Russian politics - no freedom within, no freedom out there

[K. A. Pital]

This is not a repost of a news article, but my own assessment of the political situation in Russia on the eve of elections based on both first-hand experience and the available statistical data. Me and some of my fellows in Moscow have infiltrated several most powerful Russian political forces to investigate the situation within them. The results were damning for all.

No freedom from within
A common feature of Russian political parties is their utterly undemocratic nature. From the right to the left, all

of them are top-down structures, usually centered around one leader or an oligarchic clan - or even both.

An overview of the more or less influential political parties and movements and their inner affairs:

LDPR (Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia)
A fascist party under charismatic leadership of V.Zhirinovsky. Unites several powerful oligarchic and mafiosi clans.

Youth wing - almost nonexistent. Vertical mobility - abscent.

Draws support from charismatic presentation of it's fascist leader, who never shys to make very rought statements,

use obscene language, and do various epatage actions.

Mass demonstrations: organized by paying 50 roubles to students.

Regional network: weak.

The inner face of the party is as ugly as it's outer face. There are no enthusiastic supporters; the party is merely

a Kremlin sidekick and acts like a corporation which hires people to serve it. The party does not have inner

democracy; information about it's congresses is not disseminated to the general public.

Voters ready to vote for LDPR per VTSIOM sociological polls, average: 7,5%.

CPRF
Communist Party of the Russian Federation. An ailing communist party under the leadership of Zyuganov, which since

long compromised with the government to keep their electoral places in the parliament (the party had a large

opportunity to protest the elections in 1998 which were quite likely to be frauded, but decided not to do so in the

name of "stability"). Unites people not by class relations, but a general left-wing views. This led to a phenomena

of a party which united workers, lumpens, pensioneers, students and "red directors" - private businessmen who

support the CRPF.

Youth wing: SKM (Union of Communist Youth). Several allied strong Youth Wings which have very weak and small central

parties: AKM, RKSM(b). However, no verticall mobility between the youth wing and the party exists. A major inflow of

people into the Party prior to the elections has been hindered by the Party's own rigid structure which sometimes

holds people for 6 months before letting them become Party members.

Internal factions: no. Due to this fact ots of communists breakaway from the CPRF to form their own small left-wing

parties which are arguably more democratic on the inside, but lack popularity and thus are irrelevant to the

political process. The CPRF does not have democratic centralism in actions, instead, the staff for the Central

Commitees, etc. are handpicked by Zyuganov and his closest aides instead of given power by the Party Congress.

Draws support from real discontent with inflation, pauperization, housing problems, as well as Soviet nostalgia.

Mass demonstrations: mostly pensioneers and students, CP does not pay for participation, relying on protest

enthusiasm instead.

Regional network: strong.

On the inside, the CPRF is both undemocratic and non-revolutionary. Unlike other CPs, the Komsomols do not make

party cadres. Essentially a gerontocracy.

Voters ready to vote for CPRF, average: 15,5%.

United Russia
A proto-fascist party under the leadership of Putin and his allied oligarchs and executive branch officials.

Currently has a parliamentary majority. LDPR always joins votes with United Russia on any matter, so I'd even call

that "supermajority".

Youth wings: multiple. Nashi, Russia Young, etc. Also, "Orthodox squads" inside the "Nashi". No vertical mobility.

Youth movement leaders can be "purged" via redislocation if any of their actions is a public relations failure.

Internal factions: no, and certainly not officially. Because there's no ideology, just "let everything run as it

does". No internal democracy, the Party Congress decides nothing - it is merely a tool of the executive branch and

acts on it's proposals with unilateral support no matter what the project is.

Draws support from Putin as a charismatic leader. Has little support on it's own, therefore, always employs Putin's

name in any Party propaganda. Due to discontent with the Government, avoids mentioning anything about the

Government, only stressing the relationship with Putin. Employs both nationalistic rethoric and the Soviet nostalgia

by relying on some Soviet symbols and epochs (namely Brezhnew), but in practice actively works to destroy the Soviet

history (crushing memorials to Lenin, removing Soviet architectural decor from government buildings, instating the

nationalist 4 November "National Unity" holiday which is now the time for the fascist Russian March, instead of

November 7 - the October Revolution day, even an attempt to change the Victory banner's look, and actively

privatizing education and healthcare).

Mass demonstrations: paid students (50-70 roubles), forced workers (United Russia party members who are businessmen

order their workers to go to demonstrations for "United Russia", else face punishment).

