to the czars and PCUS secretaries; it is the triumph of the thousand-year old Russia of Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Stalin.
Now the Patriarch of Moscow, Aleksij II, can finally rest satisfied. There is no longer a "non-orthodox" representative in the new Russian parliament. All parties and their leaders are convinced supporters of the pro-nationalist politic equal that of a profession of faith: in Russia, one cannot be a nationalist without actively sustaining the Orthodox Church in its arduous defence against any western influence. One cannot be a patriot and a political leader without being photographed lighting a candle in front of an icon possibly next to the Patriarch himself or at least next to one of the metropolitan bishops with their high cylinder-shaped hats, with flowing monkish white beards and enormous religious medal hanging upon their breasts. 15 years since the fall of communism and 3 years since Vladimir Putin's rise to supreme power, this is today's Russia.
Political parties are only vaguely pro-western in the ideological or economic-planning sense. Somehow the inheritors of political and philosophical-religious dissent have totally disappeared from the state Duma.
Indeed, dissidents of the Soviet era have never helped to have true political representation in this country. They were never even able to assume a significant role in the country's leadership. The dissent, that is the heroic, democratic and liberal opposition in the eyes of the former communist state, was laid to rest in Dec. 1990 along with its last hero, Vladimir Sakharov:
a) a) by ex-communists (or at any rate, by persons who were full inheritors of communism) who were at the same time
b) b) fervent disciples of the Orthodox Church (the only institution still on its feet since the communist era). And who are also
c) c) almost all exponents of the wealthier middle class in new capitalist Russia.
Capitalist, nationalist (ex-communist), orthodox: this is the new parliamentary representative, loyal to the president, separated from the populace, deluded by politics and dedicated to daily survival.
Who do we credit for such chameleon change? Not so deserving is Vladimir Putin, the most important non-player in Russian history, the good man for all seasons, the Soviet official who first served as secretary to the champion of democracy, Sobchak, and later the charismatic indecisive Yeltsin, than as punisher of sniper fighters and of Russia's oligarchy of the Third Millennium. Putin is only a cover for anonymous and hidden power, for the professional control of conscience, for the substitute agency of useless individual liberty. Those in power in Russia does not have names, but abbreviations: Oprichina, Okhrana, CeKa, NKVD, GPU, KGB, SFB, to name a few. Historians have tried to explain, but no explanations are needed for the man on the streets in Moscow, St. Petersburg of Vladivostok. It is simply about vlast, or power per excellence, that is the mechanism controlling people and society. It is at the source of every decision; it turns elections and voting into pure spectacles and town festivals.
In the time of Stalin (even of Brezhnev, Khruschov, et al.) elections were indeed an occasion to eat, drink and be merry with the addition of drinks and cold-cuts served according to lawful amounts. The difference today is found only in the number of drinks and variety of products; yet the result is substantially the same. Once upon a time, communists won with 80-90% of the votes. Put won with 37% , but with 222/450 seats and with the assurance that (at least) 100 representatives will vote for him, 70 with some sort of light pressuring, while others will abstain and 20 or so vote against him. Western observers have been only able to release appalling statements, many adapted to the reality in Russia: "elections were free, but not fair". And this is the way it is. Many went to the polls only in order to avoid that their ballot be automatically filled out (ballot-rigging is not rare in these parts). The voted, at any rate, to favour Putin's victory and his "United Russia" Party the party of power, the most pro-western among the pro-nationalist parties of the masses.
The president immediately reassured their hearts. Not happy to have all the leverages of power to himself, Putin offered posts to members of parties that did not win seats, while sure of their "desire to serve their country". He said he wanted to change the Constitution (as has happened during nearly every election dating back to the communist era). Above all regarding the presidency. He said he will extend its a term from 4 to 7 years. Therefore, according to the calculation of 3+7+7 he will be serve as long as Brezhnev had. All this ends up being defined as the key word, that is, the so-called "reinforcement to democracy". After Gorbachev's perestrojka, ukreplenie is now the magic word based on the ideal that a calm force is prevailing over New Russia, over a nation that is finally "united".
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24/11/2020 10:55
