Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 25 – The most
important story of the weekend, Ivan Rodin of Nezavisimaya gazeta says,
is that Vladimir Putin has repeated the same hard line against protests he took
in 2011 and that instead of challenging him, the extra-systemic opposition has
backed down and retreated into the fratricide for which it has become
known.
The head of the politics section of
the independent Moscow newspaper says that those who thought the Kremlin leader
was signaling a softer line by speaking about the need for everyone to obey the
law were wrong and that in fact, he is maintaining the same hard line against “disorders”
he took eight years ago (ng.ru/week/2019-08-25/7_7658_politicsweek.html).
That has been shown to anyone who
doubts that the Kremlin intends to continue its hard line by the announcement
that the authorities would pursue criminal charges against some protesters and not
give permission for a new demonstration on August 31. Instead of going ahead anyway, the opposition
quickly fell into two traps it has often landed in in the past.
On the one hand, some want to go to
court to challenge the decision, an action that works for the authorities not
only because it allows them to pose as defenders of the law when in fact they
control the courts but also because no decision will be handed down until after
the date passes, thus giving the powers that be a double victory.
And on the other hand, the
opposition has begun to engage in the fratricide for which it is so infamous,
Rodin continues. Aleksey Navalny “by tradition” was the first to make a move in
this direction, proposing that the opposition vote for any candidate who had a
chance to defeat pro-government nominees.
Many in the opposition would be
prepared to do this, but not if it made them appear to be following Navalny,
the Nezavisimaya gazeta journalist says.
Instead, they attacked him and his basically reasonable suggestion in
ways that further limit their own influence and thus give Putin yet another
victory.
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