2023-12-20 14:30:00
The poster is beautiful, it finally announces a liberal opposition candidate in an election that we know is played out and rigged in advance. We still have to believe in magical opponents in a period where those who oppose the President and the war are systematically pushed into exile or put behind bars, when they have not been poisoned. What if Ekaterina Dontsova had been entrusted with her role as opponent by the Kremlin?
Unsurprisingly, the Russian opponent saw his appeal once morest his 19-year prison sentence for “extremism” dismissed out of hand by a Moscow court on Tuesday. Already inhumane, his conditions of detention will become even harsher.
Straw opponents, an old technique
This would not be new. During each presidential election, Vladimir Putin, and Dmitri Medvedev during his only mandate, created what in Russia is called a “Kremlin project”. In 2000, the opposition managed, via the Yabloko party, to participate in the election, but from 2004, it was an independent liberal MP, Irina Khakamada, who played the role of opponent to the Kremlin. In 2008, it was a Freemason close to the opposition, but praised by Vladimir Putin, Andreï Bogdanov, who led the campaign to divide voices critical of power.
In 2012, Sergei Mironov, close to liberal business circles and today totally involved in the Putinist ranks, played the game. During the last presidential election, in 2018, he was the television and opposition star Russian liberal Ksenia Sobchak, who had been secretly pushed by the Kremlin to participate in the presidential election to encourage Alexeï Navalny’s activists, supporters of abstention, to go to the polls.
Give the illusion of disturbing power
Ekaterina Dontsova makes the remarks of a moderate opponent. “For ten years, the country has been going in the wrong direction: the course has not been taken towards development, but towards self-destruction,” she writes on her site, assuming her wish not to criticize Vladimir Putin. She also advocated for the end of the war, the release of political prisoners and democratic reforms. Enough to border on illegality.
The candidate would suffer the wrath of those in power, but with… moderation. During the meeting on December 17, the electricity was temporarily cut off in the building, the police carried out some checks, without arresting anyone. The candidate can no longer receive bank transfers as part of her campaign. Enough to create the illusion of harassment to pretend that the candidate is disturbing?
The bad news keeps coming for Ukraine: is Putin winning his war?
Objective: divide opposition voices
These candidates unofficially promoted by the Kremlin have the particularity of remaining vague regarding their financing and their objectives in the event of victory. If they seem to threaten the Russian president with their positions, this is in reality never the case. Since 2004, they have never managed to obtain more than 5% of the votes. The Putin system is well established, it allows total control of the influence of political figures. Dontsova’s candidacy is, for example, briefly discussed by regional media, but silenced by state media.
The goal is to divide opposition voices. In 2018, the most critical citizens of power abstained, voted for Ksenia Sobchak or voted for the systemic opposition (communist or nationalist parties). The Russian president also gains more participation, enough to legitimize his vote, which he can also present as competitive. The campaign topics presented by Ekaterina Dontsova also seem to correspond to the understanding of social anger, as seen by the Russian intelligence services. The traditional opposition is concerned regarding political repression: the candidate calls for the release of political prisoners. A social anger appeared outside of the opposition with the war: it thus speaks of peace and the return of the men mobilized from the front…
Candidates have until January 25 to submit their 300,000 signatures to the central electoral commission. In the past, this institution under total control of the Kremlin had invalidated the signatures of numerous opponents to prevent their participation in the elections. If the commission validates Ekaterina Dontsova’s candidacy at this deadline, suspicions once morest her regarding her real motivations will only increase within the Russian opposition.
Just nominated as a presidential candidate, he pledges allegiance to Putin
Russian nationalist and Kremlin loyalist Leonid Slutski, named Tuesday by his party as candidate for the March 2024 presidential election, immediately promised that Vladimir Putin’s victory will be “enormous”. Mr. Slutski’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) is one of the political groups constituting the parliamentary opposition on paper, but which in reality supports the master of the Kremlin.
Leonid Sloutski is the first candidate designated to face Mr. Putin, and a few others, equally attached to the Russian leader, should follow. “I am not going to call for a vote once morest Putin. Voting for Slutsky and voting for the LDPR is absolutely not voting once morest Putin,” he told the press on Tuesday.
This 55-year-old MP, who also chairs the Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, is a fervent supporter of the assault launched by Vladimir Putin once morest Ukraine almost two years ago. In 2018, he was accused of sexual harassment by several Russian journalists. A Duma Commission did not follow up on these accusations, which were rejected outright by the person concerned.
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