Putin’s address, Medvedev’s government resigning, the appointment of some obscure guy as prime minister (though not obscure to the ACF, the Anti-Corruption Foundation), the announcement of constitutional changes — all of this is so strange, so unexpected, and so brazenly rude (“I’ve decided everything for you”). No wonder it sparked outrage and a burning desire to do something immediately.
The last straw, people say. Let’s protest.
And of course (this is politics — it’s never any other way), a debate flared up between those for whom this was the last straw and those who don’t see any “straw” in what’s happening at all. Neither a first nor a last.
And these tweets of mine really set Facebook on fire.
He attacked the Constitution and refused to defend it. Scoundrel. Navalny and Putin united against the Constitution.
Okay. The defenders of the Constitution are good people, and for now I’ll briefly lay out my view of what’s happening (in more detail in my Thursday program).
Let’s start with “what is happening.” If I ask you that question, you’ll most likely offer me a summary of the thousands of analytical articles published recently, all saying completely opposite things.
And the truth is that no one understands what is happening. More than that, I’m absolutely sure Putin himself does not fully understand what he is doing. His statements and initiatives were kept secret. The secrecy and surprise worked out, which means there is no detailed plan. You can’t work out the details under a veil of secrecy. Life is complex and varied, people are different, and so far they’ve only sat down with someone like Kiriyenko, scribbled over a sheet of paper, approved the general idea, and will figure out the rest as they go.
Just now the news came out: a nationwide vote on the constitutional amendments will take place on April 12.
What? Which amendments? And what exactly is a “nationwide vote”? A referendum? Apparently not — the authorities are carefully avoiding the word “referendum.” So then what is it? Maybe, in honor of the 75th anniversary of Victory in World War II, only war veterans will be allowed to vote? It’s unclear.
Nothing. At all. Is clear.
The honest answer to the question “what is happening” is this: Who the hell knows — Putin is cooking something up so he can stay in power forever.
Putin wants to remain the country’s ruler for life and seems ready to unveil the plan for how he’ll do it.
A seizure of power. Usurpation. That is what is really happening, and that is what must be fought.
And here, unfortunately, there is nothing new at all. All the slogans and words that need to be repeated now were last said when the nationwide protest action “He Is Not Our Tsar” was announced.
And the constitutional changes are just a mechanism. They were being signaled more than two years ago. Since then, political analysts have written a million articles about the State Council and all the rest of it.
Various options were considered: - unification with Belarus; - a complicated arrangement involving the State Council; - election for one more term
All of these options involved changes to the Constitution.
But what concerns you and me is not the Constitution — it’s the substance of the matter. We have lived for 20 years under Putin’s one-man authoritarian rule, and we do not want to anymore. That is what we are fighting for; that is our slogan. We want rotation of power and accountability to the people. Putin must go.
The tactics of our actions will depend to a large extent on exactly how the Kremlin begins constructing this mechanism of lifelong rule. That should become clear in the coming weeks.
For now, only two things are clear:
Some hellish working group on constitutional amendments has been assembled, and its composition is such that they’ll approve absolutely anything. It’s just a bunch of ghouls.
The new mechanism of power control will be tied even more tightly to a party majority. The State Duma, the Federation Council, deputies appointing ministers and judges — for all this they need a powerful party that always gets 75 percent.
I’m sure Medvedev’s resignation is largely connected to this. “He Is Not Dimon to You” destroyed that crook as a public politician. It is impossible to keep him either as leader of United Russia or as head of government. With him, getting not just 75 percent but even 35 percent would be difficult.
That is why the role of “Smart Voting” as a practical mechanism in one direction of our struggle will almost certainly grow. Accordingly, the Kremlin will throw more resources and effort into fighting it.
As for the need to “fight for the Constitution,” I hope no one takes offense, but that slogan reeks of hypocrisy and, sorry to say, cowardice.
When people are afraid to say the essence of it: “Putin is a usurper, he has illegally seized power, and we demand that he leave.” And this gets replaced with toothless euphemisms: oh, Putin wants to change the Constitution, and there are such wonderful things in it. Just imagine — subparagraph 7 of clause 24 contains the supremacy of international law.
Sure. I’m rushing headlong to defend the Constitution under which I won several cases at the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights), proved that all the cases against me were fabricated, and still was not allowed to run in elections. The supremacy of international law worked wonderfully. Thanks, dear Constitution!
I’m deeply attached to the Constitution that made it possible to subordinate every judge in the country to a single office in the Kremlin, so that no one in the country can obtain a fair resolution of a dispute.
I’ll stand there with my little sign defending the Constitution and think: so in our country, under the Constitution, are city mayors elected? Or appointed? And governors? Since 1993, that seems to have changed ten times, and every single time in whatever way suited the sitting president.
The Constitution is not the Bible and not a sacred tablet. It is the Fundamental Law. A concrete description of the basic rules by which we live. And it should be written in such a way that this Fundamental Law actually works and cannot be ignored.
The 1993 Constitution was written in exact accordance with the Russian saying, “The law is like a wagon shaft — you can turn it whichever way you like.” And Putin has been twisting it for 20 years.
Let’s stop lying to ourselves. The 1993 Constitution was written for Yeltsin. Written so that a guy who cannot form a parliamentary majority could still rule the country.
I was preparing to apply to law school in 1992, and I learned: the President is the head of the executive branch.
And then this Constitution was adopted, and I had to learn: the President is the head of state.
It contains a built-in imbalance. It contains the idea that the person already sitting in the Kremlin can do whatever he wants. It is precisely the 1993 Constitution that built in the endless self-reproduction of authoritarianism.
Whoever we elect — Putin, Navalny, Sobol, Shoigu, Edgard Zapashny, or Izolda Menshova — if that person does not want to leave voluntarily, good luck smoking them out of the Kremlin. And it will all be perfectly constitutional. Under that same Constitution, as we can see, amendments can also be adopted in the murkiest possible way.
The first two chapters of the Constitution are excellent. It’s just that the entire rest of the text was written so that those very first two chapters could more or less be ignored.
Our task is not to defend the failed 1993 Constitution, but to fight the usurper — and after victory, to adopt a Fundamental Law that clearly and in practice prevents the capture of control over the courts, the media, and parliament. One that rules out staying in power for longer than two four-year terms.
The foundation of the usurper Putin’s power is lies and repressive mechanisms aimed at those who refuse to believe the lies and live by the rules of lies.
Refusing to submit to the repressive machine, and working every day to expose the lies and undermine the faith of those deceived by the usurper — that is the answer to the question “what is to be done.” In practice, that means protest actions, elections, “Smart Voting,” and — when necessary — boycotts, spreading information, fighting for trade unions, human rights work, and much more. Life will clarify our tactics in the near future. The main thing is not to forget the essence of what we are fighting for.