Young people’s bitter gift for Putin's birthday
Opposition groups moved and organized even without their leader, Alexsej Naval'nyj, in prison since October 2. Putin - in power for 20 years - has not yet confirmed his candidacy in upcoming presidential vote but it is feared that he will be elected by a large majority for another 6 years. An expiring regime. The strange benevolence of the Moscow police.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - A new wave of spontaneous protests raged across nearly 80 cities in Russia on October 7, marking Vladimir Putin’s 65th birthday. The president was celebrating in one of his exclusive villas near the capital with his most trusted friends, including former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi (with whom he shares a love for luxury residences); young supporters of Aleksej Naval'nyj overturned the streets to wish him a happy birthday, perhaps accompanied by his retirement.
Naval'nyj, a blogger and opposition leader, was arrested last October 2 and sentenced to 20 days in jail while trying to organize an unauthorized meeting with his campaign supporters for his candidacy in the next Presidential Elections. From prison. He called on addressing his followers in St. Petersburg to gather in the Field of Mars, where he was supposed to have launched his campaign. The protest spontaneously spread throughout Russia, with the slogan "Meetings with Naval'nyj even without Naval'nyj". His Moscow staff officials said he did not foment the events, and that they were "not sure they were a great idea, but we cannot stop people from going out on the street," commented Nikolaj Ljaskin, the movement’s coordinator in Moscow .
Against a new mandate for Putin
Following the arrest of the opposition leader, all the support centres for his 2018 presidential nomination decided to organize pigeon protests, stating that Naval'nyj's arrest aims to prevent him setting out on the campaign trail in various regions, which are gaining considerable success. The blogger's supporters have billed this repression as unlawful and unjustified, which even arrives at preventing the opening of clubs and all kind of events, despite the peaceful nature of the movement. For them, such repression reveals the authoritarian face of the Putin regime. Navalnyy himself, in the last six months, spent almost the entire time in jail.
The date of October 7, the president’s birthday, has become particularly symbolic. If in spring the juvenile protests were focused on the corruption of high ranking figures of the regime, especially Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, now the goal is Putin and his endless occupation of power. The deplorable reactions of the security organs - at least 250 arrests throughout Russia - reveal the nervousness that these actions generate in the high spheres.
Putin has not yet declared that he intends to submit for a new six-year term in March 2018, which would keep him in office until 2024, but all the predictions would confirm his re-election. Nor is the plebiscite dimension of the victory questionable, which would get no less than 70% of the consensus; the possible decline from 71.3% in 2012 would be insignificant. What seems to be worrying is the change in the political climate: in 2014, after the annexation of the Crimea, Putin's popularity was high; nowadays young people express their intolerance towards a leader who is increasingly wary and paralyzed in his internal and external policy of isolation, similar to the old Soviet secretaries of the late Communist Party.
An expiring regime
Putin is trying to probe the consensus, but also needs the unconditional support of the population, especially the masses of youth. The country's ideological radicalization signals, due to the rhetoric of war and nationalism of recent years, a progressive depletion of the reasons that have kept the president in the saddle for 20 years. Many people feel the stale odour of an expiring regime, even though they are now devoid of alternatives, which is increasing the risk of disorder and rioting.
Perhaps this, as well as the exaggerated reactions of the police to the crowd, has surprised the unexpected tolerance of law enforcement in Moscow, where the protesters were accompanied by great deployment of security forces, but without pressure or arrest. The cops even formed a safety cord, allowing young people to march out of Pushkin Square almost to the Kremlin; the few detained for excesses were immediately released, without even drawing up the arrest report.
The explanations of this sudden benevolence are varied: the relatively low numbers of the group of demonstrators, to whom they did not want to give too much importance; the absence from Moscow of the head of the police (Vjačeslav Kozlov, retired three days before the protest); the will not to disturb Putin’s celebrations; and finally a new approach proven by law enforcement, not to provide unintentional fuel to the Naval'nyj campaign.
In fact, arrests and convictions so far have contributed to giving more visibility to the anti-Putin movement. Since the gift for the president's birthday was rather hard to digest, perhaps the same president decided not to give gifts to his opponents in turn.
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29/03/2017 10:29
