Our initiative to ban cars costing more than 1.5 million rubles for government officials has made it to the government's “expert” “group.” What happened in that group is best captured not even by Vedomosti’s editorial on the subject, but by its URL: http://www.vedomosti.ru/opinion/news/16261651/agressivnyj-paralich Aggressive paralysis. Putin did have a nice election-season idea: the public, if it gathers one hundred thousand signatures in support of a bill, can have it put to a vote in the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament): Moreover, Russian citizens will become active participants in the legislative process, and will be able not merely to delegate their representatives to parliament, but to put forward legislative initiatives directly themselves. Thus, any public initiative that gathers no fewer than 100,000 verified signatures online will be mandatorily submitted for consideration by the federal parliament. From Putin’s campaign platform speech. So the public identified a problem that worries and outrages it. The public found a constructive way to solve the problem. The public gathered one hundred thousand verified signatures.
Then out come the representatives to address the public: one minister, two deputy ministers. They say this is some kind of populism, that everything is already covered, and that no law is needed. We’ll see what can be done at the government level. And then, after a pause, they make an astonishing claim: limiting the price of an official’s car to 1.5 million rubles would lead to an INCREASE IN BUDGET SPENDING.
After that, they get into their Mercedes cars costing 7 million rubles each and drive off. The public shouts after them: guys, but that’s exactly what our law is about... we don’t want to be buying you Mercedes! It’s strange that, sitting in those Mercedes, you’re telling us it can’t be done. Why can’t it be done? We’ll ban it by law, and then it will be done. But it’s too late: the minister and deputy ministers have already left. Only Minister Abyzov, before departing, published a column about how wonderfully we are reducing corruption in public procurement, against the backdrop of reports that companies owned by Minister Abyzov are successfully taking part in the competition to build power plants and are seeking guaranteed energy purchase agreements (roughly speaking, the cost will be built into our utility rates).
What is going to happen now? Some strange people from the government who call themselves “experts” will come up with a scheme for how not to reject the initiative outright (because that would cause a scandal), while also not implementing it (because then the “experts” would lose their Mercedes). What should happen? The “experts” should go stand quietly in a corner and keep silent. The Anti-Corruption Foundation, which prepared the bill, is a hundred times more expert than all these strange people of unclear origin who discussed our initiative without even our presence. It is written as a finished draft law, in the form draft laws are actually written. We want it to be put to a vote in the State Duma, because that is exactly what Putin promised. What do the “experts” and the half-dead “Open Government” think? — Ah, we’re so smart and cunning. We’re such masters of bureaucratic infighting. Now we’ll very skillfully bury this initiative in procedure and show all those people from the internet that they’re suckers. What do we think? — Dear “experts,” you think you are helping old man Putin, but you are his worst enemies. This bill is supported by 99% of the population. It was the first one to receive 100,000 verified signatures. Eighty percent of those 100,000 people made a special trip to Rostelecom (Russia’s state telecom operator) or ordered a code by mail. Obviously, when your refusal needlessly enrages those 100,000 people, each of them will find a little time for a personal vendetta. The election campaign that just ended showed perfectly well that our “guerrilla” campaigning methods, which people used to laugh at, actually work. Those 100,000 people will distribute a million leaflets in a week and send a million messages that will be read by 10 million voters. And every leaflet distributed from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok will say how Putin lied, broke a campaign promise, and sided with officials against the people who want to limit bureaucratic luxury. And everyone who reads such a leaflet will think, “Well, ........” So don’t be surprised later when another 5% of your rating disappears somewhere. Trust VTsIOM (the state-run public opinion research center), sure. P.S. We’ll wait a little and see how events develop, and in the meantime we’ll think up a fun campaign on this subject.