It’s like a return to the Soviet planned economy: the alleged Duma “elections” over the weekend in Russia brought the result of a two-thirds majority for Vladimir Putin’s “United Russia” party, as desired by the Kremlin. The president, who has been in power since 1999, can rule as he likes and, if necessary, change the constitution again and again. The Duma had previously approved a term of office for life.
In Russia, the old Stalin saying applies again: It doesn’t matter who votes how, but who counts. More than 4,000 violations were reported at the polls. And even the federal government is demanding that Moscow closely follow the identified shortcomings.
When they were ordered to vote by their superiors, many Russians had to go to the polls, often packs of ballot papers were thrown into the voting bins – and where that was not enough for the largely discredited candidates of the Putin party, votes were suddenly cast the desired result with the parallel online selection.
So far, so common in the Putin state – or, as it could be called based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque: Nothing new in the East.
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But not quite: the opposition had been deliberately almost completely eliminated in advance. The Russian population is being brought into line even harder than in previous years. And the still economically unstable but highly armed state is becoming more and more authoritarian.
Putin is leading Russia down economically
Even with the election fraud, the alleged voter turnout was not even 52 percent, so the majority of the people between Kaliningrad and Kamchatka have long since given up all hope of a change of course and are no longer participating in the farce called “elections”. Putin, who continues to lead his country economically into a dead end, is using this course to drive out more and more of his compatriots who are kissed abroad as well-trained and freedom-loving specialists.
Europe should receive them with open arms. These people are needed here and we should cherish them.
For Russia itself, the bloodletting is bad, but the corollary of the repressive and economically devastating course of the Kremlin. Anyone who thinks this is normal Russia bashing again should acknowledge a fact. The emigration figures speak for themselves: people are drawn to democracies – exiles never go into dictatorships.
More: The Putin system is reaching its limits – economically and politically