A United Russia? Far From It
By VALERY PANYUSHKIN
NYT
Moscow
A FEW months before this week’s parliamentary elections, around 10 of us gathered in a small room at the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center, a place meant to honor freedom of thought, a place that no one visits.
Boris Nemtsov was there, a former deputy prime minister whose opposition party was one of the many excluded from the elections. And so was Viktor Shenderovich, who hosted a popular satirical TV show and now performs only rarely in tiny clubs. There were entrepreneurs with no business opportunities and lawyers kept from the courtroom. And then there was me: a disenchanted former political reporter.
During the many years of Vladimir V. Putin’s rule, we lost our jobs and so much more. So our luckless gang had met to ponder what to do about the coming elections, all too aware that nothing could be done about them.
This is how parliamentary elections work in Russia: Mr. Putin’s party, United Russia, faces off against collaborating parties — which would never dare to criticize him. And the real opposition parties are banned. But one cannot simply vote against every party involved. Nor is there any use in boycotting, because the election would be considered legitimate even if no one but the prime minister and president showed up.
(More here.)
NYT
Moscow
A FEW months before this week’s parliamentary elections, around 10 of us gathered in a small room at the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center, a place meant to honor freedom of thought, a place that no one visits.
Boris Nemtsov was there, a former deputy prime minister whose opposition party was one of the many excluded from the elections. And so was Viktor Shenderovich, who hosted a popular satirical TV show and now performs only rarely in tiny clubs. There were entrepreneurs with no business opportunities and lawyers kept from the courtroom. And then there was me: a disenchanted former political reporter.
During the many years of Vladimir V. Putin’s rule, we lost our jobs and so much more. So our luckless gang had met to ponder what to do about the coming elections, all too aware that nothing could be done about them.
This is how parliamentary elections work in Russia: Mr. Putin’s party, United Russia, faces off against collaborating parties — which would never dare to criticize him. And the real opposition parties are banned. But one cannot simply vote against every party involved. Nor is there any use in boycotting, because the election would be considered legitimate even if no one but the prime minister and president showed up.
(More here.)
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