FSB Gave Putin ‘Real Results’ from Referendum and He Can’t be Pleased, Zyuganov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 2 – The actual results as opposed to the officially reported ones show that “the Kremlin doesn’t have anything to celebrate,” something Vladimir Putin and his regime in fact know because the FSB informed the Kremlin about the real as opposed to the claimed ones, Gennady Zyuganov says.

            The KPRF leader points out that even officially, more than one in five Russians who took part in the referendum did not vote for Putin’s changes and nearly one in three did not take part. Many who didn’t participate did so as a way of expressing their opposition by not following Putin’s appeals to show up (svpressa.ru/society/article/269946/).

            That means that even officially, half of the Russian electorate did not back the Kremlin’s proposals, despite the fact that the Russian powers that be are claiming an overwhelming victory. But unofficially, Zyuganov continues, the way in which the powers that be organized this vote gave them amazing and almost unrestricted opportunities to falsify the results.

            They certainly did so, and the official vote is the result. But the FSB has monitored this election and has certainly told Putin the real numbers. Because they are far smaller than the ones officials are claiming, Putin can’t be pleased and needs to be worried. His regime simply has lost much of the support it used to have.

            “In Moscow, the capital, a third of voters didn’t take part and a third voted against the amendments. This means that a majority of Muscovites, despite official propaganda, consider that the proposed changes in the Basic law are insufficient and that more principled decisions are needed,” Zyuganov says.

            “Or take other major centers,” the KPRF leader says. “Nizhny Novgorod was the main trading capital of tsarist Russia and now is a most important industrial and cultural center: according to our data, only 40 percent of its residents supported the amendments. In Yekaterinburg, only 30 percent did so.” 

            “Or consider the Russian North from Arkhangelsk to Magadan and Chukotka. The results of the voting show that these lands which from time immemorial form our power and in which life in extraordinarily complicated conditions are demanding a more just set of policies.”

            Zyuganov continues: “the powers talk about strengthening the unity of the country. But this Russia needs high quality voting and the support of a real majority of society. But now things are turning out otherwise. In the Far East, only 42 percent of voters took part and in Siberia only 44 percent.”

            “Such results,” the party leader says, “something any normal politician would have to take into consideration.”  Zyuganov’s words are another indication that Putin’s system of “systemic parties” is collapsing even before regional elections in September. (On this trend, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/06/kprf-leadership-comes-out-against.html.)