What Keeps the Kremlin Up All Night
To Our ReadersThe Moscow Times welcomes letters to the editor. Letters for publication should be signed and bear the signatory’s address and telephone number. Letters to the editor should be sent by fax to (7-495) 232-6529, by e-mail to oped@imedia.ru, or by post. The Moscow Times reserves the right to edit letters.Email the Opinion Page EditorTo observers of Russia’s election campaign, one thing is clear: The Kremlin’s political operatives do not want to leave anything to chance.
牋Of eight would-be opposition candidates, all but three have been driven out, either disqualified or discouraged from running. National television reports with breathless excitement on every movement of the Kremlin favorite, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Lest anyone miss the point, polling stations have been told to hang posters accusing Medvedev’s rivals of filing fraudulent income declarations. Before the State Duma elections in December, governors were reportedly ordered to deliver at least 65 percent of the vote for United Russia, and there is no reason to think such pressures have stopped.
All this raises the perplexing question — Why? As numerous opinion polls show, President Vladimir Putin and his team are genuinely popular. It seems certain Medvedev would win decisively even in a completely fair vote without Kremlin insiders leaning their thumbs, toes and other body parts on the scale.
The government’s popularity is no surprise. Under Putin, real wages have tripled and unemployment has fallen sharply. Given the booming economy, it would take some hard work for a Kremlin candidate to lose. Even if Russia had plunged this January into a financial crisis as severe as August 1998, simulations suggest this would not have threatened Medvedev’s lead.
Posted
on
Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 4:33 pm under