Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 16 – The All-Russian
Peoples Front, which this year occurred in Sochi so that Vladimir Putin could
attend, showed the Kremlin leader a video about the lives of Russians
today. His reaction to it highlights how
out of touch he is with the lives of ordinary Russians and how few answers he
has to their problems.
Yelena Yegorova of Moskovsky komsomolets reports that this
year’s session like its predecessors focused on the implementation of national
projects “which by 2024 are supposed to make the country stronger … and
Russians happier” (mk.ru/politics/2019/05/16/putinu-pokazali-shokiruyushhie-video-o-zhizni-rossiyan.html).
“To vary the format of the forum,”
she continues, “the organizers decided to show Putin clips taken by regional
media about the problems which are interfering with the successful implementation
of the national projects in the spheres of life which are most important for
citizens.”
He was shown scenes of villages
where residents can’t get medical care, schools with horrific meals, orphanages
with bugs, lakes full of sewage, decaying monuments, and similar pictures of
everyday Russian life. Not surprisingly, his claque, including TV star Yelena
Malysheva insisted that everything is better in Russia than elsewhere.
But Putin’s own reaction was the
most instructive. As to housing problems, Putin said he himself “had lived in a
building without an elevator and carried his neighbor up five flights when she
couldn’t get there herself.”
Presented with evidence that “not one
of the health care facilities residents of Crimea have been promised have yet
been built,” Putin had no answer at all.
According to Yegorova, he “clearly didn’t expect that the criticism
would be so raw.” He simply fell back on
talking about other things where there had been successes.
“A journalist from Yekaterinburg
asked him to comment on the situation which has arisen around the construction
of a church in the city square: ‘People already have been protesting there
three days. The situation is quite wild.” In response, Putin had a question for
the journalist: “’What are they, godless people?”
The Kremlin leader said he had heard
a little about the situation in the Urals city and was surprised because “usually
people ask that a church be built and here someone is against that. If these
are local people, and not activists from Moscow [a classic reference to ‘outside
agitators’], then their opinion should be considered.”
. And
when he was asked about the fires in Irkutsk Oblast and told that people there
believe that some of the fires have been set to cover illegal logging
operations, Putin was, Yegorova says, “forced to acknowledge that asking that people
have the right to put the question that way.” He had no answer as to what
should be done.
At
least two things about these exchanges are important. On the one hand, the
activists were not afraid to confront Putin with some of the unpleasant aspects
of Russian life, a development that suggests much of the magic of his figure
has worn thin and those who can are prepared to challenge him.
And
on the other, Putin’s reaction showed how out of touch he is with the lives of
ordinary Russians. He and his pocket television stars may be upbeat and happy
in their imaginary Russia, but Russians who have to live in the real one know
better – and more seriously, they can see that their president hasn’t a clue.
One
of the developments that precipitated the end of the Soviet system was the
growing sense among the population that their leaders did not know what was
going on in the country. Yury Andropov admitted as much, and many Soviets felt
that their leaders had never set foot in the country in which they themselves
had to exist.
Apparently
this pattern is being recapitulated under Putin something that may be far more
corrosive of his authority than almost anything else.
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