In Rostov-on-Don D. Medvedev won almost 10 percent more votes than the average for Russia. The reasons for the super-popularity of the new president understood The New Times
A native of the northern capital, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was never associated with the "southern capital" (as local officials now call Rostov-on-Don). He didn’t study here, didn’t work, he also found his wife from St. Petersburg, and even his favorite fish are brought to him from exotic reservoirs, and not at all from the muddy Don with its 15-kilogram fish.
In turn, the Don population has never experienced awe of the “Katsaps” (these are all Russians living north of the Rostov region). On the contrary, he is proud of the fact that he was not humiliated by serfdom. Every second Cossack feels like at least Stepan Razin, and two out of three women feel like Aksinya from the Quiet Don, who left her husband for the sake of love and died in agony.
So why did Medvedev, according to the CEC statistics, become the idol of Rostovites?
Political technologists are resting
The first thing that comes to mind is the success of modern political technologies that can turn the brains of even a Russian southerner, even an alien. However, Aleksey Sinelnikov, one of the most famous political technologists in Rostov, says that in 15 years he has not missed a single election, but at this “vote” ... he remained out of work.
“Look at this wretchedness of the spirit, the impotence of thought! - Aleksey points to a theater stand covered with election leaflets. - Here are the "United Russia" with Medvedev: tricolor, on it - well, quite a soviet inscription "We will choose worthy ones!" Indeed, political agitation in Rostov was, as never before, modest, as if the participants in the process themselves were embarrassed to participate in elections without a choice. On voting day and the day before, only the most politicized citizens could guess the fatefulness of March 2. There were no billboards, no stretch marks across highways ... The main topic of the issue in the most popular newspaper is how to dress a girl on a first date?
Why count?
Of the pearls of propaganda literature, only one was remembered - from the Just Russia party: "Medvedev is our president, Kotlyarov is our deputy, and no more DEBATE!".
PR people admit that the word "debates" without the genitive case was made on purpose, but no one understood the hidden purpose of mocking the great and mighty. After all, there was no “debate” or debate in this campaign at all. Controlled by the "United Russia" and irremovable (since 1991) Governor V. Chub, the media (and there are no others in Rostov for a long time) dismissed both the "Socialist-Revolutionaries" and other participants in the political process. "Bears", as you know, do not dispute among themselves.
“Since PR technologies don’t work, and you need to get a percentage, alas, you have to resort to the last remaining means - an administrative resource,” says political scientist Stanislav Radkevich. “Hence, chaos.” On the night of March 3, at a post-election briefing at the Rosbalt-South agency, State Duma deputy from the Socialist-Revolutionaries Mikhail Yemelyanov told an almost mystical story: “I have never seen such an “election” technology! In the Orlovsky district there is a polling station with a very interesting number - 666. The head of the local branch of A Just Russia calls us and says: “What should we do at polling station 666? There, after voting, ballot papers were dumped on the table, and the chairman of the commission began to pack them. We say: “And count?”, And he replies: “Why count? And so everything is clear! Let's go home."
Restoring the true picture of voting is not easy. According to the opposition, the authorities removed unwanted witnesses from the "wrong" parties by any means. So, for example, student observers were threatened with dismissal from the university ...
Yevgeny Cherepakhin, head of the regional branch of A Just Russia, does not rule out that the result the authorities wanted was guaranteed by ballot stuffing. And if earlier “leftist” papers appeared after voting and the closing of polling stations, this time they did not hesitate to “dilute” them from 9.30 in the morning.
The main thing is turnout
There were micro-scandals and showdowns both in remote areas and in the regional center itself. At one of the city polling stations, we saw how communist candidate V. Bessonov called investigators from the prosecutor's office to sort out what he thought were obvious stuffing. The investigators meticulously drew up acts and protocols, and meanwhile, in the territorial commission, the sweetest female secretaries and assessors were already laying the table in the back room. Smoked sausage, cheese, cognac for male colleagues and champagne for yourself ... Stuffing, postscripts, other outrages - but where do they not happen? Well, the communists will grumble, well, the Zhirinovites will shout, and what now - to cancel the elections? Most importantly, the turnout in Rostov is 74%! And in the Milyutinsky district - even 88%. But the city of Zverevo let us down with its "irresponsible" - 46%.