Regional network: strong. However, does not have public interest (example: one-two paid students always carry United

Russia flags and suits on most central bus stops in Omsk. However, they do not interact with the people in any way,

since people are disinterested. Compared to other parties and movements, whose activists always gather a small crowd

around them and explain their political views verbally, as well as sharing leaflets, United Russia is both arrogant

and apathetic towards population feedback).

On the inside, United Russia is a party of oligarchs and businessmen who made their fortunes and consolidated holds

over Russian resource corporations and trade corporations alike. It's also a geYorontocracy which values party loyalty

above all, and tolerates no democratism neither in the Party proper, nor in the youth wings. It is also heavily tied

with the Orthodox Church.

Voters ready to vote for United Russia, average: 52,7%.

Great Russia
A nationalist and possibly fascist Party which started forming in early 2007. Even without much propaganda, and

beforethe Party even existed, polls indicated that 14% of Russians are ready to vote for "Great Russia". However,

during the Victory Day 2007 the Nazi-philes or outright neo-Nazis inside the party were exposed when they visited

the destroyed private Orthodox memorial to Nazi Collaborators in WWII. After that, the Great Russia party split.

It united several nationalist, neo-nazi and racist movements.

Drawed support from nationalism, resenntment of ethnic mafias and "gastarbeiters" - dirt-poor workers from Central

Asian former soviet republics, who are often engaged in crime.

After the split it lost all political perspectives. Legally it was not registered.

Just Russia
An apparently socialist party created by government executive Sergey Mironov and possibly his superiors in an

attempt to create a counterbalance to the Communist Party and/or draw voices from the latter. Also, tried to form a

two-party government with United Russia. Associated itself with Putin, however, was in opposition to his government

and "United Russia". After the regional elections, it was clear that "Russia Just" apparently exceeded the

Kremlin-given authority (in some regions it fiercely contested the United Russia candidates for mayors and

governors, and this period in 2006 was dubbed "death battle between Mironovtsy and Putintsy"). Mironov once or twice

invoked the word "socialism" on TV and other mass media.

After that, any propaganda of "Just Russia" stopped on the central TV, administrative resources were taken away from

the Party. It massively lost public support, failing miserably in regional parliamentary elections to the Communist

Party.

Mass demonstrations: paid students + enthusiast pensioneers and workers. Started working together with CPRF in some

regions. Possibly it resulted in the Kremlin purges against it. No enthusiasm from paid members, little control over

their actions (in provincial towns, the leaflet disseminators often threw their entire loads into trash cans, then

went off to drink beer on the money paid by the party).

Youth wing: little if any youth activity could be seen, although technically it should exist. Vertical mobility does

not exist, as well. The party is strictly under the leadership of several Kremlin officials.

Regional network: was strong during regional governor and mayor elections. Weakened severely during local

parliamentary elections. Now - very weak.

Inner democracy is abscent, since this is just another controlled "vent" attempt by the administration like the prior-failed "Rodina" party. Not a gerontocracy, just another corporate-like party.

Anti-Illegal Immigration Movement
Not a political party par se, this movement gained prominence following the pogroms against ethnic mafias in the small Russian town of Kondopoga by issuing reports from people when the city was put in an information blockade by the government, fearing that news of the pogrom and it's circumstances (murder of several russians by an ethnic mafia group which ran a cafe in the middle of the town) would provoke wider riots and pogroms against non-russians.

Since then lost political attention and popularity, tried joining with various political forces, including United Russia (this informal joining resulted in the rascist "Russian Project" movement which openly proclaims "Russian is the lord of all earths" and the supremacy of Orthodox religion over all others, as well as renaming every Soviet-era street and city), then "Great Russia". The latter was a doom union - when Great Russia project went down the shitter, so did the DPNI.

Still ethnic mafia murders can provoke a new wave of support for this movement. Apparently it can rally tens of thousands in large capital cities and thousands in the province.

The movement is undemocratic, put popular. Does not have any wings, it's formal structure is unclear (leaders are apparently charismatic).

Russian Orthodox Church
A powerful religious group in Russia. It is a top-down structure, the upper echelons of which are now tightly integrated with United Russia politicians and government officials (governors and mayors). The Church wields significant monetary resources and authority over population. It has been instrumental in supporting the United Russia party. In return, it has been granted government money to build Churches, as well as allowed to run it's religious propaganda far in excess of what should be allowed in a secular state.

