Russia set to elect Putin’s successor in one-sided poll
AFP | Mar 1, 2008
by Sebastian Smith
MOSCOW (AFP) – Russians will vote Sunday in a presidential election seen by critics as rigged to ensure victory for Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin successor Dmitry Medvedev, while enabling Putin to retain major power.
Voting was to begin at 8:00 am local time (2000 GMT Saturday) on the Pacific coast of the world’s biggest country before rolling 12,000 kilometres (7,500 miles) west to Moscow and on to the Baltic Sea territory of Kaliningrad.
Medvedev faced three challengers, but his overwhelming victory was almost a foregone conclusion after a campaign in which Russia’s heavily censored national television networks rammed home the message that he is Putin’s anointed successor.
Opinion polls predict Medvedev, currently first deputy premier and head of gas monopoly Gazprom, will win at least 60 percent of the vote and possibly more than 70 percent.
The other candidates — Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, populist nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the almost unknown Andrei Bogdanov — are forecast to score less than 30 percent between them.
At 42, Medvedev represents a new generation of post-Soviet politicians in the world’s biggest energy exporter and major nuclear power. Unlike Putin and most of Putin’s inner circle, Medvedev has no KGB or other security service background.
However, Medvedev says his main goal is to follow Putin’s course and he is set to install his mentor as prime minister.
The power-sharing formula, dubbed the “tandem” by Russian newspapers, suggests that Putin, 55, will remain a dominating force on Russia’s political scene well beyond Medvedev’s likely inauguration in May.
Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion turned fierce Kremlin critic, on Saturday attacked the “farce.”
“They have already decided who will win the election. Everyone understands that the election is not legitimate,” he said at the central election commission in Moscow, as he delivered a petition signed by more than 5,000 people against the poll.
Democracy groups also lashed out in advance of the election.
The vote “can hardly be considered as fair,” said the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which deployed 25 observers.
Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International and Russian election monitoring agency Golos said the Kremlin had stage-managed the contest through media bias, pressure on regional leaders, and use of state resources.
Amnesty International denounced a “clampdown on freedoms of assembly and expression,” while the election monitoring body of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) boycotted the election altogether, citing restrictions on its monitors.
Despite all the criticism, Russian authorities have made epic efforts to bring the ballot box to as many people as possible, including reindeer herders, fishermen and other far-flung residents.
Even cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko was to transmit his vote from the orbiting International Space Station to an official back on Earth, Russian television reported Saturday.
If elected, Medvedev will take the reins of a country of 142 million people that Putin has transformed since rising from obscurity in 2000 to replace the ailing and deeply unpopular Boris Yeltsin.
Russia is the world’s leading energy exporter and under Putin has used soaring gas and oil revenues to rebuild a collapsed military and to pay off international debts racked up in the post-Soviet 1990s.
New economic confidence is also fuelling a bullish foreign policy that puts Moscow at odds with the United States and Western Europe.
Putin’s few remaining outspoken opponents accuse him of dismantling democratic freedoms established in the 1990s — reducing parliament to a rubber stamp, failing to investigate murders of opposition figures and journalists, and committing massive war crimes in Chechnya.
Putin points to huge popular approval ratings and describes his presidency as a triumphant period following the trauma of the Soviet collapse.
On Sunday polls open in each of Russia’s 11 time zones at 8:00 am local time with final polling stations closing on Sunday in Russia’s Baltic region of Kaliningrad at 1800 GMT. In total, around 109 million Russians are eligible to vote.
9 responses so far ↓
Edgar Bryan // March 1, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Glad to see you back in business. Enjoyed your site but been missing you.
anonymous // March 2, 2008 at 4:27 pm
“They have already decided who will win the election. Everyone understands that the election is not legitimate,”
Just like gordon browns “election”, then.
had stage-managed the contest through media bias, pressure on regional leaders, and use of state resources.
They are catching up fast on the UK and US then!
“clampdown on freedoms of assembly and expression,”
Just like the BNP in the UK, then.
Non of the above makes it OK.
I just thinks it’s rich, when the UK, or the US, where all the above happen as a matter of course, and where every politician is as corrupt as shit, and democracy died decades ago, that they should criticize ANYBODY on this planet.
wil // March 4, 2008 at 1:50 am
Glad you’re back too!
You mean J Carter wasn’t monitoring votes in the good ole Russia SR?
