Perhaps it was inevitable, but it’s fairly clear that Russians are giving up on the idea that they live in a democracy:
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia, March 2 — Voters slogged through cold rain and mud Sunday to cast their ballots at Precinct No. 1619 on Pushkin Street here, though many expressed feelings about the state of democracy that were even gloomier than the weather.
“Everyone understands that nothing can be changed,” said Mariana Poromaryova, who voted for President Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev. She said Russia was a democracy in name only, with leaders lacking accountability to the people they rule.
“The people live in one country, and the government in another,” she said.
Moments later, another voter stormed off after an exit pollster asked about her vote.
“I voted for anybody but United Russia!” she said, referring to the pro-Kremlin party that backs Medvedev. “Because they are all the biggest crooks!”
Many voters expressed anger or apathy about a campaign without real competition. In recent days, United Russia workers hit the streets with brochures and projected political ads onto buildings with laser light shows. To which many Russians responded: Why bother?
“United Russia will win probably, and there is no other choice,” said Rosa Ivanovna Agaeva, 73, a Communist Party supporter. During Soviet rule, she said, there was not as much airy talk of democracy but a lot more economic security.
“That was the way we lived, and we got used to it,” said Agaeva, who worked in a pharmacy. “You were given a job with regular pay.”
And thus democracy dies and the era of Czar Vladimir begins.
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
[…] I noted earlier today, there are at least some indications that the Russian people know that their […]