The End of Democracy in Russia

Anonymous

“Democracy means the power of the people and the possibility of influencing the governing parties. Russia has had enough experience with a one-party-system—we will not go back there” 

-Vladimir Putin 

Russian parliamentary elections were held this past September with United Russia, Putin’s political party, winning once again. The final vote saw 324 out of 450 of the Duma’s seats handed to United Russia. No surprises there: through elaborate schemes, lack of opposition, fraud, threats and the manipulation of remote voting, the Kremlin did everything in its power to ensure victory. The country did not expect the results to be any different. An old Soviet joke resurfaced after the elections: “you pretend to hold elections and we pretend to vote.” 

Russia’s fake elections were nothing short of dismally entertaining. To ensure its victory, United Russia had to first eliminate all possible opposition. 19-year-old Daria Artamonova, for instance, who was running for a town council seat against a representative of Putin’s party, received a tombstone with her name on it, accompanied by a funeral flower crown. While this did not stop her, it did discourage other candidates to run. 

Another tactic used was the “Duplicate Candidates.” Voters could choose, among others, between three identical-looking men named Boris Vishnevsky, only one of them being the real opposition politician. The doubles had legally changed their names and photoshopped the photographs on the ballot, creating an illusion that the voters have a choice. 

These are just two examples, among too many, of ways the Kremlin has destroyed democracy and gone back to the corrupt and criminal Soviet-era, one-party-system. Dmitri Furman, a Russian political scientist, once wrote, Russia is an “imitation democracy,” a combination of democratic illusion and authoritarian reality. 

Can Russians still fight for democracy or is it a lost cause? The most promising opposition leader was Alexei Navalny who is now decaying in a corrective labor colony in Eastern Russia. Widely reported on the news in 2020 was his poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent placed in his underwear (Russian officials generally like to diversify their ways of attacking opposition). Navalny gained popularity through his social media (he has over 6 million YouTube subscribers) to whom he exposed the Russian government’s corrupt and criminal activities. He then organized anti-government demonstrations, ran for office against Putin, as well as founded a political party and the Anti-Corruption Foundation. 

For the 2021 parliamentary elections, Navalny’s team created an app which informed voters who were the opposition politicians running for office. The app was quickly made illegal, with Google and Apple removing it under pressure from the Kremlin.

If the most prominent opposition politician cannot make a difference, who can? Russians are slowly giving up, with polls showing that since February of 2021, support for protest has declined. These elections showed Russians that their democracy is effectively doomed and that only when Putin is no longer in power will there be hope. 

Putin’s endgame is to ensure that after a long and uncontested rule he gets to pick a successor who will protect his interests and those of his close circle. However, the end of the Putin era may not be as stable as he hopes. While he may still have many years to reign—he can theoretically remain in power until 2036—his efforts to neutralize any credible successor mean that society may focus its frustrations on him if the country experiences a major setback—a sharp decline in living standards, for instance, or a humiliating defeat. Putin will be left to carry the blame alone and may even be toppled in a violent insurrection. What comes after is hard to predict, but it could mean the birth of a new, democratic Russia. By destroying democracy, Mr. Putin is potentially opening an avenue for its return. Therefore, can one ask is it truly the end of democracy in Russia?

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