7 Mar 2012 | Russia
The first protests after Putin’s victory were nothing like the merry mass demonstrations of the past months. An unprecedented mobilisation of special forces from Moscow cracked down on the 20,000 protesters at the end of the opposition demonstration in Pushkin square last night.
In spite of the first exit polls that were suggesting a second round might occur, Vladimir Putin won the presidential elections again last Sunday with an imposing result of 63.75 per cent of the vote. He is thus set to remain the President of Russia for another 6 years, and will be able to run for one more 6-year-long mandate after that.
Allegations of fraud persist. Following the parliamentary elections 3 months ago, which were widely perceived to be unfair, a great number of Russians got involved in the election monitoring process. Twitter feeds exploded with reports of election rigging from the early hours of Sunday morning, and did not stop until after the closure of polling stations. People were eager to document and record occurrences of “carousels”, where groups of people vote several times at different polling stations, usually travelling in small buses.
Masha, an observer in central Moscow, said: “the fraud is still happening, but the methods have somehow changed, and we are struggling to figure them out. Commission members are using erasable pens, which is not illegal, but certainly odd.”
Gesturing to a nearby voter, Masha added: “That girl, for instance, looks underage, but we are not allowed to check her documents. Up to 8% of people who voted at this polling station did not appear in the official lists, but voted using “otkrepitelnye”, documents allowing them to vote somewhere else“.
Mihail, observer in Altufevo, in the northern outskirts of the capital, was happy with the way the electoral process was going in the late morning hours. In the evening he called to say that severe violations occurred: “A great amount of voters who were not in the lists this morning have been included in them during the day. A carousel of some 100 people came in a neighbour polling station. We complained to the regional election commission, but all our complaints were rejected”.
On the positive side, the past few days have been a time of great active citizenship in Moscow. The choice of around 30,000 Russians to monitor on the fairness of the elections in person produced a big amount of political public discourse. Elections turned from a boring, barely noticed appointment which is better to be avoided, into a participatory process in which all the information available is rapidly assimilated and shared for further use.
But this did not happen everywhere, and did not involve everyone. Rural areas remained virtually untouched by the new wave of political interest that is evident in the big cities. For those who visited it in the past, the turn around in Moscow is a great surprise. Nicolas, a Swiss broadcaster told me: “Back in 2006, the only people who were talking about Russian politics were us, the foreigners. Today, you can hear people discussing Putin, Prokhorov and Navalny in most of the cafés”.
Those who thought that this political awakening would make a visible impact on the result of the elections were bitterly disappointed. The evening after the polls were counted, activists hit the streets once again, and nationalist groups responded with counter-actions. The biggest protest took place on Pushkin square, in the heart of Moscow. The numbers were much lower than those of the December demonstrations, and yet it felt as though the square could not hold any more people. Nearby streets were clogged with an impressive deployment of special corps, and the general atmosphere was quite gloomy, a totally different story from the joyful mood of the Garden Ring eight days before.
The protesters did not try to march towards the Kremlin, as it was previously announced. Instead, many of them stayed on the square once the official protest was over, provoking violent reactions from the police. Among the arrested — and soon released — were anti-corruption lawyer Aleksey Navalny, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, Duma MP Ilya Ponomarev, Time magazine reporter Simon Shuster.
There are two things that are clear after the events of the past few days: protesters won’t stop their actions, until the whole of Russia is following them. What is less clear is Putin’s reaction to the discontent. Now that he cannot count on Medvedev’s image as a progressive liberal to balance his iron reputation, will he use good or bad manners to deal with those who question his legitimacy? The bright days of the protests may be over together with last night’s demonstration.
6 Mar 2012 | Russia
Two protest rallies were held in the centre of Moscow claimed Vladimir Putin stole the Russian presidential election. The fact that the major protest was sanctioned by Moscow authorities didn’t prevent the police from arresting hundreds of people in an enormous security operation that saw thousands of police officers and soldiers flood the centre of the capital.
The sanctioned rally – on Pushkinskaya Square – gathered 15-20,000 people. Protesters demanded new and fair presidential and parliamentary elections, and repeated the requests of previous mass protests: immediate release of political prisoners, registration of opposition parties, the resignation and investigation of head of Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov and new democratic election laws.
Although President Medvedev proposed simplifying the registration process for political parties and restoring citizens’ rights to elect governors and mayors, opposition leaders remain sceptical, especially as the bill is vague and would not come into force for a couple of years. The Duma is due to pass the legislation after Putin takes presidential office, and opposition activists believe he might want to cancel the political reform.