The Church does not allow any inner democracy obviously. It also openly espouses monarchic and fascist ideas quite like the "Fuhrerprinzip" in Germany, it's officials have called for introduction of monarchy in Russia on many occasions and have canonized Czar Nicholas the II as a saint.

Yabloko and SPS (Union of Right Wing Forces)
Right-wing parties which could be called economically libertarian by US standards. On the inside they are ran by corporations and oligarchs which are in opposition to Putin. Their main agenda is the widening privatization and opening the markets.

Youth wings: virtually none. Mobility is abscent, the parties are ran by corporate bosses which do not allow anyone to rise through the ranks. Of course, no inner democracy. Leaders are picked by sponsors. Congresses and meeting information not disseminated.

Draws support from businessmen mostly. Most people resent the parties, since it houses the early 90's "gangster privatization" bosses as key rulers.

In the latter years, failing repeatedly in elections, have been reduced to a fringe. Demonstrators are paid more than in other parties (100-200 r), however, that does not help neither SPS nor other similar forces to marshall any enthusiasm to their cause.

Voting potential is between 1-5%.

And...
No freedom out there

The Russian government's administrative resource is devoted to one party only, that is United Russia.

Large capital sponsors of "United Russia" willingly pay for TV booths and multimedia projectors being placed for propaganda purposes, as well as forcing their employees to vote for "United Russia" under threat of firing. Small (capital-wise) parties, both left and right, are barred from competing in the elections, since their funds are too small to run a decent propaganda campaign. United Russia propaganda is ran by incumbent administrations of regions, which are all United Russia hacks. Independent press does not exist: most newspapers are in the hands of loyal oligarchs. So are the "private" TV channels. Artists and highly paid PR managers are hired to run concerts, etc. in support of United Russia.

The government does not sponsor even the large parties on an equal basis, thus creating a colossal disparity between United Russia funds+administrative resource and the other parties lack of resources and finance.

Several right-wing parties have huge capital sponsors like exile oligarchs, but those are either unregistered and uneligible to vote, and even if they are, they are marginal.. The money spared by the oligarchs to support those parties is not that large - they have consequently failed in all regional and national elections, moved to a political fringe and lost all support from the population.

This includes the "Another Russia" movement that unites radical anti-government forces from neofascists to libertarians.

Outcome
Sham elections, no parties which have a democratic inner structure, abuse of both large capitals and administrative resources, and the further dominance of Putin-loyal oligarchy.

[K. A. Pital]

Bah... something fucked up line spaces. Sorry.

[Alan Bolte]

Very interesting reading, Stas. Thank you for posting this.

[CJvR]

Wonderful, the old saying that everything is possible in Russia, except change is still true. Still I suppose voting for which set of thugs should rule is some sort of progress.

[K. A. Pital]

You're welcome.

Some images from recent political life here and there:

November 4th - new Putin-instated holiday, "Day of National Unity". The neo-fascist "Russian March" is now held at this date every year:

Thankfully, Omsk is rather small and remote, and the "rusmarchist" ideas are not very common or help up here.
And here you can see... Russian Orthodox monarchists.

DPNI in Petersburg (that's where my sister lives). Photo made by the DPNI themselves. Note the white-out faces.


From the 7th November 1000-man strong CP rally in Omsk (my own photos):

My sexy female friend (actually, she's friends with both me and my fiancee) at the microphone is speaking to the attendees.

She doesn't like the Moscow leadership of the Party and quite likely may break away if Moscow Commitee starts to supress local protest initatives that she's involved in.

Right now she and I plan to organize sort of a independent left-wing group uniting all independent, non-party left-wingers.

Photos of the ubiqutous United Russia booths and their lonely propagandist groups at every bus stop... actually, they're kind of hard to take. There's police guarding those URs, and taking pictures of them must be done covertly or they'd demand you to erase them (already had some bad experience). With a NIKON D50, it's kind of hard to hide. But I will make them, I hope next week.

Also, maybe I'll catch a rare SPS propagandist (it's hard, there's only ten or so of them running around the city, probably) and, a yet more rare breed, a "Just Russia" agitator (since their loss of favour in the Kremlin, they're out of funds and in tough luck)...

There's only two parties in the local parliament (United Russia and the opposing CPRF), and generally in Omsk only 1-2% vote for any other parties than those two.

