No power without honesty

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Elena Milashina is a journalist for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. She is a former colleague of Anna Politkovskaya and writes exclusively for Ny Tid.

Every Friday, some of the world's leading freedom of expression advocates write exclusively for the weekly magazine Ny Tid. Our Without Borders columnists: Parvin Ardalan (Iran) Irshad Manji (Canada), Nawal El-Saadawi (Egypt) Elena Milashina (Russia), Orzala Nemat (Afghanistan) Martha Roque (Cuba), Blessing Musariri (Zimbabwe) Tsering Woeser (Tibet) Malahat Nasibova (Azerbaijan) and Nyein San (Burma).

Moscow, Russia. On Election Day on 4. March the Kremlin was surrounded by armored vehicles, full of police and soldiers. The cars had the rear facing the historic center of Russia and the sign "cautious, military personnel" was put up. They stood tightly together in an impenetrable circle and protected the Kremlin against the Russian people.

They protected the Kremlin against the same people who had walked the streets three months ago in peaceful demonstrations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the rest of the country to protest the electoral fraud in the parliamentary elections.

A friend of mine on Facebook – who has become the main social media for organizing protests – remarked that "the number of soldiers stationed in Moscow is so high that it must be intended to protect the illegitimate regime against its own citizens."

The 4. March, Vladimir Putin became President of Russia for the third time. We can say it another way: The 4. March passed Vladimir Putin from being the strongest presidential candidate, to becoming illegitimate president.

Objectively speaking, Putin was the most popular candidate of those allowed to run for election. The whole administrative apparatus worked for him as a candidate. The state television channels, which to date are the main source of information in Russia, used five-sixths of its broadcast space to showcase Putin.

Behind him stood the army, the police, the prison system, the districts and the Caucasus. These are places where election observers do not have access. Putin could have allowed himself to not cheat at the election at all, he would still have won the first round of elections by a good margin, but may not have gained more than 51 percent.

"Against all"

In the second round, however, he would have problems. It has to do that no one really knows how much opposition to him is. Previously, the heading "against all" existed on the election card, but it was removed long ago.

Now I finally understand why this column was so dangerous. On the whole, it is in the second round, when Putin had to compete face to face with another candidate (who would probably have been the leader of the Communist Party Gennadij Zhuganov), that the "against all" rubric could have been dangerous for him. But since there was never any other round, this did not become a threat either.

No one knows how Russian society would react if Putin had followed the rules. After all, he never did. I just don't think he understands that honesty is not the same as weakness.

Putin has ruled our country for 12 years. We have not had the clear anti Putin protests for more than three months. We can say that we Russians swing back and forth. We have no charismatic leaders, we have no normal, new and genuine political party, we have no understanding of what we really want: a democratic Russia? A Leftist Russia? A Russia only for Russians and without the Caucasus?

Right now there are only two things we know. One is common. We want a Russia without Putin. The second is concrete: We want free and fair choices. These desires are the glue that holds us together, different as we are: Leftist and liberalists, nationalists with fascist inclinations and human rights defenders, youth who do not know who Lenin was and old people who dream of Stalin and better pensions.

We demand free choice

This is the main reason why people took to the streets on December 4. This is the most important demand, which they repeat again and again while arranging protest actions of various types: Funny, touching, few, massive – but in all cases peaceful.

It has become a habit among people to demonstrate. The last three months have done something to people's minds. They may not have understood it yet, but gradually people have begun to use words that have long been absent from our vocabulary: shame, spirit, honor, dignity, compassion, solidarity, morality.

For the past twelve years, the power that came from the Soviet intelligence service, the KGB, has corrupted the instincts of the people. The same spirit, which made corruption a habit all over Russia and corrupted state institutions, business, education and health, politics and cultural life.

In this system, each and every one of us has become criminals, with or without intent. We paid bribes instead of taxes.

Why are people corrupted by power? First, because it is easier to control criminals. Most importantly, however, such a type of power can do nothing but use the darkest qualities in humans, manipulate them and use them. This is a psychology, a tactic and a strategy used by the intelligence service. That is why they cannot be removed from power. They need to know their place, because that's only where they can be used for something in society.

Already the 5. In March, an article appeared on Russian social media called "An Observer's Confessions: How Idols Die and Enemy to Born". The young Moscowite Ksenia Vinkova, who until election day had thought Putin was the very best for Russia and had volunteered as an election observer, randomly ended up in the most scandalous polling place in this election, namely in the suburb of Strogino outside Moscow.

"Options carousels"

In Strogino, over 20.000 voters participated in a so-called "electoral carousel", a system where voters are driven to an polling station where they are not registered, and casts unregistered votes to the candidate who pays them for it. Afterwards, they move on to the next room.

In Moscow, there were hundreds of buses with people from Yaroslavl, Rajazan, Belgorod, Tver and other districts, which had received 400 rubles for participating in such carousels. 400 rubles equals 75. I wonder if there are people who can buy so cheaply, or whether it is the president who buys cheap.

Still – consequences come out of this, don't they? The most important result of such carousels are confessions from such as Ksenia Vinkova. She trusted Putin before the election, now she considers him a liar and a thief.

Towards the end of the confession, she describes in detail how all the electoral fraud has put the president and the election's strongest candidate in a bad light. She writes:

In a note I got in the observation room, the headline "was a free and fair choice!" It also said "Nemo judex in casua sua", which means "no one can judge in their own case". So in Vladimir Putin's case, I would say, "No one can elect himself president!"

Ksenia Vinkova's confession received tens of thousands of hits in just one day. In the comments section, someone wrote: "This must be read by everyone".

It's a story that says a lot. About how Putin loses his true supporters. About how he's going to keep losing them, because he's not honest. It also says that honesty is a really powerful force, which will lead to loss for those who do not possess it. ■

Translated from Russian by Kristian Krohg-Sørensen

(This is an excerpt from Ny Tid's weekly magazine 09.03.2012. Read the whole thing by buying Ny Tid in newspaper retailers all over the country, or by subscribing to Ny Tid - click here. Subscribers receive previous editions free of charge as PDF.)