Interesting: RBC reports that the government has been completely shut out of preparing Putin’s annual address, and officials were invited only to some meetings as experts, with the instruction not to “touch the basic principles.”
This is very important, and it clearly shows just how fundamentally different our views on Russia’s development are from those of Putin’s whole gang.
What they call “basic principles” are, for us—and I would say for all decent people—the basic reasons for dissatisfaction and for engaging in politics on the side of the opposition.
Four things they are terrified of losing:
The political system. It keeps candidates off the ballot and abolishes elections for city mayors and governors. We utterly despise it; it must be dismantled.
Relations with the regions. Robbing the regions, siphoning money out of them to Moscow, stripping local authorities of their powers. This is the reason for the country’s ongoing degradation. We want to return power and money to the local level, where people actually live and work.
The law enforcement system. New calculations were published today, based on UN data: Russia ranks first in the number of police officers per capita.
An unthinkable number of police—and what do we get from them? Where is the security we are supposedly buying by paying for hordes of people in uniform?
In intentional homicides per capita, we surpass every developed country, as well as China and India. This kind of law enforcement system is unacceptable to us.
The judicial system. Jury trials have been gutted, and there is not even the slightest basis for talking about judicial independence. Political trials are conducted openly. The acquittal rate is lower than it was under Stalin. Fundamental changes to the judicial system are the first condition for the country’s normal development.
There it is—the very program for a united opposition that people for some reason keep saying is so hard to put together.
The only thing missing here for an excellent political platform is a section called “Fighting Corruption”—and that is only because the opposite section, “Encouraging Corruption,” is not openly included in Putin’s “basic principles”; it is written into the footnotes in very fine print. It does not jump out at you, but everyone knows it is there.
So let’s turn “Putin’s basic principles” right side up, add the fight against corruption, and we will not find a reasonable person who would refuse to sign on to such a program.
P.S. Don’t forget to vote for one of our basic principles—the fight against illicit enrichment.
People