Dmitry Oreshkin* - about the elections

Political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin (included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents) on the YouTube channel “NO.Media from Russia” says :

“The intrigue is whether the ritual is preserved or not. For the last 25 years, the democratic public has been saying: “Listen, since these are not elections, then I’m not participating in them. Let them give me fair elections, then maybe I’ll tear myself away from the couch, so be it.” Who will make fair elections for you if they suit this government? If this ritual suits her, from cycle to cycle it becomes less and less dependent on the audience - say, the participants in this very ritual, whose functions are essentially spectator functions, and the boss has all the key questions.

So the big news and what you call intrigue is that either a new generation of people has come (we see that mostly young people are signing up for Nadezhdin), or something has changed in public opinion when, with full understanding that this such that these are not European elections, that this is not a serious competition, that the votes will be counted by the same people in the same commissions, suddenly people realized that since this is a ritual, as I understand it, it can be ruined, since the government depends on him.

And power depends on him. Even in Soviet times, when 99.9% painted, new asphalt was laid before the elections, benches were painted with beautiful green oil paint, and even, sometimes, sewer risers were brought into stores or changed. Despite the fact that the result was known to everyone in advance: 99.9% for an unbreakable bloc of communists and non-party members.

Now the situation is striving for Soviet ideals, but has not yet achieved them. Therefore this process is important. And the fact that people suddenly began to participate in it - they are no stupider than you and me, they understand that this is such a game, but they began to perceive this game, as far as I understand, as a legal way of demonstration.”

* included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents