Darkening horses

In the absence of presidential races in the country, Dmitry Medvedev visited the presidential races in Kazan

The Kazan Equestrian Complex hosted a prestigious race on horses of a thoroughbred riding breed for the prize of the President of Russia. The prize fund of the competition amounted to 28.5 million rubles. The cost of horses, taking into account the fact that the newspaper ...

The Kazan Equestrian Complex hosted a prestigious race on horses of a thoroughbred riding breed for the prize of the President of Russia.

The prize fund of the competition amounted to 28.5 million rubles. The cost of horses, taking into account the fact that horse thieves can read the newspaper, it is better not to name. The event was attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was in Kazan on a visit.

What can the head of state think about while sitting on a horse race? Hardly about the races themselves. Think do not think - there is nothing to modernize. And there is no need to streamline the technical inspection of horses, and it makes no sense to introduce any nanojumps. Riding a pony, right?

Presumably, at the races, as in all other cases, the president thinks about our problems with you. About how, for example, that oats are now expensive. And the 92nd oats, and the 95th ... And that in some cities the riders are already going out to protest and hide the power in the tail and mane ...

And what do the president's entourage think about at the races? Of course, about which horse to bet on. It's time to decide - less than a year before the elections.

And how will you decide if both favorites of the future elections are still dark. They are trying to convince everyone that both of them are in the same team. It seems that Rus'-troika once raced, and now Rus'-deuce.

What should the regional elite do in this situation? “Most likely, we will be able to observe an interesting picture of the disengagement of the elite of Tatarstan between Medvedev and Putin,” Rashit Akhmetov, editor of the Kazan newspaper Zvezda Povolzhya, suggested in an editorial at the end of March. “Shaimiev has already taken a position near Medvedev, Minnikhanov has two options - to remain formally neutral or to become closer to Putin ... It is beneficial for him to take a neutral position, but is this possible in principle?”

In the absence of political life and any opposition in the region, people do not ask sharp questions, and it is possible to maintain a neutral position for quite a long time. Moreover, everyone in the republic sees that President Rustam Minnikhanov has focused on the economy and, unlike his predecessor Mintimer Shaimiev, is not fond of political statements. But, one way or another, he cannot neglect the mood of a certain part of the population, expressed, in particular, by the local publication Beznen Gezhit (Our Newspaper): “When Putin was president, Tatarstan lost the lion’s share of the freedoms gained in the 1990s. The Constitution of the republic was edited, the president stopped being elected - now he is appointed by Moscow. President Putin is not a bright prospect for Tatarstan.”

And who said that President Medvedev is a bright prospect? So far, only human rights activist Dmitry Berdnikov, familiar to the readers of Novaya Gazeta, has loudly announced this in Tatarstan. We have repeatedly told how he stirred up boring public life with non-standard actions (he nominated himself for mayors of various cities and governors of different regions, booked Kazan squares with daily applications for rallies ...). This time he went even further: he created an organizing committee to establish an initiative group to nominate Dmitry Medvedev for a second presidential term. With difficulty, he rented a hall in one of the hotels at his own expense (before that, he had been denied the lease of a number of premises), sent out invitations to prominent local leaders and deputies. None of them came (we will not tell Dmitry Anatolyevich about this), but the organizing committee was nevertheless created. It included 12 people, mostly pensioners, which made it possible for some media outlets to sneer at the "initiative of Kazan grandmothers." And why laugh if there is nothing to expect from Kazan grandfathers at all?

The elite hid in a disciplined manner, and against this background, an unexpected call to Dmitry Berdnikov from the mayor of Kazan, Ilsur Metshin, is noteworthy.

“Ilsur Raisovich called me the next day and asked if I needed any help,” says Dmitry Nikolayevich. — The mayor said that he is now busy organizing Sabantuy, and suggested that we meet next week.

The mayor's call does not necessarily mean that the city government has made a bet. After all, with all this benevolence, Berdnikov was sent a kind of refusal from the executive committee of Kazan to organize pickets in support of Medvedev's initiatives. Activists of the public movement “Against Crime and Lawlessness” headed by Berdnikov intended to put up these pickets in places where the president might appear (on Freedom Square, near the hippodrome or on the approaches to the grove where Sabantuy will pass), and they were offered to support the president’s initiatives away from these places - on Adoratskogo street, near the wholesale and retail market. Like, you can support all his undertakings wholesale, or you can retail.

PS Shortly after the start of the race, Dmitry Berdnikov called the Novaya Gazeta office from the emergency room. It turned out that he still approached the competition site with a poster in support of Medvedev, but did not even have time to unfold it. According to him, the police reacted instantly and crushed him (not the poster, but Berdnikov) thoroughly ...