Counter politicization

Results of regional elections: authorities can no longer, but citizens do not yet want

The results of the regional elections on September 13, especially against the backdrop of events in Belarus, seem insignificant and unworthy of attention to us. This, of course, is not so, and “boredom” in this case is a “pro -government emotion”: it is precisely such an attitude to the elections that they expect from Russian citizens in the Kremlin.

In reality, on the eve of the State Duma elections, which, most likely, will take place next spring (artillery is already conducted by Ella Pamfilova), the current Triune Day designated two most important things.

First of all, the authorities know that its candidates have lost the ability to win the elections in the old way. So to administrative pressure, sterile ballots (these are those where there is no one, except for the only boss) and the total financial and media superiority of pro -government candidates, also “convenient procedure” of multi -day voting was also added, tested for the first time during the pseudo -referendum on the Constitution. Thus indignant and non-competitive politicians from the previous political era put straws in order to somehow go to the State Duma, by combining the burning of state employees on sections on the "early" days and night ditching of votes if necessary.

The “triune” vote is already becoming the main electoral instrument of pro -government candidates: for example, in the elections of the Governor of the Irkutsk Region, a little more than 30% to two -thirds of voters voted ahead of schedule.

In addition, observers and independent candidates record the growing “leaky” elections when provocations and physical violence become the standard method of “political struggle” (literally): several such cases on September 13 were recorded, for example, in Komi.

Normalization of electoral violence was also indicated in the course of "Knipping the Constitution." Then, in particular, the policeman directly on the polling station broke his hand in the photographer of Mediazone David Frenkel, and the UK refused to institute criminal proceedings on this subject.

Political pragmatist in all this is primitive: if you can’t win the elections, make it not quite the election, and right further.

On the other hand, this growing authoritarianism is faced with the grassroots politicization of citizens . And this second thing that you need to know about the current elections.

An increasing number of people in Russia seeks to use their passive suffrage and represent the interests of their fellow countrymen. It is still difficult to evaluate the scale of this phenomenon, but in terms of dynamics it is most reminiscent of politicization at the beginning of perestroika - with all accompanying historical parallels.

New politicians have no resources so far to challenge the authorities at the level of large regional elections, especially since it is the easiest way to “sterilize the ballot” there, excluding 2-3 dangerous competitors of the local united Russia. But pressure from below forces the authorities to suffer serious losses in cities.

That is how opposition campaigns in the Novosibirsk and Tomsk City Councils became possible: several real critics of power broke through the first with Sergey Boyko, in the second United Russia sensationally lost the majority. These campaigns were conducted in the complete absence of resources and under pressure from the special services, but neither these circumstances, nor even a multi -day vote allowed to stop politics.

In the current conditions, the key contribution to the ability of citizens to participate in real politics makes, by the way, the features of the local “electoral culture” are made: where election commissions are used to counting relatively honestly, pro -government candidates tolerate crushing defeats.

These two processes are developing in counterclaims: on the one hand, the authorities build an increasing number of barriers on the path of democratic will, on the other hand, citizens refuse the authorities in trust and politicized. With this baggage, the country advanced towards the federal elections of 2021.

And if you recall Belarus, then the strangest and even wild position today is represented by supporters of the eternal boycott, as if the mantra repeating “how can you participate in this imitation of the elections, because it is still known who will win them”? Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko would approve such a formulation of the question.