From the Urals to Channel One

Out of the corner of my eye I saw footage from Dozhd of some meeting with a very, very, very sad Khloponin and immediately thought once again how ridiculous and even vile the appointment of the Kholmanskys to the post of plenipotentiary representative of the Ural Federal District looks. That is, the authorities in the person of GDP not only showed that everything is now allowed to them, but also completely discredited this already artificial institution. How the successful manager Khloponin must feel, whose resignation from the post of governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory for the appointment to the post of plenipotentiary representative of the North Caucasian Federal District is still regretted by the majority of Krasnoyarsk residents, who were actually pointed out to the worthlessness of his position, is even difficult to imagine. Still, the more a person is inclined to perform his duties decently, the more persistently the regime tries to use him in such a way that he has minimal opportunities to demonstrate these qualities.

Well, in fact, there’s really nothing to say about the appointment of Rurikovich - the power of speech disappears by itself when trying to give this gesture at least some adequate assessment. No, we have previously observed the suicidal tendencies of the top people making unpopular, absurd decisions, who are accustomed to imitating rather than actually working. But suddenly, in the complex Urals, which, in addition to everything important and other things, is also a freedom-loving territory that once gave birth to the harsh Sverdlovsk fate, a certain “working man” appears, who has never seen power in the shop anymore, and therefore is inexperienced and not spoiled by it, who is memorable for the fact that he completely cardboardly swears allegiance to the tsar-guarantor for reckless service, offering to come and deal with the offenders. I could be wrong, but from this one spectacle a real Ural worker, if he were interested in the modern political moment, would definitely experience repeated facepalms. But who will ask him, the real one?

And it turns out that the well-known slogan “All power goes to the workers” seems to sound noble, but certainly not in this story. Here it is important, first of all, that the viewers of Channel One are satisfied, everything else is nonsense, not worth any effort or attention. After all, imitation is intended to have an emotional impact, without material consequences, making an impression on the consciousness of only those already involved. And the artificially created institution of plenipotentiary representation, as we can now say without any doubt, is to imitate even more, because nothing living is destined to be born from the dead. Although, with regard to the specific situation in a specific Ural Federal District, it can be assumed that the opposition movement will very soon acquire a new, strong protest center in the form of the Urals, tempered by the spirit of freedom. But as for Khloponin (and people like him, although I don’t know others), all that remains is to regret and sympathize. And sincerely.