Here is the view of democracy and elections by one of the commenters to my Gary Kasparov post. (By the way the entire comment was initially published by mistake (mine) as a entry that made it look as if I authored it. No. I just wanted to excerpt it so that people are under no illusion about the nature of of the arrogant stalinoid throwbacks among Putin’s supporters and how they rationalize their crushing of demcoracy and dissidents:
“Elections in Russia are not supposed to choose governments, they are an opportunity for the people to show their support for the existing government by voting for it en masse. The biggest fear of the Russian government is that they will get a low turnout of people voting for them. A large turnout of people voting for them gives them legitimacy. Winning with 60% of the vote from 25% of the electorate would raise the specter of what they call ‘social tension’.’
Don’t you love that! Elections are an opportunity to show support (or else). Yes, lock people up if they threaten to cause “social tension”. That says it all.
My comment is clearly describing the Putin govenrment’s rationale and not my opinion. As I said in my comment I am not a Putin supporter and I’ll thank you not to call me one.
I don’t see any alternative around at the moment though. Certainly not fake opposition like Kasparov, who like the Union of Right Forces before him is there primarily to be pointed at as evidence there is a choice in the election.
The paragraph you excerpted should be basic knowledge for anyone talking about Russian elections. The Russian authorities at every level from municipal to presidential have discussed elections in these terms since well before Putin appeared on the scene.
Putin may be riding an internal security tiger:
Link
I wonder if some of the thuggery coming out of Russia recently was really at Putin’s direction.
BTW, Ron. I sure am glad you’re posting at PJM. Don’t always agree with you, but I very much appreciate your integrity.
Thanks.