People at Pushkinskaya didn’t seem to trust neither Medvedev or Putin. “We are the power”, they chanted, “Russia without Putin” and “A thief must be in prison, not in Kremlin”. Supported by several hundred reporters, Left Front movement leader Sergey Udaltsov said from the stage that he would stay in the square “until Putin leaves”. Soon after the rally ended many key opposition leaders Alexey Navalny, Ilya Yashin and Udaltsov himself were arrested. Activist and Duma Deputy Advisor Alena Popova broke her arm after police pushed her to the ground.
The other rally was unsanctioned and held by Eduard Limonov, leader of opposition movement “The Other Russia” near the Central Election Commission building. The commission refused to register him as a presidential candidate and Limonov was arrested as soon as he arrived at the rally, along with many of his supporters. Another protest rally for fair elections was held in Saint-Petersburg, where 500 people out of 3000 participants were arrested.
Most people who were arrested were released after several hours, accused of breaking the law on rallies.
5 Mar 2012 | Russia
Vladimir Putin has regained his position as president of Russia after Sunday’s election. According to the Central Election Committee, Putin got 63.82 per cent votes confirming him as winner without the need for a second round of voting. The second highest result was achieved by communist leader Gennady Zyuganov with 17.8 per cent of the votes. The other candidates, oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, LDPR party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and former Duma speaker Sergey Mironov, all had less than 8 per cent of votes.
Zuganov described the election results as “illegitimate and unfair”, while Mironov, Zhirinovsky and Prokhorov accepted their defeat and recognised Putin’s victory.
Vladimir Putin made a speech in front of his supporters in Moscow’s Manezh Square saying his victory was “clean” and the elections were “a test” that showed “Russian people didn’t let anyone impose their will” to destabilise the country. This statement is in line with Putin’s previous allegations against the opposition. President Dmitry Medvedev said they “won’t give this victory away to anyone”.
Opposition and journalists reported numerous fraud allegations, along with the suggestion that Putin’s supporters were paid to appear at central squares on 4 March for money and were bussed in.
Watchdogs from the League of Voters reported over 3,000 election law violations. The same number was reported by GOLOS association, another independent monitor.
Most violations include ballot-box stuffing and “carousels’ — when a group of the same people vote several times at different poll stations. Carousels often included police officers, plant workers and the military.
Mikhail Gorbachev has said he doubts that “election results reflect real public mood”.
Russian citizens held mass protests against Putin’s third presidential campaign run, and plan to continue protesting. Putin became president in 2000, 2004 and in 2008 he supported Dmitry Medvedev, who made Putin prime minister.
A sanctioned rally against Putin and for fair elections will be held on 5 March on Pushkinskaya Square in the centre of Moscow.
17 Feb 2012 | Russia
Authorities in the Siberian city of Barnaul have refused to sanction a dolls’ protest rally, claiming toys are not equal to people and so cannot participate.
Rights activists had planned to place 100 Kinder surprise toys, 100 Lego figures, 20 soldiers, 15 soft toys and 10 toy cars on the snow in Barnaul’s central square with tiny placards to protest against corruption, violations of election law and article 31 of the constitution which guarantees the freedom of assembly.
Organisers from the local GOLOS election watchdog department and Voters’ League rights activists called the authorities’ refusal absurd.
The activists have pledged to hold the protest action on 18 February anyway, but instead of a rally they plan to make it a series of single pickets, which, according to Russian law, do not have to be sanctioned.
Similar toy protests were held in Barnaul in January without any authorities’ sanctions and became successful among the public and foreign media [photos available here]. Their purpose was simple: authorities refused to sanction a traditional rally against allegedly fraudulent elections, and activists came up with a creative idea of toys protesting instead. Toys held placards saying “United Russia is united against Russia”, “I’m for clean elections”, “Send bears (the symbol of the Putin-led United Russia party – Index) to the North”. Barnaul Prosecutor’s office considered the toy rally “a public event which requires authorities’ sanction”.
Meanwhile protest activists in Moscow are trying to get human protest actions sanctioned. They planned a follow up to this month’s rallies against unfair elections on 26 February in the celebation Russian traditional holiday — Pancake week — with a slogan “Farewell to political winter”. It implies the burning of the winter effigy which is most likely to feature Putin’s face. Organisers are receiving controversial statements from Moscow city administration. They are going to hold the action anyway; if no sanction is given, it will take the form of a flashmob.
After protesters see off the political winter, they plan to gather in Moscow’s Garden Ring Road and create an unbroken circle around the city centre holding hands. Protesters estimate this will require not less than 34,000 people. The purpose of the “Big White Circle”, as protesters call it, is to remind the authorities none of their demands were fulfilled.
The only people who do not have any problems organising rallies now are Putin’s supporters. Their rally is to be held on 23 February, and it is expected that Putin himself will attend. The last rally in his support was held the same day tens of thousands people protested against his run in presidential campaign, and was marked with scandalous reports of how people were threatened or paid for supporting him.
