Vladimir Putin's Cold War election ploy

In September, Putin claimed implausibly that he had agreed to change offices with Dmitri Medvedev four years ago. Thereby, he made three spectacular mistakes. First, he said that Medvedev had never been serious about modernization. Second, he took responsibility for three bad years without growth -- any sensible politician would have blamed that on Medvedev. And third, by announcing his actual appointment before the Duma elections, Putin made clear that popular opinion was irrelevant to him. He did not even bother with an election platform.


His appearance at a wrestling event in November, in which he was booed in front of 20,000 people -- broadcast on Russian state television -- crystallized his situation. As the Russian journalist Julia Latynina has pointed out: a dictator has to be feared. When he no longer is, he is just ridiculous. The Duma elections were a referendum on Putin, and he lost.


Clinton argued that 'as we have seen in many places, and most recently in the Duma elections in Russia, elections that are neither free nor fair have the same effect. We have serious concerns about the conduct of those elections. Independent political parties, such as PARNAS, were denied the right to register. And the preliminary report by the OSCE cites election day attempts to stuff ballot boxes, manipulate voter lists, and other troubling practices.' This official position of the U.S. State Department is shared by other world leaders. The Russian elections were not free and fair.
Putin's United Russia party suffered losses in the Russian Duma to other parties including the Communist Party, the Just Russia Party and a nationalist Liberal Democratic Party. Putin saw this as a sign that he needed to bring a little nationalism to his own party in an effort to get his parties numbers up going into a presidential election in March. Picking on the West is a good way to change the subject from the domestic problems facing the voting Russian populace.


Clinton concluded that the 'Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted. And that means they deserve fair, free, transparent elections and leaders who are accountable to them.' This provoked a strong response from Putin and his allies.
Putin fired back that Clinton 'set the tone for some of our public figures inside the country, sent a signal to them. They heard this signal and launched active work with the U.S. State Department’s support.' Putin accused the United States of organizing and setting the stage for the large protests.
We should expect more bashing of the U.S. running up to the Russian presidential elections in March of next year. Putin clearly would like to set up Sec. State Clinton as a straw man (or should I say straw woman) for him to campaign against in the upcoming election. Putin and his cronies will run a campaign to turn back the rhetorical clock 25 years so they can campaign against the United States instead of Putin's opponents for the Russian presidency. It might work.



Tags:  Vladimir Putin, Occupy Moscow,  Why Putin Booed, Putin Russia's nomination,  Putin accuses Clinton,  Russia's losing battle, Russia vote watchdog, Russian Biggest protests, Boris Nemtsov ,  Mikhail Prokhorov, Dmitry Medvedev