Payment for selectivity

The expulsion of the Father and the Son of the Gudkovs from Fair Russia showed what price parliamentary parties should pay for the right to disagree with the General Line of the Kremlin

Gennady and Dmitry Gudkov had to pay for the right to sit in the Constitutional Court of Opposition, the fair Russia party billets

“It is very difficult to refuse when they put a loaf in your hands and say: eat as much as you want,” says Gennady Gudkov, expelled with your son on March 13 from Fair Russia. We are talking about a proposal that “dear people” made him in exchange for a public refusal to participate in protest movement. “It was possible to provide life, maybe five to ten generations forward,” he says not without some regret. But Gudkov Sr. refused the “karavoy” and, as a result, lost the business at first, then the place in the State Duma, and then the party card.

Traveling there and back

The special forces began to fraternize with the "Belarusians" right in December 2011. The party officially delegated the opposition rallies of its prominent deputies. Sergei Mironov, the only one among presidential candidates, included in his program the “requirements of the Bolotnaya” to dissolve the State Duma and early elections, and in the election interview with The New Times, he was happy to boast of his opposition and radicality (see No. 43 of December 19, 2011 ). Famous representatives of the unsystematic opposition, in turn, went to Astrakhan to support the starving directory of Oleg Shein and helped to arrange a protest procession by local standards there. And even the Kremlin against the radicalization of the once manual party, invented as the “second leg of power”, did not object-although in the spring of 2011, frankly wet Mironov for much less sins.

But then May 2012 came, Putin officially took office, and the Kremlin began the last and decisive battle with a street opposition.

“After May 6, there were many different conversations, and Mironov, apparently, was convinced that the protest was no longer peaceful, it would be radicalized,” says Gennady Gudkov, Gennady Gudkov. - A peaceful protest and are now trying to give out for a certain marginal mass, which supposedly calls for riots. I think that all this affects some of our comrades, and they are simply afraid that they will suddenly say that she almost goes to the barricades. Well, it is clear that the Kremlin is sleeping and sees when this protest movement will go home. Because he already controls the Duma, the court, all kinds of public organizations, but only one thing cannot control - the street. And this, along with the Magnitsky act, scares our power the most. ”

Of course, the reference "repainted" is not at the same time. In June 2012, they still managed to organize the sensational “Italian strike” when considering amendments to the law on rallies and actively participate in the opposition procession. And in September, Mironov made a fiery speech from the Duma rostrum in defense of Gennady Gudkov, calling his expulsion from the Duma “the gross violation of the Constitution” and “extrajudicial political reprisal”.

But after a couple of months, the leader of “Fair Russia” was as if replaced. “U -turn over the Atlantic”, according to Gudkov, occurred on October 27 at a kind of ordinary party conference. “Mironov, in his speech, unexpectedly paid the main attention to the protest and criticism of those who support him,” Gudkov recalls. - But the conference did not make any decision. Some, let them were more, said that they were against protests and exiting the streets. But others objected that in no case should one sit down in this flawed parliamentary democracy, which besides no longer, it was destroyed. ”

It was from this day that the leaders of the Fair Russia undertook to diligently prove their loyalty to the Kremlin. In December, most members of the faction voted for the "Law of Dima Yakovlev." In February, Oleg Mikheev was deprived of the inviolability of the reference, but Mironov, unlike the case with Gudkov, did not act on behalf of the faction and did not leave high -profile accusations against opponents. Yes, and consulting with associates regarding important laws, the leadership actually ceased. "Just bypass the hall under the slogan" Petya, you need! " Who needs it? " - Gudkov is perplexed. As a result, by the spring there was only one occasion to dissatisfaction with the party - the presence of its two members, Gennady and Dmitry Gudkov, as part of the coordination council of the opposition. Because, as Gennady Gudkov is sure, even "ridiculed, persecuted, not very well -organized CS is nevertheless today is an annoying number one irritating factor today."

Coercion to loyalty

The exclusion of the Gudkovs from the party was initiated by its leaders Sergey Mironov (second on the right) and Nikolai Levichv (right)

In order to explain to the opposition, what they should now sacrifice for the sake of their “chosenness”, the authorities had to resort to some active measures. But the Kremlin did not invent anything new, limiting himself to the traditional method of whip and gingerbread.

The set of power measures turned out to be quite familiar - the expulsion from the Duma, deprivation of deputy inviolability of doubtful accusations, and pressure on party sponsors. These methods are good in that the Kremlin allow the Kremlin to kill two birds with one stone: to squeeze out specific hated characters from the opposition parties and at the same time intimidate everyone else.

But the gingerbread, in the words of Gennady Gudkov, turned out to be “very sweet”: in November last year, budget financing of parties that scored more than 3%in the State Duma elections was increased immediately by 2.5 times (from 20 to 50 rubles per voice), and even retroactively from January 1, 2012. For example, the same “fair Russia” under the old law received 174 million rubles in 2012, and according to the new one, another 260 million. “That is, the parties say: guys, we will support you, you will no longer run with an outstretched hand,” Gudkov explains. “But then you, please, will not let us down: you don’t go to this marginal opposition, which is supported by the hell, to hell with tenths of percentage, and these screamers either take off or get rid of them ... The idea must contain parties that have public support. But now, in these conditions, it looks like a bribery. ”

Another type of gingerbread is bonuses of government posts. Last year, the LDPR received a reward for many years of service to the Motherland: its deputy Alexei Ostrovsky was appointed head of the Smolensk region. And in February 2013, even before the expulsion of the Gudkovs, his first governor appeared on the Fair Russia, which embarked on the path of correction. At the post of acting The President decided to appoint the heads of the Trans-Baikal Territory not one of the deputies of Ravil Geniatulin, who ruled there for 17 years, was far from the most noticeable member of the Konstantin Ilkovsky reference faction, who, moreover, did not work in the Duma at all in Transbaikalia, but in Yakutia.