Keep tuned, I think I'll even report on the course of the elections in Omsk, at least in as many vote districts as I can visit during the day

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

No one has dared to make comparisons between them and the Nazis I supposed?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

EDIT: Them as in the United Russia

Supposed -> Suppose.

ARGH

[K. A. Pital]

No one has dared to make comparisons between them and the Nazis I supposed?

Why, dared of course. So what? United Russia is not even engaged in public debates. It's the only Party which unilaterally rejected engaging in any sort of public debates with all other parties.

Besides as we have real Nazis, United Russia doesn't look so bad as it's only proto-fascist. It's corporatist, nationalist, etc. and power- and money-hungry, it unites large capitalists, and it has xenophobic elements - however, it's not batshit Nazi.

So far, that is.

[Chris OFarrell]

I really do find your posts from an 'insider' perspective of what is going on in Russia fascinating Stas.

Here's a question, do you see any real possibility of change from Putin's current defacto super majority / absolute power status anytime soon?

[Gerald Tarrant]

When Kasparov retired he said he intended to go into politics with an anti-Putin party. Where does his party fit in all of this (I believe he was a pro-free market commenter)

Several right-wing parties have huge capital sponsors like exile oligarchs, but those are either unregistered and uneligible to vote, and even if they are, they are marginal.. The money spared by the oligarchs to support those parties is not that large - they have consequently failed in all regional and national elections, moved to a political fringe and lost all support from the population.

This includes the "Another Russia" movement that unites radical anti-government forces from neofascists to libertarians.

Would that be Kasparov's party?

Outside commenters have blamed Putin for most of the anti-democracy moves that have been going on in Russia. Is that a fair statement?

[Gerald Tarrant]

Edit: I suppose I should have been more clear. People like Yelena Tregubova have claimed this is entirely Putin's doing. Is that the case? Or have other political actors gone assisted in creating the current system?

[The Dark]

Several right-wing parties have huge capital sponsors like exile oligarchs, but those are either unregistered and uneligible to vote, and even if they are, they are marginal.. The money spared by the oligarchs to support those parties is not that large - they have consequently failed in all regional and national elections, moved to a political fringe and lost all support from the population.

This includes the "Another Russia" movement that unites radical anti-government forces from neofascists to libertarians.

Would that be Kasparov's party?

Yes, that'd be Drugaya Rossiya (which I've seen translated as either "Another Russia" or "The Other Russia" - Stas, is Drugaya exclusive (the other) or inclusive (another)?)

DR gathered up the United Civil Front (OGF, Kasparov's group), People's Democratic Union (RNDS, Mikhail Kasyanov), Russian Republican Party (or Republican Russian Party - I don't know much about this group and my grammar sucks , Vladimir Rhyzkov), National Bolshevik Party (Nazbol, Eduard Limonov), and the Vanguard of Red Youth (AKM). Essentially, it's a coalition of every left-leaning party except the CPRF.

[The Dark]

ghetto edit: DR has anti-gov right-wingers as well, but they seem (from the outside) to be far less of an influence than the left-wing of the party.

[K. A. Pital]

Here's a question, do you see any real possibility of change from Putin's current defacto super majority / absolute power status anytime soon?

Only after 2008 presidential elections. The Parliament has severely curtained powers since Yeltsin shot the Supreme Soviet and then made laws to the effect that the President can disband the Parliament any time.

Would that be Kasparov's party?

It's not a party. It's (mainly) a union of three movements: neo-fascist "National Bolshevik Party" (Limonov), "United Civil Front" (Kasparov) and "Russian People's Democracy Union" (Kasyanov) which are essentially copypaste corporation-parties financed by various oligarchs.

But the most active and numerous of them, frankly, are the neo-fascists. They can marshall several tens of thousands of people across all Russia, while Kasyanov and Kasparov do not have any sort of regional networks and mostly work in Moscow and Petersburg.

The movement doesn't have any common program, instead of getting rid of Putin.

AKM is not active within the group and distanced from it since it became clear "Another Russia" is a political clownade and a total failure, whilst the RRP (Republican Party) is being liquidated. "DR" is just a union of political marginals.

Outside commenters have blamed Putin for most of the anti-democracy moves that have been going on in Russia. Is that a fair statement?

