PEOPLE VOTE FOR BULLS

AFTER THE ELECTION

The leaders of the "United Russia" reported on the widespread victory in the regional elections held last Sunday. They didn't tell the whole truth. In Siberia, a dissident Vandea was found - in the elections to the city council of Nazarovo (Krasnoyarsk ...

The leaders of the "United Russia" reported on the widespread victory in the regional elections held last Sunday. They didn't tell the whole truth. In Siberia, a dissident Vandea was found - in the elections to the city council of Nazarovo (Krasnoyarsk Territory), the Eurasian Union beat EdRo with a three-fold advantage. 53.8% of the vote against 17.6. The list of "Eurasians" was headed by the deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly Anatoly Bykov. The former owner of the region, who has not yet lost his influence in the shadow spheres. An authoritative legislator, suspended for 6.5 years for organizing an attempted murder and amnestied for covering up another murder.

It is clear that the townspeople did not vote for the political platform of the "Eurasians", but for a specific person (more precisely, for a myth) by the name of Bykov. For his countryman - here he spent his childhood and adolescence. Against the backdrop of the ruling "elite", he seems to the Nazarovites a model of honesty. The rest of the names of the "Eurasians" did not matter. But, of course, Bykov is not going to return to his native land, he is preparing for elections to the regional Legislative Assembly - they are coming in the spring of next year. Probably, the current governor of the region and a prominent figure in EdRa, Alexander Khloponin, will still defeat Bykov. But it's unlikely to be easy.

That's progress. In the spring of 2004, Bykov's electoral bloc won the elections to the city council of Krasnoyarsk, overtaking EdRo (United Russia supported then the administrative and economic bloc of the mayor's office "For Krasnoyarsk!") by 8%. Now - more than 36%. Then Krasnoyarsk residents voted simultaneously for President Putin and Deputy Bykov. Here people love them almost equally. Personally, Bykov is elected to the regional parliament (the last time - in 2003) with approximately the same percentage as Putin.

In Russia, the apparatus of suppression works selectively. With his help, Bykov was designated a "habitat": twice they were not allowed into the State Duma, withdrawing his candidacy before the elections. And inside the region, it is permissible for a “conditional criminal” to frolic. And the people themselves, it turns out, yearn for Bykov to write laws for them. Of course, such a choice is also a diagnosis of the people, their quality. But first of all, this is a diagnosis of the authorities that gave society such a hero. The internal authorities have always considered their games with Bykov (at the expense of taxpayers) to be their internal affair. And the taxpayers themselves, at the exit from this "black box", were presented with this miracle - Bykov the politician. It was thanks to the efforts of the authorities - from the security forces and secret services to the presidential administration (even under Yeltsin), where Bykov was invited to negotiate on the structure of the regional government - he was created the image of almost a national hero. Honest people's oligarch.

Democracy can favor not the most deserving. It is impossible to imagine, however, Americans electing Alphonse Capone as a senator or voting for those whom he would publicly support, it is impossible. It's about laws, courts and police - gangsters are simply not allowed to meddle in politics. If these mechanisms do not work proactively in a state, such a state is dangerous for its citizens.

Capone rotted in jail for tax evasion. Bykov for organizing an attempted murder - at will.

Power is powerless to put an end to the phenomenon it has generated. And society even likes this phenomenon. Society has seen faces in power and more terrible. Bykov's popularity is no longer under the regime's control. Fighting the hero of a folk epic is recklessness. Evil love.