MOSCOW, December 8, 2007 -- The Russian parliamentary election charade is over, and the purportedly record turnout of voters has overwhelmingly backed Putin to do whatever he wants, exactly as the Kremlin string-pullers ordered.
The entire process has been carefully stage managed and orchestrated: Opposition voices were strangled and unheard; opponents were arrested and discredited; United Russia, Putin’s anointed party, overwhelmingly swamped newscasts on TV, the only medium that counts in Russia.
To what purpose? Nobody is sure, except that the stage is now formally set for the unhampered fine-tuning of the already all-powerful Putin government to assume absolute dictatorial power. Whether Putin will actually become an absolute dictator remains to be seen; but history is remarkably devoid of examples of power unused.
Many Russians are fully aware of what has happened, and how, but don’t object because Putin has after all stabilized their country and made their lives better. Salaries have doubled and tripled and are paid on time.
They are happy to leave their fate in his hands.
My student Dima, for instance, said he voted for Putin’s United Russia “because I’m better off than I was eight years ago and I think we need stability. It doesn’t bother me that we have…one-man rule, because if you have a bunch of people making decisions, nothing gets decided.”
The Kremlin’s heavy hand in the election was detailed in the Moscow Times a few days before the election when a “senior election official” was quoted as stating that the Kremlin had ordered each district to come up with more votes for United Russia than were predicted, “even if you have to stuff the ballot boxes.”
And they seem to have done just that.
My student Andrei showed me an Internet clip allegedly filmed by an observer from the liberal Union of Right Forces party showing an elections committee employee feeding ballots into an electronic ballot box by the handful.
Channel 2, the one channel that still occasionally shows some independence from the Kremlin, showed the clip and an interview with the head of the Central Elections Commission, Vladimir Churov, who implied it was a fake because there was a uniformed guard from the Emergency Situations Ministry in the room. No one from the ESM was on duty the polling places, he said. But the Service’s own web site stated flatly that they would have 50,000 uniformed men on duty at the polls.
And in one small village in a remote region, the mayor committed suicide before the election because he wasn’t going to be able to deliver the 90% vote for United Russia that was being demanded of him by the district political boss.
“Why did you or did you not vote yesterday?” I asked my human resources management class at Potemkin U. on Monday.
Only 4 of the 22 who responded said they had voted -- one so he would get the present given to every voter who votes for first time. The other three said they voted because it was their civic duty.
But the overwhelming majority did not vote, making even more suspect Kremlin claims that an unprecedented 60% of the Russian people had cast votes.
“I don’t believe in elections in Russia,” wrote one student; “and anyway, my vote wouldn’t change anything.”
Others said they didn’t vote because:
- “I think there is no democracy in our country, and elections are useless. Everybody knew who would win the election.”
- “….I don’t see any reason for voting.”
- “…I do not believe in the fairness of elections.”
- “…I personally have no interest in participating in elections.”
- “…I don’t believe in fair vote and democracy in my country.”
- “…I do not believe that elections are fair and politicians behave themselves honestly with citizens. In my opinion decisions had been already made.”
- “…I don’t believe that the elections themselves are honest.
Elections in Russia are a simple illusion that people vote. Actually everything was already done and paid. I personally didn’t go because I didn’t think that my vote…can influence anything.”
- “…I suggest that it doesn’t make any difference, because everyone knew that United Russia would win…. And if you knew who would win, it’s not important whether you vote or not.”
- “…I really don’t see good people, and everybody knows that United Russia would get the vote. And these people will decide what laws will be made….I don’t think that my vote would change anything.”
My student Ivan acknowledged that the vote was probably phony, but added that “most people really like Putin, and the vote probably reflects the feelings of most of the country.”
The question is what does all this elaborate pretense of a huge landslide for United Russia mean for the future of Russia?
The whole point was to give Putin the legitimacy to continue to be, if not the throne, the man behind it for the foreseeable future – probably for life. Just how he plans to do that is now the one big remaining question before the presidential elections scheduled for March.
According to the constitution, Putin can’t succeed himself, but there are a lot of other scenarios being bandied about, including the quick resignation of his successor, who would appoint Putin back to his old job.
It’s been a tumultuous three weeks since the Red Queen’s last pontification (Chapt. 271, Life without Igor restful but empty). It began when Sergei announced he had found somebody wanting to sell an electronic notebook for 5,000 rubles – about 200 Bushified dollars – and urged me to get it so I could have one computer to myself and they would use the other to play games on.
Since their constant use of my computer interferes with my work and my ability to produce this weekly chef d’ouvre, I reluctantly gave him the 5,000 rubles to buy it – providing he would try it out first, and if it didn’t work, bring me back the money.
Hours later, he still hadn’t returned, though he called and said the computer hadn’t worked and he would bring me the money back. Then Andrei, who had remained behind, disappeared about 9 p.m. saying he was going to meet Sergei somewhere in the outskirts of Moscow.
In the course of the remainder of the evening, they found a deal they insisted I couldn’t refuse, of which they informed me after they returned the next morning before I left for my 7:45 class.
They had returned about 6:30 a.m. bearing with them a cute little 18-year-old Moscow State University student named Sasha who it turned out was broke and had pawned his laptop to pay his dormitory rent. They had given him my 5,000 rubles and promised that I would pay another 8,500 rubles to the pawnshop; so for a total of about $ 450 I would be granted sole possession of a brand new – “it’s even got the guarantee” – brandless laptop computer, which Andrei assured me “a million percent” could be sold for $ 700 or $ 800 if I decided I didn’t want it.
We’d been talking about moving, which would probably cost a minimum of $ 3,000, and I needed the $ 450 a hell of a lot more than I needed the ignominious laptop.