Constructive cooperation with the Kremlin brings systemic opposition to tangible material benefits

The Knut and Gingerbread method fully experienced the Sr. Gudkov himself. His story The New Times should be brought about this completely: “They acted with me according to the rules - according to the rules of the mafia. At first they warned me. I will not name the names of respected people, the whole country knows them. They told me: Gudkov, tie it, do not do this, you will ruin your life and your son - he is a good guy where you draw him? Then the second stage: they just tried to buy me by offering tempting prospects for both me personally and a serious position for Dmitry. If we publicly abandoned the protest movement, we would be integrated into a certain system that gave us the opportunity to live in a civil service in a civil service, to saw and roll back, to perform other traditional actions for power. Everyone is honest: they say you want - tomorrow we can start discussing the details. Well, then they said: Ah, he was not afraid, did not buy - go ahead, guys, we urinate! ”

However, in fairness it should be recognized that increased requirements are now presented to United Russia. “If, under the previous president, deputies from the party in power had at least a minimum of freedom, today there is a tough team: such and such a law-by such a time. We saw this on the example of the Law on rallies, ”says Vadim Soloviev, State Duma deputy from the Communist Party. “If there is some kind of discussion, then it is all on the sidelines, at such a working, hardware level, somewhere inside. And out - only okay and approval, ”former deputy Gudkov echoes the communist.

True, the case is also not limited to one approval. It’s not enough to press the “FOR” button in time for United Russia - you also need to sign up with the whole faction to the authors of the next epoch -making initiative, as it was with amendments on foreign agents and the “Law of Dima Yakovlev” (in the latter case, even the Duma opposition and almost all members of the Federation Council mobilized). Popular option “Take my card and vote as you want” either no longer goes away: for this, as the example of Alexander Sidyakin, who left the hall, showed, so as not to vote for the ban on adoption, you can also pay a promising position in the Popular Front. Well, the ongoing series of “voluntary” resignations of influential and wealthy parliamentarians in the wake of scandals around their accounts and property shows that the Kremlin refused even the rules of “we do not pass our own”. Now it is just right to replace him with “salvation of the drowning people - the work of the drowning people themselves”: they say, if you skillfully encrypted, then live calmly, but if you lit up - sorry, you yourself are to blame.

Lenin course

Although the “fee for loyalty” now seems to be an integral element of the Putin's controlled “democracy”, this concept has recently appeared.

In the 90s, there were no question of such requirements for the opposition, since the very concept of systemic and non-systemic opposition did not exist. “No one was squeezed out of politics forever, even after the prison,” recalls the State Duma deputy of the first four convocations, co-chairman of the RPR-Parnas Vladimir Ryzhkov. - Alexander Rutskoy* chose the governor, Anatoly Lukyanov ** for a long time headed one of the key committees of the State Duma ... Everyone had a chance, and the system was polycentric. "

The situation has changed slightly at the beginning of the zero. The “early” Putin received the support of various political forces not by force pressure, but due to skillful maneuvering: for example, his idea of ​​returning the Soviet anthem was warmly supported by left-wing, and 13 percent income tax-right. And with his associates, the presidential administration, as a rule, agreed in a good way. “They argued, convinced, invited, found some compromises,” recalls Gennady Gudkov, who then consisted in the pro-presidential group “People’s Deputy”. - It happened, they did not find (compromise) - and voted against. But at least the administration then worked - and not as a superplant with a whip, but from the point of view of the conviction of the deputies. ”

And only by the end of the second Putin term, a certain unspoken code of loyalty was developed, the main point of which was the attitude to the “national leader”: you can criticize the government, individual ministers and even the leading course as a whole, but Putin himself never. Therefore, let's say, the ATP, who ignored this rule, flew out of the system, and the reference, which limited their opposition to criticism of “United Russia”, remained.

Well, with the return of Putin to the Kremlin for the third term, this code was simply decided to bring to perfection. “The system has become black and white: a corporate state has been created, where all structures are built into vertical,” Ryzhkov explains. -Lenin once spoke of trade unions as the drive belts of the state. So, all four Duma parties finally became such belts, only of different colors wound on the drum of the presidential administration. A year ago, when it seemed that the balance of power could change, the belts were slightly ill - so it happens with mechanisms. But Putin returned on May 7, pulled up his belts and restored the corporate state. ”

It seems that there is nowhere to increase the current threshold of loyalty - except to oblige all existing parties to join the All -Russian Popular Front. But if problems with the people are added in power, then even such a crazy option will no longer look so incredible.

Will we wait?

Photos: ITAR-TASS, Denis Vyshinsky/Kommersant, Dmitry Azarov/Kommersant