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Russia is protesting against unfair elections, not against Putin | Ekaterina Zatuliveter
Wednesday, 14 December 2011 16:07

Russians are not naive; we know past elections have been dirty. But United Russia's shameless cheating represents a new low

The Russians are not the French. We don't go on the streets every weekend for a protest simply because we have no other plans. The Russian people only protest openly when we are hurt to the bottom of our hearts. We aren't naive, we know we've never had fair elections in our history. But why are we protesting now? Why not at previous elections?

Last week we found out that there are many degrees of unfairness. Some of it can be tolerated, and some simply cannot. If we go back to the 1996 presidential elections in which Boris Yeltsin and Gennady Zyuganov both won just over 30% in the first round and were preparing for a runoff, Yeltsin made a deal with General Lebed, who finished third with 14.5%, to convince his supporters to vote for Yeltsin. It was a dirty, unfair, undemocratic deal, but Yeltsin didn't rely on counting votes as it pleased him, however people actually voted. Instead he was determined to convince people to vote for him.

In the 2007 parliamentary elections the United Russia party won 64% of the vote. Everybody in Russia knew those elections weren't exactly fair. The police and army were forced into supporting United Russia; some parties weren't allowed to participate in elections for ridiculous reasons; TV channels didn't give equal time to different parties; the 7% threshold didn't allow most parties to get any seats in the Duma and so on. But still, some people decided to vote for United Russia. They had their reasons, and we are not to judge.

The problem with this month's elections was that those 25,000 to 100,000 people (everybody gives different numbers) who were on the streets of Moscow, and hundreds of others in other Russian cities and in the rest of the world: none of us voted for United Russia, nor, in many cases, have we met anybody who did. And that was a problem, not the 7% threshold or time dedicated on TV, but open and shameless cheating with the count. Where are the 49% of people who voted for United Russia? Even President Medvedev's wife voted for the Fair Russia party. The authorities felt they were a shepherd with a flock of sheep, but they were wrong. As one of the protesters in London said: "The Russians have grown from people into citizens." These citizens are able to think for themselves, act as individuals and would not allow their votes to be counted for them.

On the night before the 10 December protests I could not sleep. I was worried about protesters in Moscow. It's so easy for the violence to be sparked when hundreds of thousands gather in the same area. In the morning I could not sit still, I was ready to go and participate in the London solidarity protest already by 8am, although it was not supposed to start until 11. It was not a question for me whether to participate or not. I was as deeply hurt as all other Russians were. There was simply no choice.

The important point to stress is that these protests are not against Putin, as some believe. They are against unfair elections. Whether Putin has got a chance if fair elections are held is a different question, and it's up to an every individual Russian citizen to decide.

Will we achieve a re-run of the election and fair count of votes? We will have to see. In case of a re-run I would vote for Yabloko again, as I did on 4 December. Yabloko is a relatively small, leftwing party that I have never been a member of, but always voted for. The reason I vote for them is because I believe more parties should be able to be represented in the Duma, but the unfair 7% threshold doesn't allow them to get in.

However, the question I can't stop asking myself is if Yabloko is given the same "opportunity" as United Russia to count votes as they please, would they use this "opportunity" or not? Honestly, I don't know the answer. Probably, Yabloko doesn't know the answer either.

Ekaterina Zatuliveter

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source:
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/14/russia-protesting-elections-not-putin

 

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