When I informed him I wanted the money and not the laptop, he promised he would have it to me by Thursday. On Wednesday evening I went into their room, “Andrei,” I reminded; “tomorrow’s Thurday.”
And suddenly Sergei erupted as I haven’t seen him erupt in months. I managed to catch “Andrei was in a good mood, I was in a good mood, and you came in and spoiled it. You’re always ruining my good mood.”
“Well, that’s just a terrible shame,” I responded, giving them a wave of my hand and returning to the kitchen. He followed me. “Why did you tell us tomorrow was Thursday?”
“Because I want my money.”
“If you say another word, I’ll throw this teapot through the window.”
“You do, and see how long you continue living here,” I retorted, adding, “if you didn’t want me to say another word, why did you ask?”
As far as I was concerned, that was the last straw. I resolved then and there – again -- that he, Andrei, and I are parting company, though I don’t know exactly how soon.
The situation is complicated by the upcoming move. I can’t do it by myself, and Andrei has promised to get cardboard boxes for me to pack stuff in and to arrange a truck. I also need him and Andrei to actually find the new apartment.
I told Zhorik a little bit about the situation in a text message. “Why don’t you tell them to move now?” he SMS’d. I explained why and reminded him that I had once before told Sergei to get out, but that he had ignored me.
“I remember,” Zhorik replied.
That night Zhorik had a bad dream. He was coming home to me from the army, and Andrei arrived and told him that he could stay with me for only one day, and then he would have to leave forever. “Then I hit Andrei, and Sergei came running to defend Andrei and I hit him with a kitchen stool.” And the dream ended.
I interpret that as meaning that Zhorik is so afraid he won’t be able to live with me that he’s having nightmares about it.
The logistics and the complicated social aspects of going to visit Zhorik in Novosibirsk at New Near’s has been resolved – I’m not going.
In our exchanges about the situation with the twins, I once again asked Zhorik, “if Andrei doesn’t have the money to come with us, does that mean that you might not be able to get off post to stay with me?”
“How important is it to you to come visit me at New Year’s?” he asked in return.
Dreading the excursion with Andrei, I replied that “if I go, I want to spend lots and lots of time with you, and if there’s a possibility this won’t be possible, I think it would be better not to go and to save the money.”
“I think this would be the best solution,” he wrote back.
When I told Igor about this development in a phone conversation Sunday morning, his response was, “where shall we go? Maybe to Spain?”
I laughed. I certainly didn’t want to take any chances on another $ 2,000 non-trip to Spain, so I replied, “I doubt it. But I want to spend New Year’s with you – maybe I will go visit you in St. Peterburg or you will come to visit me, or maybe we will go someplace else. We’ll see.”
Igor actually returned last Wednesday, but only for a day. He and Finish wanted to borrow 15,000 rubles, about $ 600, to make a trip to Moldova to gather up a crew of workers to take back to St. Pete where they would then make $ 1200 to $ 1500 a month and would repay me immediately.
I lent them the money, but haven’t heard from them since. I figure their pipe dream wasn’t as simple as it sounded, and something has happened to their plans – and probably to my 15,000 rubles, which by the time they left had grown to 23,000 – about $ 1,000.
In any case, Sergei was livid that Igor wasn’t going to stay. I told Igor that I thought Sergei must love him very much and was simply enraged that Igor was going off and leaving him. Igor shook his head: “There’s a lot you don’t know.”
In his trademark fashion, Sergei has now threatened to kill him if he comes back. Though not a serious threat, he’s quite capable of beating him up, and Igor now won’t return as long as Sergei is here. This may be one reason I haven’t heard from him.
Once again, I have to excise Sergei from my life, but it’s not going to be easy.
Andrei says he is planning to go back to Stavropol after he helps me with the move. He and Sergei rounded up a big batch of cardboard boxes – probably enough to hold all my stuff, and a friend of Andrei’s has agreed to make the move. So all we need to do now is find an apartment.
I now have something like $ 7,500 in the bank, and my goal is to have $ 10,000 by New Year’s – though this will be whittled away by the move and by my trip to Spain. But at least I’m solvent.
Sasha, the sweet little 18-yr-old who returned with Sergei and Andrei and the laptop, is still here. I can hardly keep my hands off him, and have kissed him many times in the mouth, to which he does not seem at all averse. He strolls around shirtless and his tiny little body is absolutely hairless. I peaked down the front of his gaping trousers and could see just the hint of pubic hair.
He also plays incessantly with his dick inside his trou, which drives me up the wall.
But I haven’t been able to lure him into my bedroom, and probably won’t, because Sergei objected to my kissing him so much. “I don’t want him to know you’re gay.” Oh, well.
On Thursday morning, I learned that he had had a heart failure during the night. He had quit breathing and had no pulse. Andrei had given him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and Sergei had pounded his chest until he started breathing again. He said it had happened before and he seems to be okay now. The one good thing that came out of it is that he has sworn off smoking.
Ivan from Spain came to Moscow on business and dropped by the apartment Friday evening to lay our plans for my trip back to Ourense. We’re both quite excited. Although there will be no sex, there hasn’t been any here since Igor went to St. Peterburg, and now probably won’t be again until Zhorik gets out of the army next June.
I had dinner Friday night with Rod, my old boss from English Exchange, and among the things we talked about was perhaps my returning to the fold next summer. I’ll be 75 next July, and I frankly don’t see how my good fortune and stamina are going to continue for another year or two. He will also furnish an apartment.
Perhaps it would be better to settle down and slow down a little bit. Zhorik and I could live in the apartment. Between EE and my pension, and the few private students I could probably retain, I would still be pulling in about three grand per month with almost no expenses. Zhorik will also be working and contributing to the kitty.
Lots to think about, but lots of time left to do that.
See also related pages:
Chapt. #271 - Life without Igor restful but empty
