The line is nowhere

How Vladimir Putin rules the country without intermediaries and institutions

The president again talked with the people on a “direct line”, and one of the issues discussed concerned why the governors did not oblige the governors to use such a convenient way of contact with citizens. Putin supported this idea: you can take a closer look at the recommendations from below and arrange not only federal, but also regional straight lines.

It seems that the scenario of the latter is already ready: each governor, individual citizens who have elongated their happy ticket will report specific roofs or gas supply problems. After that, officials are materialized in the frame, and the roofs will be repaired, and the gas will go through the pipes. Perhaps residents of the Russian regions at the same time will be able to find out some cognitive facts about their leaders: for example, that the authorities are currently thinking about the geopolitical situation in the world, what kind of music he likes and where his shirts are stroked. Of course, if such liberties are not recognized as an attempt on presidential powers. Ramzan Kadyrov quickly reported that analogues of straight lines have long existed in Chechnya.

During the “direct lines” of previous years, I wrote that this format, in which the president is faced with his people, becomes the only political institution in the country. In Russia, where there is no hope of court, the ruling party does not risk losing the elections, the president cannot face criticism from the opposition during his reports to the parliament, and the media outline the “direct line” from the “Kremlin pool”, this is an innovative platform where the authorities and citizens publicly clarify each other's mood. If it is not possible to make ordinary democratic institutions for effective management, legitimacy of government decisions and feedback, domestic inventions come to the rescue.

Now there is nothing between the president and the people - only the “direct line” and the scorched field of Russian politics.

In 2021, this model was organically transferred to the regional level: we are ready to become the first country in the world where public policy and management are conducted in a television show.

On the “direct line” the president managed to speak out about a lot: the sinking of the British destroyer off the coast of Crimea will not lead to the third world war, the preferential mortgage has problems, but there are more advantages, the increase in vacation prices in Russia is due to the fact that people are afraid to go abroad, we went better than many other countries, including the work of the State Duma deputies, and the climate change. It can lead our planet to the state of Venus, where the temperature reaches 500 degrees Celsius, while the problem of garbage recycling in the Russian Federation is very acute.

But the most difficult thing is the “Direct Line” scenario falls on the most acute problem of recent weeks - a public conflict around voluntary (and forced) vaccination. The president finally said that he was accurate precisely the “companion V”, and recommended that everyone follow his example. At the same time, he spoke out against coercion to vaccination and stated that it was illegal to dismiss for refusing it. This design leaves the anti -pristes space for speculation and does not give a clear answer to the question of how Russia is going to overcome the third wave of pandemic with its record indicators of mortality.

Responsibility for possible new restrictions, as a year ago, is delegated by the leadership of the country to the level of regions: it is the governors that will collect all the criticism related to them.

In addition to these plots, citizens traditionally bothered the issue of president’s plans: will there be a successor and what Putin could do after retiring? Both of these issues in the current Russian realities look rather lying in the field of science fiction, since they are dedicated to the distant future, possibly, the era of transgumanism. After zeroing the Constitution of the successor, you can not search for decades. It seems that the president’s ironic answers are hinting at this. The time will come, and the successor will be named, and then the Russian people will decide whether to accept it. And after the resignation, you can do nothing, but “sit on the stove”, as Putin himself said at the end of the broadcast.

So the “direct line - 2021” captures the new contours of Russian political life. The president has no more public opponents or interlocutors, not counting the Russian people as a metaphysical essence, experiencing his unity with the national leader at the time of the main television show. The president does not promise anything else and does not make plans - it seems that in his eyes we already live in the best of the possible worlds.