| "Rodina" goes to the Moscow City Duma through purges The winner of the Battle of Paris may be retired General Yuri Popov. Neither the Paris airport nor even a metro station will be named in his honor. But the Rodina party, thanks to deputy Popov, who heads its Moscow list, and his “federal” colleague Dmitry Rogozin, who in their pre-election television commercial almost openly called uncultured Caucasians “garbage”, may gain more votes in the December elections to the Moscow City Duma than sociologists predicted .
The appearance on city television channels of, to put it mildly, politically incorrect advertising for “Motherland” at the height of immigrant unrest in Europe is probably a coincidence - it is unlikely that the party’s PR specialists would have had time to quickly respond to the riots of the young part of the Muslim diaspora in France, Belgium and Germany. However, it is clear that Mr. Rogozin's party is going to make the most of this coincidence. He himself, citing reports from France, has already appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a demand to carry out preventive measures to identify and neutralize potential rebels in the Caucasian and Muslim diasporas. And in the video, the leader of Rodina proposed a simple method that literally coincides with the statement of the head of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, Nicolas Sarkozy, who called for “riding the suburbs of Paris of scum.” Dmitry Rogozin and Yuri Popov call for “clearing Moscow of garbage.”
The plot of their video is memorable: grotesque “persons of Caucasian nationality” eat watermelon, scattering the rinds right on the street. Including under the wheels of a baby stroller being pulled by a Russian girl. Following her, one of the characters in a cap says, with an accent characteristic of bad actors: “Let’s come in large numbers!” Messrs. Rogozin and Popov are watching this picture shoulder to shoulder. Then the leader of Rodina approaches the Caucasian and sternly says: “Take it away.” He doesn't react. Then General Popov comes into play, asking with emphasis on the second word: “Do you understand Russian?” The video ends with the above-mentioned slogan, and even those who do not speak Russian very well understand that “garbage” does not only mean watermelon rinds.
Such a radical approach to solving national problems in the capital has not yet embarrassed any of the officials responsible for holding elections in Moscow or overseeing compliance with the law. In any case, it was not the prosecutor’s office or the Moscow Electoral Commission that took the initiative to check the content of Rodina’s political advertising, but the TVC channel that broadcast this video during the holidays. The managers of the channel, which, according to the law, are threatened with warnings and fines for the liberties of candidates, sent an appeal to the city election commission with a request to evaluate the video material from the point of view of political correctness. The Moscow City Election Commission forwarded the appeal to the city prosecutor's office, citing the fact that there are experts on the problem who can sort it out.
Rodina itself naturally believes that there will be no need for the intervention of the prosecutor’s office. In a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, deputy Yuri Popov argued that the pre-election video was exclusively about the fight against unsanitary conditions. “Dirty territory is bad. The city must be clean, and we appeal to Muscovites to maintain cleanliness. And I ask about the Russian language in the video only because that person does not respond to the request,” assured Mr. Popov, known mainly for his unsuccessful attempts to propose to the Moscow City Duma a bill on introducing “national-cultural quotas” for visitors in the Russian capital.
However, some experts, even from the retelling of the story by journalists (on the first working day after the weekend, when lawyers could evaluate Rodina’s PR move, the dubious video was no longer broadcast) drew different conclusions. “If the media adequately convey the content of this advertising video, then, in my opinion, it contains signs of a crime under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code “Inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity,” Mikhail Krasnov, vice-president of the INDEM Foundation, told Vremya Novostey. - But the difficulty of applying this rule lies in the very little judicial practice in such cases. Hence the abundant involvement of experts who draw their conclusions depending on their own attitude towards xenophobia.” According to lawyer Pavel Astakhov, a large number of examinations - psychological, philological and even artistic - are explained by the need to understand exactly what reaction advertising materials evoke among the population. “In America, where they react very sensitively to even hints that could humiliate someone’s national dignity, lawyers, when determining whether or not there is a crime in nationalist calls, analyze what reaction these slogans can cause in people,” said Mr. Astakhov in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent. - That is, can calls lead to people feeling hostility towards a particular nationality? And if the material under study contains such calls, if they can be interpreted by a large number of people in this way, then we are talking about deliberate incitement of ethnic hatred.”
According to experts, the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Justice and election commissions have enough tools to punish those who speak out with nationalist slogans and to stop calls heard from television screens that can offend the national feelings of citizens. At a minimum, we can talk about a warning both for the parties and for the media that distributed the materials. “Our law “On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation” provides, in my opinion, even too harsh sanctions for such campaigning - up to the judicial cancellation of the registration of electoral lists,” the secretary told Vremya Novostei Union of Journalists of Russia Mikhail Fedotov.
However, it is unknown whether the authorities will use the legal tools they have in relation to Rodina. Which, however, causes dissatisfaction with the current leaders of the Moscow City Duma and their other election actions. As the speaker of the capital's parliament, Vladimir Platonov, told Vremya Novostei yesterday, he has already sent a letter to the city prosecutor asking for a legal assessment of other statements by Dmitry Rogozin, who previously promised to “bring people out into the streets” if the election results seemed falsified to Rodina. “I understand that the political struggle is intensifying before the elections, but its participants should not go beyond the law. In a multinational state, which is the Russian Federation, pitting nations against each other is a crime,” said Mr. Platonov.
But, apparently, after the failed attempt of former Rodina member Alexander Lebedev to compete with Yuri Luzhkov in the mayoral elections in the economic field, Dmitry Rogozin’s party intends to fight to expand its presence in the capital’s parliament, playing the nationalist card. Until recently, the small “Rodina” members in the Moscow City Duma, where the overwhelming majority are United Russia members, and the remaining factions number two or three deputies, were distinguished mainly by scandalous but unpromising bills - like the already mentioned initiative of Mr. Popov to restrict entry into Moscow or attempts Deputy Evgeny Balashov to introduce a curfew for teenagers. However, in the new composition of the Moscow City Duma, Mr. Rogozin’s associates are counting on at least second place.
The United Russia members, who still have a monopoly on the Moscow City Duma, although they are reacting to the actions of Rodina, still hope that the national patriots will not be able to use the conflict that shook one of the largest countries in Europe for election purposes. In a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, Vladimir Platonov expressed hope that the events in France will not in any way affect the results of the elections to the capital’s parliament. According to him, the experience of Paris should be used by Moscow in order to understand the causes of the outbreak of violence. “Smart people learn from other people’s mistakes. There is no need to make hasty conclusions about what is happening in France based only on the television picture. We need to figure it out. Crime has no nationality. Social insecurity creates the environment and pushes people to crime, so the state must not only punish, but also protect,” says Mr. Platonov.
“The wind from France is blowing into the sails of national patriots,” warns the famous sociologist Yuri Levada, who believes that Rodina’s position may strengthen if Dmitry Rogozin, Yuri Popov and their like-minded people are not given an adequate political and legal response. According to the Levada Center, in October Rodina in Moscow shared second place with the democrats united on the basis of Yabloko. According to polls, 21% were ready to support United Russia, 8% - Rodina, and 9% of Muscovites - Yabloko. However, sociologists note that the nationalist electorate is much more active than supporters of democratic parties, who tend to ignore elections. Therefore, with a projected voter turnout of 32-35%, the voting results will look different. If the Moscow City Duma elections had been held a month ago, 42% of those who came to the polling stations would have voted for United Russia, 16% would have voted for Rodina, and only 13% would have voted for the United Democrats. Mr. Levada did not predict how the “Paris” card played by the patriots could affect the election results, but noted that Rogozin’s associates are “active people who know how to seize the moment.” Alexander GUDKOV, Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA, Yuri KOLESOV |
|
