Everything to show up, everything to win

Election campaign and a small cozy cult of one leader

Of all the arts, the most important for them is the art of increasing turnout. During the holidays, Patriarch Kirill personally spoke out on the issue of turnout. In an interview given not to anyone there, but to Dmitry Kiselev himself and repeatedly shown on the Russia 24 channel, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, among other things, spoke about the traditions of church democracy, about how important every vote is in the upcoming elections, and about that it is not only possible for an Orthodox person, but downright necessary, to take part in the elections.

The vocabulary and the level of arguments - if we ignore the arguments about the traditions of church democracy - are such that it is not the head of the church talking to the flock on Christmas, but a lady agitator from the local election commission came to visit an irresponsible pensioner. But it's not about vocabulary and arguments. We are not surprised at that. The sleepy country is just beginning to crawl out of a drunken vacation, and one of the main trump cards is already flying onto the table. Who is more authoritative than the patriarch? Who else is left to mobilize for turnout propaganda? Who is in reserve at the presidential administration? Sergei Shoigu, Alla Pugacheva? Donald Trump (quid pro quo, as those Russians say)?

Turnout, experts explain, is needed to make the national leader feel calmer during the upcoming presidential term. A high level of support, which is impossible to demonstrate without a high level of turnout, is a mandate for the president, a guarantee of approval of any of his decisions, including difficult or unpopular ones. In fact, such explanations come up before every election, but the main thing is that they cost nothing. The president did not need any special mandates for making decisions that determined the fate of the country for years, or even decades to come, such as, for example, the decision on the Anschluss. And now it is not required. Handle without a warrant.

The president did not need any special mandates for making decisions that determined the fate of the country for years, or even decades to come, such as, for example, the decision on the Anschluss. And now it is not required. Coping without a mandate

There is another way to explain the pursuit of turnout, which, however, does not contradict the first one and is just as convincing: a high level of support, which cannot be demonstrated without a high turnout, is an argument in a dialogue with the West, evidence that the foreign policy course chosen by the leadership of the people The Russian Federation approves entirely. Well, yes, of course, the president is much more interested in external affairs than internal ones, but it seems that no one in the West (including Trump’s friend) is in the mood for dialogue, even the president, it seems, has already become convinced. The Syrian victories did not eclipse the Ukrainian problems in the eyes of the capricious Western partners, and, to put it mildly, they did not arouse the expected enthusiasm. And the president does not even have the habit of looking back at the people of the Russian Federation when building a foreign policy course.

While the opposition is weak (and the opposition is weak), while the only candidate from the opposition can simply be taken away and not allowed to vote, habitually spitting on the Constitution (and we see that it is possible, and we also know that the all-Russian action announced by Alexei Navalny on January 28, the situation is not change), the Kremlin has no rational reason to fight for turnout. The result of the elections is known in advance, and there is nothing to prove to anyone. Putin is our president for at least another six years, and it doesn't matter whether we like it or not.

There are no rational reasons, but there is a serious impulse, since at the start of the campaign the patriarch himself was thrown into battle. So, it is worth thinking about irrational reasons. About the vanity, for example, of the protagonist of the pre-election production, who doesn’t need anything, but it’s damn nice to feel like not only the president of Russia, but also the leader of the overwhelming majority of Russians. Leaders generally be more fun. It is precisely the president who needs some kind of mandates, the approval of voters, maneuvers and compromises. And the leader needs only a constant demonstration of the love of his subordinates. The delight of children, volunteers, workers and representatives of the creative intelligentsia. Something like a small, cozy cult - for self-complacency and faith in one's own infallibility.

And for an ordinary resident of Russia, this means only one thing - until March 18, 2018, he will be inundated with stories about the importance of turnout, the fatefulness of choice and the value of each vote. He will be told about it by crooners, religious leaders and city officials. TV, radio, newspapers, kettles, irons. Senseless from the point of view of rational arguments, agitation for turnout will also become merciless in relation to the layman.

Once upon a time, when we were frivolous and young, one of the young people who were part of our company got married. And his wife always picked him up from the bar before we even started to have real fun. And the wisest of us, who had behind him the experience of either two or three divorces, saw off his sad friend with an invariable remark: “The guy is now having a difficult period. He just needs to get through it."

Wisdom does not deteriorate with age. The same is worth remembering about the election campaign that has started, if, of course, your own mental health is a value for you.

* The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors