"United Russia" from its sincere voter

March marked a year since Putin returned to the presidency, and Dmitry Medvedev headed the government and (a little later, in May) United Russia. I remember these days well: there was a feeling of impending change in the air, and it seemed that the authorities were morally prepared for them. While still president, Medvedev initiated a number of political reforms and voiced the concept of “Open Government”. And, of course, when he became the leader of United Russia, everyone expected that the party would also begin to change. And now a year has passed. The only emotions that the current United Russia evokes are melancholy and despondency, forgive my frankness.

Usually those who vote for the opposition call themselves deceived voters. But the real deceived voter is me. I voted for United Russia not according to the rules. No one persuaded me or forced me, I voted because I liked how the country was beginning to change. And let me remind you that there was no worthy alternative on the horizon. Well, in fact, it was not for the Stalinist falcon Zyuganov to vote for and not for the humorist Zhirinovsky. “A Just Russia,” which actively pretended to be an opposition party when it suited it, quickly changed lines at the first whistle and expelled Dmitry Gudkov from its ranks—a great opposition, right? I wonder what those who voted for her then on the principle “for any other party” think about their choice now.

Despite all the shortcomings of United Russia (and I see them no worse than our oppositionists), I believed that with proper leadership it could do a lot. In Medvedev's hands, the party could become a real engine of reform. If you think about it, the party in power, with its colossal regional structure and human and administrative resources, is an even more powerful tool than the government with its bureaucratic ministries. It would seem that now that Medvedev is directly at the helm of the party and government, it will be easier for him to move from the right words to concrete results. Moreover, judging by the team that was recruited during the creation of the “open government,” there were many people - experts, politicians, businessmen, public figures who were ready to support this direction. Therefore, I quite sincerely voted for United Russia, although I understood perfectly well what would pour out on me from the Internet after that. And over the course of a year I watched the evolution of the party. Only this evolution has moved in some completely different direction.

In essence, United Russia has ceased to be the party in power. Real political decisions are not even discussed in the party; Vladimir Putin and some other key party figures (Vyacheslav Volodin, Oleg Morozov) left the party altogether. Others, such as Sergei Shoigu and Andrei Vorobyov, are formally members of United Russia, but are immersed in their areas of responsibility and have no time for party work. What does the party itself do?

So, last week, Dmitry Medvedev, within the framework of the new project “Civil University”, came up with very sound theses, called on the party for a more open and civilized dialogue with the media, invited United Russia members to move from Moscow to the regions in order to develop them, in general, as always, I said all the things that I want to support. What's actually happening? In fact, if party members move somewhere from Moscow, it is definitely not to the Russian regions. With a civilized dialogue with the media and society as a whole, everything is also the same as always. You look at Deputy Isaev in this never-ending battle with MK and think: “How much free time he has.” Apparently, all the problems in the country have already been solved, the only thing left is advertising of prostitutes on the pages of MK. And it would be nice if the discussion from this topic grew into a discussion of some general problem (well, for example, should prostitution be legalized, how to legislatively regulate this entire area, etc.), but in reality we see only a transition to personalities and endless pointless talk show. Why then even start this? If Mr. Isaev has so much free time, it would be better to spend it on fitness - and that would be more beneficial for the party’s image.

United Russia, in theory, should set the agenda. But all the news stories that we see today in connection with United Russia are some kind of scandals, bickering with the opposition, loud statements. Meanwhile, the most important reforms are practically not discussed, and all issues are resolved behind the scenes. “Open government” has long been forgotten, as if it never existed at all. The law on education, a topic close to my heart, was adopted in the most usual manner: ready-made decisions were sent down from above, dragged through the Duma at supersonic speed and forgotten. Well, why, instead of a showdown over advertisements about prostitutes on the pages of Moskovsky Komsomolets, it was impossible to have a broad discussion on education or health care reform on federal channels? Is this a less interesting topic for people?

From the outside it seems that both the party and Dmitry Medvedev are being purposefully “merged.” All these videos in which the Prime Minister either advertises badminton, or calls not to break traffic rules in front of a BMW X5 (which is more like hidden advertising), all these speeches by the press service about “Dimon” - in general, all the information coverage of Medvedev’s activities seems to be purposefully designed for in order to undermine the serious attitude towards him. I’m not a supporter of conspiracy theories; most likely, this is just a matter of professionalism of the prime minister’s PR people, but the trouble is that this image is easily stuck when no real tangible results are visible.

But it would seem that what’s stopping you: experts are ready to get involved in the work, the budget is growing, neither elections nor the “revolutionary masses” are distracting attention anymore, the party still has an absolute majority in parliament - well, who’s stopping United Russia from calmly taking over for the cause? Instead, the deputies have some kind of ongoing war - either with the press, or with opposition bloggers, or with “spies,” or with American senators. Dear United Russia members, if you have forgotten, your voters are still alive and still seem to be waiting for your election promises to be fulfilled.

Let me remind you that the first point of the program was “modernization of the economy, the education system, technical re-equipment of industry, improvement of the investment climate, creation of infrastructure for innovation.” What do we have there with Skolkovo? Have you forgotten about him, like about “big government”? The second point was “health care modernization.” I would also like to know how this issue is progressing. The third point was about “eradicating corruption, openness of information about the income of officials.” Here, it seems, the eradication began with the deputies themselves, and this, of course, is a step forward, but why is all this happening as a reaction to blogger revelations? Isn’t the party itself interested in being the first to raise a wave of struggle against corrupt officials in power? And, frankly, I’m not at all sure that those deputies who have been criticized recently are the biggest corrupt officials in our country. The fourth point was “strengthening the judicial system on the principles of independence, transparency and fairness.” I’m not an expert, but I wouldn’t say that Russians’ trust in justice has somehow grown over the past year.

I won’t list all the points, and it’s already too much for a blog post; my whole thought could be put into a tweet: “Dear United Russia members, I cast my vote for you. A year has passed. Can I find out about the results of your work?”

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