No. Russian people, and the Yeltsin oligarchic clan, many of whom are now also behind Putin, are just as much at fault as Putin is. There has not been a change of power from the oligarchic clan, merely purges of one set of oligarchs against another one. Neither has there been a true change of power - since Russia is a presidential Republic, the Parliament decides nothing. The Yeltsin-Putin course has only been seriously contested by communists in 1998, but they threw the fight in return for having their man in the government, instead of fighting for presidency till the end. I guess they just recalled what happened to Yeltsin's power contestors in 1993.

[Gerald Tarrant]

Independent press does not exist: most newspapers are in the hands of loyal oligarchs. So are the "private" TV channels. Artists and highly paid PR managers are hired to run concerts, etc. in support of United Russia.

When did the press start to yield to pressure/lose its independence? Or was it always a de facto government organ?

I know I've read a few stories about a journalist who emigrated (referenced above, and another one who was murdered. Anna Politkovskaya (I had to Google them, they didn't get very long exposure). I don't think these were the only honest journalists.

If there were other lindependent journalists what's happened to them? Were they fired by Russian media outlets? Were they Co-opted by the oligarchs? Did they emigrate? Or have there been more killings of outspoken journalists?

[K. A. Pital]

When did the press start to yield to pressure/lose its independence? Or was it always a de facto government organ?

The government and the oligarchy were always synonymous, however, in the days when various oligarchs struggled for power, the killings were done by bandit groups. Now, some of those oligarchs can use the government resources to that end.

However, the methods are the same - information blockade, for example, has been a repeated feature of the "democratic" Russian government - information blockades in modern Russia included: 1993 infoblockade of Moscow during the Supreme Soviet supression, 1996 infoblockade of communist opposition in both capital and the regions during the elections, infoblockades during terrorist attacks on Nord-Ost and Beslan, and ultimately, the info-blockade on the anti-ethnic mafia riots in Kondopoga.

If there were other lindependent journalists what's happened to them?

There still are. Those who emigrated/were killed/etc. are not the only independent journalists here. Besides, I don't believe in independent press unless it's a self-financed news organization without corporate sponsor control over it's actions. Most of what we have here utterly fails that standard, usually it's hired journalists and entire media outlets to either bash or praise Putin/his local henchman/the henchman's opponent/Putin's opponent et cetera.

The only more or less useful place for "independent" analysis is the internet, common news have become rubbish long ago. In the internet, even usual people can report their first-hand cases and gain social resonance. This has been the core of the highly public Novgorodskoye delo, for example, where the mother was accused of attempting to kill her own child based on very weak evidence, etc.

[Thanas]

Most interesting.

Thank you Stas, especially for those bits about the parties regional structures.

[Sidewinder]

Considering you've described several of these political parties "fascist," may I assume you hold them in contempt? (I lived in Communist China for several months, where "fascist" is used to describe enemies of the state, e.g., the Japanese in WW2.)

[K. A. Pital]

It's just that they have a fascist ideology which includes the most common elements of fascism: corporatism, agressive nationalism and the goal of "national unity", militarism, populism, anti-socialism and opposition to liberalism. LDPR and Great Russia are most assuredly fascist parties.

The "United Russia" exhibits several traits of fascist parties, even as it doesn't have a coherent fascist ideology of it's own.

[Sarevok]

Stas what's your opinion of the Exile as a news source on Russia ? I read a few of Limonov's articles plus articles by staff sympathising with him. He don't seem too bad there, just a bit cranky in at times in his articles. What do you think ?

[K. A. Pital]

Stas what's your opinion of the Exile as a news source on Russia?

It's a commentary as far as I see, not a news source. Filled with pundits. Limonov is there, therefore, tread with cautience. I mean, the guy is a neo-fascist and neo-nazi. Regardless of whether he really believes in a racial Russian dictatorship, he created a whole party devoted to that end. He may have done it just for fun. He may have done it because he knew young radicals can draw publicity and thus he can become famous. He quite obviously cares jack shit for most of what he speaks.

However, the guy's party split when Limonov told that he's the left wing, and guess what, a lot of skinheads, fascists and nazis flew out and joined the other neo-fascist movements. Is that a good deed he has done for Russia? This is ridiculous.

The only thing I can thank him for is that he's a mock Nazi and just an epatage man, not a serious politician with political power. Having a charismatic, politically skilled and powerful fascist or Nazi is the last thing Russia needs right now, believe me.

I believe, it will be millions of damaged ballots because we hate you, "Kremlin."

A bold claim for those who can hardly marshall thousands. Limonov at least has several dozen thousand young radicals at hand, but the others don't even have that.