And over here–he doesn’t say USA any more, but “the continent.”
pjwalker911 // March 5, 2008 at 2:16 am
Thanks guys, I am gradually getting back into it. Sorry to all for the long hiatus.
Pretty much the tyranny is global already. Most if not all elections are rigged and run by the global elite who put their approved puppets in power as vice regents of their various fiefdoms. This is the dispicable state of affairs. I personally would love to see an end to all the corruption, but it is going to be a long hard road to achieve true freedom and true representative government.
I am starting to agree with Alan Watt that the current system must be abolished entirely in order to create a new system that is humane, just and moral.
rawrsaurus // March 5, 2008 at 7:52 am
Hey guys, just started reading news here and along with some other websites…anything but the tv.
I have a pounding question though. The idea that most if not all govts around the world along with those who run them are corrupt and power grabbing to the extent of having organizations like Bilderberg…what do we need to do exactly to solve this problem? To be more specific…what are we going to do IF we bring them all down? I say that with much pessimism because as we all know, humans arent perfect and there will always be elitists who will collude together for domination.
I think most people are aware of this and it discourages them to do anything about their rulers because they view their attempts to be futile or wasteful. But then again I’m not thinking in terms of it’s a process of struggle…
Maybe one of you can enlighten me, thanks.
pjwalker911 // March 6, 2008 at 2:48 am
rawrsaurus, There is no easy answer to this New World Order matrix system, but the key word is “enlightened”. That is knowing the truth. Ignorance is the darkness that pollutes minds and that alone is the cause of this whole situation we find ourselves in. Conversely, it is only the truth that can set us free. In order to get to the truth, we have to have the capacity to question everything with an open mind, examine and test whatever information that comes our way, and make an honest attempt to establish veracity. Most people don’t do that, so they just fall in line with one party line, ideology or religion or whatever and play follow the leader like sheep. How can anything good come of that? As to what is the alternative, it is looking around for alternative news and information, but also just looking at the news and information with clear eyes, trying to read between the lines.
As far as what kind of system we should have, there is no cookie cutter answer to that, but people should govern themselves rather than putting all their power in someone elses’ hands. Whenever you do that, you get tyranny in all its many guises.
The key thing is that, though we might be concerned about what is happening in another part of the world, our first priority should always be in putting our own house in order. The main reason I post stories like this is just to let people know that election rigging is happening in other countries, so why think that it can’t happen here? It IS happening here and has been for a long time.
America is in dire need of a thorough housecleaning. It is full of garbage and the only way to clean it out is to first clear the garbage from our minds. We need to stop watching garbage on TV. I would say that is one of the key things that is keeping people stupid and apathetic. It has a hypnotic effect and a corrupting influence as well as being a tool for brainwashing and “predictive programming” where everything from movies to sitcoms and cartoons become tools of the power-elite’s agenda.
Get out of the Left/Right paradigm. That is another big one.
Get out of religion and cults because this is just more brainwashing.
Think for yourself. If everyone did that, we would have a much better world.
wil // March 10, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Some of the things I’ve been told the past year:
“”"They” won’t let that happen. (NAU)”
“You have too much time on your hands.”
“It’s too late.”
“I don’t have time.”
“Oh–haha–you’re into conspiracies?! Haha”
“How do you know this?”
“I’ve never heard this before.”
“Well, you’re gloomy.”
“Why are you so concerned with globalism and national sovereignty?”
“I’m a Christian. The world is in God’s hands and I don’t have to worry about it.”
“That’s too far out.”
“Crazy.”
“Big Brother’s watching! Haha”
etc etc etc
pjwalker911 // March 11, 2008 at 3:24 am
I get that all the time and more. At this point, I have such a good sense for where people are at that I know exactly how much to tell them and where they are politically and intellectually from just a few words out of their mouths. Both liberals and conservatives are deluded creatures who think they know what is going on but they are basically living in a made-up reality that has little to do with the real reality. Most people are living in a dream world that is soon to become a nightmare world if they don’t wake up. So the only thing you can do with such people is to plant a few seeds that serve as bridges from their current delusions (liberal or conservative) to the bigger picture. There is absolutely nothing more that you can do with such frozen minds. Just hope they thaw out and start to free themselves.
wil // March 11, 2008 at 11:20 am
I’ve noticed people who argue the most are trying to cover up their utter cluelessness.