By Alexei Summers (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 21, 2012
On March 4, 2012, the Russian Federation held its latest Presidential election. As a result of this election the Russian people are once again in shock as Vladimir Putin once again emerged victorious – surprise, surprise.
There were innumerable claims, far and wide across the outstretching mass of land known as Russia. Mass allegations of election fraud, ballot stuffing, bribery, and other such crimes surround the election – all, apparently, to secure Putin into office. Putin’s United Russia party won the election by a landslide of 63.64 per cent of the vote, with the Communist party now headed by Gennady Zyuganov coming at a not very close second of 17.14 per cent. Mikhail Prokhorov’s Independent party secured 7.94 per cent of the votes.
During the campaign for Putin’s presidency, protesters took to the street, 138,000-strong. They were led by Alexey Navalny, a man who commands enormous respect of the Russian people – many of whom believe the election results were illegitimate. Navalny is a Russian lawyer, a political activist, and a young charismatic leader who inspires the people the same way that Lenin once did in the days of the Bolshevik revolution. It is his belief that Putin’s government will not last, and that it should not last; he’s stated he will do whatever it takes to bring down Putin’s government through peaceful means. Navalny was jailed unjustly because of his role in the protest, but has sworn that he will not stop his actions to oppose Putin’s regime.
I will not say Putin is a bad man; I do not know him on a personal level. He seems to me to be quite the outdoorsman and the sportsman, and he is certainly very stoic, and very Russian. On a personal level I like that, and relate to that. His politics, however, bother me.
Putin is a man who denies Russia’s dark past and he seems to despise Russian culture, wishing to form something else altogether. He himself is an ex-KGB man, something he is not proud of. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he said he never truly believed in the communist ideology, but simply went along with it. Yet he also despises the west, and will do anything to blame the west for nearly anything.
He came under fire recently when he publicly announced that he had been working closely with Russian President Medvedev all throughout his presidency. This has largely been interpreted as puppetry: Medvedev merely someone he’d used to circumvent the law that no president can serve three sequential terms. During Medvedev’s presidency, Putin extended the presidency terms so that the next president of Russia would be able to serve two consecutive six-year terms if they so wish. This means, with Putin now elected, he could be in office until the year 2022.
Putin first took office from the President Boris Yelstin in 2000. He served his term until 2004. He was then reelected and served his term until 2008. If in the year 2018 he is reelected again, Putin will have served in office for 18 years. For a supposedly democratic new Russia, this is starting to sound a little anti-democratic. And with talk of ballot stuffing, foul play and election fraud, it’s certainly starting to sound a little like the game is rigged.
Russia faces a painful future with such a man at the helm. Putin doesn’t seem to want to relinquish his claim to the Russian presidency. We are once again reminded of the days of the Tsar or the days of the Supreme Soviet, where no progress could be made because of bad leadership. These systems could have worked – but it all depends on the man who is the supreme leader.
Putin’s Russia is a scary place. Journalists are shot daily for saying the wrong thing, or printing the wrong thing. Politicians are regularly assassinated under circumstances of extreme secrecy. Almost usually they’re found to have had a convenient little accident. It is a dangerous place to live.
The next Russian Federation elections—if it is still called that by the time of the voting—will be held in 2018. Putin will once more take office on May 7, 2012, as the official President of the Russian Federation, and we might be stuck with him for a long, long time.
Will Putin lead Russia into ruins? No. Russia is already in ruins. But can he allow this bright phoenix of flame to rise from the ashes?
