MOSCOW – An unlikely protest movement has become the first major challenge for Russian President Vladimir Putin after he secured his political future in a contentious vote this month, and may generate more problems in the coming days.
Residents of Khabarovsk, a large city near Russia’s border with China, have been armed for days protesting their governor’s arrest on 15-year murder charges.
The governor whom the protests defend, Sergei Furgal, is not a hero.
As a member of one of the two Kremlin-sanctioned Russian opposition parties, the Liberal Democratic Party, a nationalist ensemble that is neither liberal nor democratic, Furgal has spent most of his two years as governor more or less following the line of the Moscow party in the far East, without causing any problems. He was essentially a loyalist.
But Furgal committed an unforgivable sin against the regime: In the 2018 governor’s election, he rejected calls by the Kremlin to withdraw and allow the United Russia party’s favorite candidate to win. Then he legitimately won a popular contest. Many Khabarovsk residents say they view their arrest last week as punishment.
But most importantly, they say they view the arrest as a usurpation of local political will. Furgal managed to do some really popular things in his two years in office, said a 25-year-old office worker on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation for participating in the protests.
“This was a governor who was honestly elected by the people, which is unusual in Russia,” he said. “He was in power for only two years, but he did a lot for the people: he fixed the region’s budget, repaired the roads, gave the schoolchildren free breakfast. And he was dismissed on unfair charges. and this was the last straw. “
And so on Saturday 30,000 people took to the streets of Khabarovsk to demand their release. Protests have continued every day since then. Protesters held placards saying “Free Sergei Furgal”, while others called for Putin to resign.
“How can a person who has been in politics for so many years hide murders for 15 years? At all stages, public officials are controlled, and it is impossible to hide such a thing,” said the office employee, reflecting a sentiment. shared by other protesters on social media. “Either it didn’t, or it did and the Kremlin covered it for 15 years, while it was beneficial to them.”
The Kremlin appears to have been at least slightly baffled by the public response. Putin has yet to make public comments, and state television has avoided coverage.
Although Furgal, 50, has been arrested in Moscow since July 9, the Kremlin has not yet formally removed him from his post. But a Kremlin envoy sent to meet with local government officials has doubled the charges, claiming that the security services would not have acted if they were not 100 percent sure.
Furgal is accused of the deaths of several businessmen in 2004 and 2005, when he himself was a businessman with an interest in importing consumer goods, wood and metals before entering politics. He denies the charges. Before becoming governor in 2018, he spent a decade in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament.
The reaction to Furgal’s arrest reveals local tensions between Moscow, as a political center, and the regions he presides over in an increasingly centralized manner. But the arrest is also part of a broader crackdown on opposition voices of all kinds, from the most radical to the most conformist, which in many ways feels like a settling of old scores.
The Kremlin declared victory on July 1 in a referendum on constitutional amendments that, among other things, restore Putin’s term limits, allowing him to rule Russia until 2036 if he wishes. Since then, there have been almost daily reports of repressive actions.
The Central Election Commission reported that 78 percent of voters supported the changes, with a record turnout of 68 percent. Opposition leaders, such as Alexei Navalny, called the referendum the most fraudulent election in Russia’s post-Soviet history. The Kremlin has hailed it as a “triumphant referendum on confidence in President Putin.”
Last week, opposition activists were detained and their apartments were searched. A former investigative journalist, Ivan Safronov, was arrested and charged with treason without any evidence publicly presented. And a young spokesman for a medical group that denounced the Kremlin’s poor response COVID-19 was arrested and recruited into the army.
Furgal is perhaps the highest-profile victim of the Kremlin crackdown, considering his position in government. And in an article published by the Carnegie Moscow Center over the weekend, political commentator Andrey Pertsev argued that the case, and indeed the broader wave of repression, shows that the Putin regime no longer sees the need for opposition. loyal or even public consent in your rule
“Voting on constitutional amendments seems to be the last point where the mood and preferences of citizens were somehow taken into account. The Kremlin will achieve the desired electoral results by other methods: electronic voting, multi-day voting, voting anywhere, anytime, “Pertsev concluded, referring to allegations of massive fraud surrounding the vote.
“You may be against it, but nobody asks you what you think anymore.”
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The Kremlin rarely bows to public pressure, so it seems unlikely Furgal will return to his post. On Monday, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, raised what appeared to be a way for the Kremlin to save something: naming a different member of the party as governor of Khabarovsk. The party has even submitted three names.
But Zhirinovsky gave a more challenging tone on Tuesday in a tweet stating that “Sergei Furgal’s arrest is a Kremlin mistake.”
“The riots in Khabarovsk will not subside until [he] Return to the region. He will return and continue his work as governor. If I were in the position of the president, I would eliminate the envoy [and] place a man at the head of the Far East – Furgal, “wrote Zhirinovsky.
Zhirinovsky’s sentiments appear to be in line with that of some of the protesters, who at the moment seem unfazed and are determined to keep marching.
“While we ourselves do not know what the outcome will be,” said the office worker, “the demonstrations are scheduled for next week. We do not know if this will help or not, if Furgal will be released or not or if things will. ” improve or worsen with these actions. But people are not going to retire, everyone is angry. “
