Russians vote in Putin’s referendum: social media – confusing images

06/29/2020 Lithuania



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Confusing images

According to The Moscow Times, if the changes were enacted, we would have to talk about the first time since 1993, when Russia’s basic law is amended. In addition to the inclusion of additional social, legal and economic guarantees in the Constitution, the amendments would nullify Putin’s current presidency and allow him another two years to lead the country.

There was an active campaign in the weeks leading up to the referendum, and it is estimated that millions of people will come to express their views. Residents of Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod will be able to vote online, but everything else will have to go to the polls, which is why many polling stations have been established across the country.

Some of them look really unusual or even confusing. That is really what we want to say about the electoral table installed in the playground.

One would think that to get to the ballot box and cast the ballot, people will have to skate on the skate.

In some areas, citizens have to mark the ballots on stumps or stones and then throw them in a translucent box.

In Russia, the voting booth can also be replaced by a primary tent, a bus, and the voting table can be replaced by a soccer field.

In Russia, you can even vote in the trunk of a car, sitting on a bench in the courtyard of an apartment building, in a nearby green forest, and in other hard-to-find places.

Grigory Melkonjanc, vice president of the independent election observation organization Gola, described the current vote as the most affected by manipulation and the least transparent in the history of the country, apart from the turbulent elections in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“We have never received so many complaints from people who say they are forced to go to the polls,” said Melkonjanc.

Meduza.io writes that a lottery was held in the city of Omsk in Siberia for the participants in the vote on the amendments to the Constitution. People won awards, but the department managed to win the constituency no. 1352 to the President.

June 25 The organizers of the lottery announced on the social network VKontakte that Ana Ganeva, 59, won the apartment, one of the prepared prizes. The fact that this person heads the local electoral commission, of course, is not mentioned in the announcement.

This fact was made public by the news portal NGS55 on June 25. In the afternoon.

The publication says that the victory, as A. Ganeva herself said, was just a coincidence. “I am also a voter! So, I voted and participated in the lottery. I don’t know anything, it just happened,” said A. Ganeva.

According to information provided by NGS55, lottery rules do not prohibit the drawing of tickets for members of the electoral commission or their families. To enter the lottery, you only need to be a Russian citizen over the age of 18 with permanent residence in the Omsk region.

Lotteries and prizes attracted participants in the referendum on constitutional amendments in Moscow and in other regions of Russia. June 11 The mayor’s office in Moscow has announced the “Millions of prizes” campaign, participants are promised gift vouchers that will allow them to spend in shopping malls and restaurants, visit museums and cinemas in the Russian capital.

Russian opposition is confused

The Russian opposition calls this week’s vote on President Putin’s constitutional reforms a “joke”, noting that Moscow bookstores are already selling copies of the new basic law.

Critics of the Kremlin across the political spectrum, from liberal reformers to communists, say the vote, which began last week and runs through Wednesday, is a poorly disguised attempt by Putin, 67, to maintain power in your hands for life.

But without weak calls for a referendum boycott or a “no” vote, the opposition has done little to show opposition to the reform.

Alexei Navaln, one of Russia’s leading opposition figures, who held mass protests last summer against the alleged electoral fraud in Moscow, also shows little interest in fighting for constitutional reforms.

Experts say the opposition is not maintaining serious opposition to Putin’s plans due to the sharp divergence in its ranks and the Kremlin’s well-thought-out steps.

“Lack of resources, lack of new faces, passion, inspiration and faith are, I think, the main causes of the problems,” said Vitaly Škliarov, a member of Harvard University and a political adviser to the Russian opposition.

According to him, since Putin’s announcement of the planned reforms “there have been a million opportunities,” but after many years of persecution, critics of the Kremlin seem to have given up hope.

“The Russian opposition does not believe in itself,” stressed the expert.

In January, Putin proposed an amendment to the constitution and then approved a last-minute proposal to “cancel” previous presidential terms. In this way, he has been allowed to work for two potential periods of six more years after 2024, when his current term ends.

The proposed innovations include political changes such as strengthening the role of parliament, as well as a series of populist measures, such as the requirement to index pensions to inflation and the de facto prohibition of gay marriages.

Public opinion polls show that most Russians support the new social model, but the political transformation is causing much less enthusiasm.

“Opposition in a difficult situation”

The amendments have already been approved by parliament, but Putin has called a plebiscite to give the initiative more legitimacy.

The vote, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic. Analysts believe the swift appointment of a referendum date twice in a row is one reason why the opposition has not campaigned vigorously.

According to the political analysis company “R. Politik founder Tatiana Stanovaya, the Kremlin also brought down its opponents, allowing the Russians to vote only” for “or” against “the entire reform package, not by amendments individual.

According to Stanovaya, opposition to popular measures like higher pensions and a minimum wage could make critics of the Kremlin politically vulnerable.

“In this situation, it is difficult to oppose the changes,” he told AFP. “The opposition is in a difficult situation.”

The liberal Jabloko party has called on the Russians to avoid “illegal, unconstitutional and false voting.”

At that time, the Communist Party, which was mostly loyal to the Kremlin, took an unusual step by urging its supporters to vote “no”.

“Circus with balloons”

Navalnas, a 44-year-old anti-corruption activist who organized one of the largest anti-Kremlin protests in recent years, called the reforms a “constitutional coup” but made little effort to oppose them.

“We only have a circus with balloons,” he wrote on the Telegram correspondence platform.

While many opposition supporters are frustrated by their inability to propose a more decisive action plan, some are convinced that change will come sooner or later.

20-year-old programmer Mikhail Samin, who participated in anti-government protests in Moscow last summer, pointed to Putin’s popularity rating, which had plummeted to a record low of 59 percent in April, according to a poll by the firm’s sociological research Levada Centr.

“The opposition is moving in the right direction,” said Samin. “Society is moving in the right direction.”

According to A. Navaln, instead of focusing on the constitutional change initiated by Putin, the Russians should prepare for the regional government elections scheduled for September and the parliamentary elections scheduled for 2021.

Last year, the positions of the pro-Kremlin candidates weakened when the Navals urged citizens who did not support Putin’s loyalists to vote tactically.

Analyst Stanovaya noted that the opposition leader should save forces for future struggles.

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