Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 30 – Aleksey Vorsin, Khabarovsk
coordinator for Aleksey Navalny, says that over the last two years, democracy
and federalism, long-dormant but never completely dead in the Russian Far East
have re-awoken and are a genie the Kremlin will find it extremely difficult to
put back to sleep.
Vorsin calls attention to three things
that have received little attention up until now: Sergey Furgal’s promotion of
democracy in local institutions in the kray, his revival of ideas associated with
the region’s first post-Soviet governor, and the dangers ahead given the way
pro-Moscow officials have turned to the criminal elements (region.expert/institutes/).
First of all, most observers assume
that the people of Khabarovsk back Furgal because he was a local man they
elected. That is certainly part of the story, Vorsin says; but the now-former
governor did more than that to win support and perhaps the most important thing
was to restore the direct elections of heads of districts and settlements in the
kray.
Furgal said, the Navalny activist
says, declared that “a head elected by the people feels a connection with his
territory and works better.” He or she certainly has more support, and that
link between the people and these lower levels of power continues, complicating
any plans to restore Khabarovsk to a pre-Furgal state.
Second, consciously or
unconsciously, Furgal built on the ideas and actions of his predecessor, Viktor
Ishayev, “a heavyweight governor” in the 1990s, who regularly proclaimed that “my
party is Khabarovsk kray!” He spoke with
Moscow as an equal, promoted local studies in schools, and backed the spread of
regional symbols like the flag and even a hymn.
Vorsin says that when he was a pupil
during Ishayev’s times, a special atlas was prepared and published for schools
bearing the title “Love and Know Your Kray,” promoting attitudes that define
the cultural code of the region and ensuring that there wouldn’t be any
outsiders appointed who would survive politically.
The current wave of protests
underscores this, he continues. “Everyone understands perfectly well that there
is a legitimate regional power elected by the people and there is a federal
center, Moscow, which doesn’t pay attention to our opinion.” The protests may end but these attitudes will
continue.
And third, there is a dangerous trend
among officials opposed to the Khabarovsk people in the streets. If the Kremlin
decides on repression, not all local police will go along. Some in the power
structures are now turning to “semi-criminal sports clubs” for people preferred
to fill in for police who won’t do this dirty work, the Navalny man says.
Of course, if Moscow does decide to
crush the demonstrators, it will have to bring in OMON forces “from the central
regions” of the Russian Federation. Police from elsewhere in the Far East and
Siberia undoubtedly suffer from the same “disease” as do police in Khabarovsk
itself.
Regardless of whether the protests
continue or not, Vorsin says, “Khabarovsk people already feel themselves free
and aren’t going to submit to diktat again.” They will show that in the
upcoming elections and in other ways, and Moscow needs to recognize that all
its political technologists can’t change that.
At the same time, the Navalny
activist says, any real regionalist party and any real federalism will not come
back to Russia as a whole while Putin is still in office; and people in
Khabarovsk need to recognize that they can’t establish federalism on their own
in a single federal subject.
To make Russia a genuine federation
will require “the consolidated action of all subjects of the Federation,
including Moscow.” And there is little chance of that now. But regional
protests are happening and regional movements will emerge, and both will help
promote the development of federalism in the future.
As for himself, Vorsin says, he views
such movements and even parties as “positive” and “necessary” and will fight
for their creation.
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