The Kremlin carries out a clear plan to resolve any possible surprises in the elections of 2021 and 2024.
“The ruling party” or “party of power” — as called United Russia. In reality, they are usually just a vehicle for voting in the state Duma and regional parliaments, the arms of which run in the presidential local gubernatorial administrations.
However, after the Kremlin decided that United Russia will remain the main representative of the Russian government in the upcoming 2021 elections to the Duma, around the party inside and it started a real debate.
What to do with “bears”?
On the eve of the Congress, former Advisor to the speaker of the state Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, the Director of the Institute for parliamentary development Alexey Chadaev, together with the Russian center for public opinion research presented a study on the attitude of Russians to the “party of power”. The document was immediately criticized by part of the expert community for vagueness and bias. For example, because respondents to the poll, answering the same questions sociologists clearly put absolutely different meaning to the phrase “party of power”.
However, judging by the comments of the authors of the document, they are not excited. Your report they prepared, as rumor has it, on the direct order of the presidential administration — to show that United Russia has no alternative, because that is the party majority of Russians want to see in the state Duma. Of course, with caveats that it must be less bureaucratic, more efficient, etc. That is, in Soviet bureaucratic language, it is necessary “to get rid of certain shortcomings”.
It is, in fact, the rationale of the course, which the presidential administration chose the fall of 2019 as Central to preparation for the elections of 2021. Before this, however, experts said that the Kremlin has no choice. “Hiding” United Russia voters under the guise of single-mandate self-nominated and does not work, replace the EP to the new ruling party — just not enough time. To turn the “United Russia” in the usual party, focusing on the Union of several Kremlin-controlled forces, also fails. Now it’s a forced decision presented as a success. The Russians want United Russia, the party needs to meet their expectations.
To the elections accidentally left linings, the government already included the administrative resource and ordered all the governors-United Russia to head the party branch. To sit under a Bush does not work for anybody — everyone has to sacrifice part of their reputation to ensure the landslide victory of “United Russia”.
Coalition foreign agents
At the same time, the state Duma, United Russia continues to surpass Kremlin’s plan for the tightening of the legislative screws. So-called “law of Yandex” its author recalled “for editing”, after the largest Russian Internet holding himself offered the state a way of establishing control over it. But the deputies had many other repressive ideas.
In one meeting, on 21 November they passed the third reading just four of them. First, have imposed multimillion-dollar fines for failing operators in different communication systems, like WhatsApp or Telegram, from the transfer of the FSB encryption key correspondence users. Along the way, setting a fine for refusing the transfer to Russia of the user databases.
In addition, the lawyers, previously deprived of the status for “nefarious reasons,” were forbidden to act as representatives in the courts that some “systemic opposition” in the Duma boldly called “ban on the profession”. Along the way, the Duma has ordered all retailers to install before selling on the phone “Russian software”, thus adding control over the communications of citizens.
Finally, in the third reading were adopted and amendments to the law “On mass media”, which is introduced in Russia, the concept of foreign agent — a physical person, as well as media-registered as a foreign agent are obliged to create within a month a special legal entity in Russia, which will be responsible for their broadcast, even if we are talking about the foreign media.
Rumor has it that all of these laws is supervised by the presidential administration, which carefully and clearly controlled the Il adoption. This is a new “repressive package”, like the “Spring package”, which is all to the same elections of 2021 followed by a presidential election in 2024, to solve the problem of the establishment of full control of the Kremlin over the information space in Russia. In the framework of the plan to minimise the possibilities of political opposition and defeat of civil society organizations and NGOs around which could unite protest-minded citizens.
Well, for the remaining time the citizens should explain that the part they want to choose is “United Russia”, so don’t need anything more to look for alternatives anyway.
© 2019, paradox. All rights reserved.
