Staunton, August 7 – Regional officials
are actively excluding from participation in the upcoming elections not only
extra-systemic parties like Yabloko in Arkhangelsk but even systemic ones like the
KPRF in Voronezh, moves that are certain to become Pyrrhic victories at least for Moscow in the not
distant future, Abbas Gallyamov says.
That is because such actions will
convince even those who now support the Putin system that elections have become
meaningless and thus provide an opening for radical parties which have been
making that claim for some time, the former Putin speechwriter and now commentator
argues (rosbalt.ru/posts/2020/08/07/1857563.html).
But such exclusions will have two
other and even more significant consequences, Gallyamov continues. On the one
hand, they will make the systemic parties ever less interested in staying
within the system as Putin has defined it and ever more ready to stand in
opposition to the Kremlin.
And on the other, these actions by
regional elites not only represent a kind of “coronavirus federalization,” in
which regions have more freedom of action, but also are occasions for these elites
to promote their own interests at the expense of Moscow’s, to “spin on the
Kremlin” as it were.
Thus, the outcomes of next month’s
voting which the powers that be are certain to view as a victory presage future
defeats, including serious ones involving the appearance of an increasingly cynical
and suspicious population, a hostile set of hitherto tamed systemic parties,
and regional elites who will see that they can benefit themselves by undermining
Moscow.
At the very least, Gallyamov
continues, this is “a new political reality,” one that will no longer function
within the confines of a tough power vertical but rather will break down those
boundaries for all concerned, possibly opening the way to far more radical
changes than anyone now foresees.
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