But the head of the electoral committee of the Rostov region, Sergei Yusov, said: during the presidential elections in the electoral committee, only 16 complaints were filed. One foreign observer even worked at the elections - from Armenia, who was completely satisfied. And the main problem of voting was by no means stuffing, but heavy rain and squally wind. The triumph of a "better life" Sergei Chuev, head of the youth wing of the United Russia in the Rostov region, states that "the voter voted for stability." As if those who grew up in the conditions of “perestroika” and the “dashing 90s” did not see life better than today. Therefore, they vote for this better life.
At first glance, there is something to look at in Rostov. Better than ever, life has come in the form of luxury housing, hyper-, super- and simple markets, restaurants, casinos and boutiques of the best European companies. There are already Auchan, Ikea, OK, Porsche, Audi salons, boats and yachts ...
However, pensioner Irina Karaseva believes that she has seen life better than the current one, and “stability” refers only to communal problems that have not been resolved for decades.
On election day, Irina Dmitrievna went to the neighbors of her 9-storey building on Sokolov Avenue - "to beg." But she didn’t ask for alms, but for signatures for another petition to the Housing Office. The house, which has not been repaired for 40 years, has bad pipes. A little more - and the water, together with the sewerage, will flow into the apartments. The authorities know about this and are allegedly ready to replace the pipes with new ones. With the condition that part of the costs will be borne by the tenants themselves. According to Karaseva, people do not want to hear about additional fees. 15 apartments out of 56 are rented out. "Temporary workers" will not pay for anything, just as there will not be five alcoholics and drug addicts, two dozen pensioners who barely have enough to live on. The rest are ready to fork out only “theoretically”: let, they say, the housing office first report where the rent goes, if the roof of the house was patched at their own expense, if the walls in the entrance were not painted from the construction of the house, if the elevator did not work for four years (several hard-to-walk invalids were prisoners in their apartments), if the garbage is not taken out for weeks and rots under the windows, and the janitors exist only on paper, if newspapers with magazines cannot be subscribed to, because the surrounding homeless people and drunkards are constantly burning mailboxes.
“The whole of Rostov is a big Potemkin village,” says Irina Dmitrievna. - The facades on the central streets were painted with European paint, in some places the asphalt was replaced with tiles. But go into any courtyard, entrance - there is terrible devastation! Stink, rats run around... And the roads? Have you seen our roads?
And in fact, the asphalt in the city is also shocking for experienced drivers. The taxi driver drives his old Volvo like a combat lorry after enemy bombing. It is far from always possible to go around the pits flooded with spring rain. Even worse is to look for the right house (in a city of two million there are no luminous numbers on the houses).
The well-known Rostov writer, winner of several awards (including the Booker Prize) Denis Gutsko, correspondents of The New Times found in the distant Severny district after many phone calls and clarifications. Five years ago, he convinced everyone that "real stability" was needed. Now, I'm assuming everything's fine?
“If only…,” the writer regrets and adds that he has no hopes for Medvedev's choice. - Stupid time! The feeling of prolonged school holidays when you know that the end will come soon. And it's not about Medvedev. The problem is people who are happy with everything. Television with "ice ages", supermarkets, loans for whatever you want ... And no one takes the liberty to say that the people are dark, they are sleeping!
Denis is currently writing a book about young people involved in pro-Kremlin movements like Nashi. They were corrupted by empty ideology, lies about the future prosperity, and then they were abandoned as unnecessary. Political projects are over. Remaining: a hundred beers and a limitless selection of ringtones for your mobile phone.
“Society is seriously ill,” Viktor Makarenko, professor at the Faculty of Sociology and Political Science of the Russian State University, continues the theme. - Students are increasingly admitting that they have no convictions. Why not? Because the government cultivates political cynicism.”
One of the main propaganda theses of the local authorities is the commissioning in 2006-2007. 3.5 million sqm of new housing. According to experts, this figure is greatly overestimated, since it also includes the "self-build" of private individuals who build houses on their private farmsteads. In addition, about 60 percent of apartments in new buildings are purchased by residents of other regions (for example, "northerners") for investment purposes. 80 percent of everything built falls on one city of Rostov. For 10 years, the average cost per square meter in new buildings has grown from 300 to 2.5 thousand dollars. Housing affordability has plummeted.
