The protests were orchestrated; they had started days ahead of the event. Predictions were made about the outcome. The world was told to get ready to watch a 'farce' in the name of polls in Russia-as though there has never been a 'farce' in so-called 'democracies'. The high turn out of voters was dubbed suspicious, as was the overwhelming support for the President elect.
The fact is that the West is unhappy at the outcome of the Russian Presidential poll, not so much because it is irreconcilably hostile towards the winning candidate, Dimitry Medvedev, but because he was chosen by-and is loyal to---Vladimir Putin, the outgoing head of state. And Putin is the man the West is beginning to hate with a passion that recalls the Cold War era. The poll may officially remove Putin from the post of Russian President but the West fears he will continue to rule by proxy.
Virtually anything that Putin did or said in recent months became an anathema to the West, particularly the US. His polices were said to be reviving the Cold War-because they were challenging the exclusive super power status of the US.
His ambition to make Russia powerful-economically, politically and militarily--is supposed to endanger world peace. More obnoxious is his habit of refusing to 'cooperate' with the US and its allies as they strive to discipline 'rogue' or 'evil' states. It is Russia that is preventing recalcitrant nations from embracing 'democracy' as defined by US-flexible, but firmly pro-US.
Most European countries and the US had decided to 'boycott' the Presidential poll in Russia by refusing to send observers. They did want to send their monitors to observe an election that they knew for sure was going to be imperfect-like (or unlike) the first election of President George W. Bush! Don't the exalted Western nations wink at 'flawed' polls whenever or wherever it suits them?
Nonetheless nearly 300 foreign observers and monitors were there, though no one from the main European poll watchdog, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. A 22-member team of European monitors promptly dubbed the poll as expected 'flawed'. It regretted that the poll had deprived the Russians of an opportunity to 'tap' their 'democratic potential.'
Of course, it cannot be denied that the Russian poll was anything but perfect. Everything seemed loaded in favour of Medvedev. The state-controlled media was partisan and blatant in supporting the 'official' candidate. The Opposition had cried foul and the Communist candidate, who polled about 17 percent of votes against Medvedev's 70 percent, has threatened to go to court.
Western protests look clearly motivated. Putin would have got away with an even more 'flawed' poll had Russia been considered a 'friendly' nation that shut its eyes to its encircling by NATO. Most of the former Soviet nations in Europe have joined US-led or inspired alliances. Two of them have been quite happy to let the American use their territory for installing a dubious missile defence system that will supposedly thwart any attempt by terrorists to nuke the US. And to think that the terrorist threat of nuking them that so obsesses the US comes, by its own admission, from a nation in this sub-continent and maybe Iran-certainly not Europe!
Western analysts rue the fact that by voting a Putin's nominee as their next President, the Russians have voted for 'stability and continuity associated with incumbent President (Putin)'. They have dismissed the March 2 Presidential poll as 'plebiscite' or 'referendum' on the past eight-year rule of Putin. Only a few days prior to the Russian poll a country nearer India had given a very clear verdict in a 'referendum', which went against the incumbent President of that country but he continues to be eulogised by the US and its allies.
The lament against 'continuity' in Russia perhaps arises from the aggressive postures adopted by Putin dealing with his pro-West immediate neighbours and his alleged tendency to 'blackmail' these smaller nations over gas supplies. Putin's defence may be weak on this score and even India knows that of late Russia has shown a capacity to renege on assurances in regard to certain supplies and their price. But the Russians who voted in the poll were not thinking in terms of this kind of 'continuity': they were only concerned about the efforts made by Putin to take Russia to an unprecedented economic high-and, of course, the political clout that came with it.
The Western critics of Putin are now banking their hopes on a 'power struggle' in Russia with Putin's successor distancing himself from his mentor; the earlier the better. Medevedev, it is hoped, will start asserting his full authority under the Russian constitution, which gives him the power to reshuffle the cabinet--and thereby change the Prime Minister, a job Putin has chosen for himself. The President of Russia also guides the foreign and defence policy of the country-another area where the West wants to see a more amenable Russian President.
Those who are praying for an early internal 'cold war' to ensue between the mentor and the protégé are even asking questions like whether Putin as Prime Minister will hang a photograph of Medvedev in his office or, whether he will refuse to vacate his current office (in Kremlin) since the Prime Minister has to sit in another office nearby. Hope for the West also comes from the fact that for the first time Russia is going to be ruled by 'Two Tsars'--one too many.
Russia has known clashes between the President and the Prime Minister, almost all of them during the days of Boris Yeltsin, a man known more for his carousal pastime than governing the country efficiently. Yeltsin did not enjoy the kind of equation with his Prime Ministers that Putin as Prime Minister will with Medvedev. Yeltsin was not the kind of President most Russians would quote as exemplary head of state.
The kind of popularity and acceptance that Putin has enjoyed in Russia is unprecedented. He has a strong power base. If there is going to be a decline in his status in Russia it is some years away. The Western unhappiness with the Russian poll is about the strong likelihood of continuity in policies that it does not approve of. It is not about a 'flawed' poll.
Tukoji R Pandit, Syndicate Features
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