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The Power Vertical

Podcast: The Rebellion In The Regions

A man leaves a voting booth during the mayoral election in the city of Yaroslavl on April 1.
A man leaves a voting booth during the mayoral election in the city of Yaroslavl on April 1.

April 06, 2012

Russia's opposition scored a decisive victory this week in Yaroslavl's mayoral election when maverick city-council deputy Yevgeny Urlashov won nearly 70 percent of the vote, crushing United Russia-backed candidate.
 
The electoral uprising in Yaroslavl came hot on the heels of a string of victories for opposition candidates in the regions, including mayoral elections in the auto-making city of Tolyatti and in the town of Chernogolovka in Moscow Oblast. It also came after opposition candidates won a third of the open seats in elections to district councils in Moscow.
 
Urlashov was supported by a broad coalition of parties, including the Communists, the liberal Yabloko, and the center-left A Just Russia. He also had the backing of billionaire oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, as well as the civic organization Democratic Choice.
 
The opposition clearly sees the result as a sign of things to come. Opposition figure Vladimir Milov recently wrote on his blog that “The road to the Kremlin runs through Yaroslavl.”
 
In this week's edition of The Power Vertical Podcast, I sat down with Kirill Kobrin, managing editor of RFE/RL's Russian Service, to discuss the electoral rebellion sweeping Russia's regions.
 
Also on the podcast, we take a look at recent controversies surrounding the Russian Orthodox Church.
 
Enjoy...

The Power Vertical: The Rebellion In The Regions
The Power Vertical: The Rebellion In The Regionsi
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Tags: Patriarch Kirill,podcast,local politics,Yaroslavl,Yevgeny Urlashov,Russian Orthodox Church

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by: Mark from: Victoria
April 06, 2012 20:46
I realize hope springs eternal, especially here. But more sober analysts less prone to being swept away with dribbling excitement suggest that the mayoral victory of the opposition candidate might not signal an end to Putin anytime soon. And let's be honest; the west could care less about United Russia; it wants rid of Putin.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PQ0tyMeC_JQJ:www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1126175--in-the-russian-provinces-valdimir-putin-is-a-pillar+in+russian+provinces+putin+is+pillar+star&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-a

In fact, while you may wish to characterize this as "a rebellion", and I wish you all the luck in the world with that, Putin remains something of a God in Yaroslavl, credited with having personally saved the Yaroslavl Engine Plant - a major oblast employer - from going under in 2008.

"I am going to vote for Putin with both hands", says Nikolay Belyakov. Careful, Nikolay - that might be fraud. "I love everything about him", says Yekaterina Veryugina, a lathe operator. Perhaps most tellingly, Svetlana Yershova says, "...if I change my mind and vote, I will cast my vote for Putin. He doesn't have an alternative." And that was said not with despair, but with enthusiasm. The source - the Los Angeles Times - is about as conservative a paper as you are likely to find on the planet, and the reporter a known booster of opposition politics in Russia. Even feted-to-a-fare-thee-well new mayor Urlashov complained at the time, “It is amazing how these people seem to miss any connection between the party and its leader,”

But while we're talking about the mayoral election, I note that mayoral candidate Urlashov was said to command about 30% of voter support back in early February. Here we are barely 2 months later, and he pulls in nearly 70%, despite comical allegations of the by-now-de-rigueur ballot-stuffing and payouts to voters - all on behalf of United Russia, of course - and a truly comical B-movie exchange in which a police officer allegedly says to another in front of reporters, "Let's wait for Yakushev's representative's call". It's pretty hard to imagine somebody who was trying to cover up something underhanded actually saying something so stupid; apparently the villains are pretty easy to spot in the provinces.

http://en.gazeta.ru/news/2012/04/02/a_4117801.shtml

However, I wonder what the "thousands of journalists and observers" who descended on Yaroslavl, including the ubiquitous Golos, naturally, would have said had the United Russia candidate polled 30% support in February and won with nearly 70% of the vote in the beginning of April, his result more than doubling the support indicated in his advance polls. Can you guess? Well, then, I won't spoil it for you.

The new regulations on foreign NGO's can't come fast enough.
by: Mark Galeotti from: New York
April 10, 2012 04:07
A particularly interesting podcast that sparked some thoughts that I've blogged here

http://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/does-the-road-to-the-kremlin-run-through-yaroslavl/

Keep up the excellent work!

Mark
by: Vakhtang from: Moscow
April 10, 2012 08:12
Strange people working for Radio Liberty
What do they understand bу the word rebellion??
This Urlashov, he may arrest Putin?
Lead the march of Yaroslavl on Moscow against a man usurped the power and who spread racism and nazism?
How long I can explain to you that Putin does not care who they came to power- Urlashov or Winnie the Pooh...
Everything under control...
I'm will not surprise that it is so designed by his assistants
In Response
by: Eugenio from: Vienna
April 10, 2012 11:25
You are asking "how long you can explain... that Putin" is going to stay in power no matter what happens in Yaroslavl :-)). Vakhtang, you will have to understand one simple thing yourself: the "journalists" who work for the RFE/RL are getting paid to brainwash the people who care to visit this web-site in such a manner that they would (a) just forget about all the economic, political and military defeats that the US and other NATO countries are currently experiencing and (b) get an impression that "real problems" actually happen elsewhere, be it in Russia, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba or the DPRK.
If you look at, for example, this article series on this Yaroslavl "miracle" from this point of view, it will become cristally clear to you why RFE/RL needs to present a completely normal, even boring "phenomenon" of an independent candidate winning a municipal election in a small provincial town as one more "beginning of the end of the Putin's regime": regularly publishing such articles helps distract readers' attention from the current economic crisis, de-industrialization and high unemployment in NATO countries by focusing this attention on "what will happen next" in Yaroslavl or some other small provincial town in Russia. That's all there is to this "story".
In Response
by: Vakhtang from: Moscow
April 10, 2012 15:44
Partly I can agree with you Eugenio from: Vienna..
And I can imagine how Mr.Whitmore combing the backyards of Moscow in search of another oppositionist and straining his brains to invent yet another essay for random "passengers" of RL...

but not all so simple.

Take for example a branch of Radio Liberty- Echo of Caucasus, as it is known Andrei Babitsky is a сhief there...
Once he earned the respect of his actions in Chechnya, where he often risked his life.
But times are changing..
Babitsky is clearly not objective today... I can not give the reason why...think yourself..
Strangely enough, Babitsky supports аbkhaz bandits who live in other people's homes under the laws of racism and nazism and he censored all who are against the bandits..
Now Echo of Caucasus is a tales that tells the аbkhazians- liars (journalists) and a couple of аbkhaz thugs whom he is not censored and who offend everyone and everything..
So as you can see here, too, is Putin's agents who blatantly push and support the position of Volodya in the Caucasus..

In Response
by: Eugenio from: Vienna
April 28, 2012 09:04
Hey, Vakhtang, I am not sure whether the activities of RFE/RL in the Cuacuasus have to do with "Putin's agents who blatantly push and support the position of Volodya in the Caucasus". I was not following the publications of this "Echo of Caucasus", but if they - as you are saying - are supporting the Abkhazians, it makes total sense to me:
This is just a tipical US technique: not putting all the eggs in one basket, but distributing them among different actors involved in the same conflict. Just like they did in Egypt: (a) on the one hand, financing Mubarak for 30 years, and (b) on the other, financing the oposition to Mubarak, sending agents from the Serbian "Otpor movt" to train the Egyptian bloggers etc.
The goal of this is clear: once it becomes obvious to the US that their stooge of the day (be it Mubarak or Saakashvili) is losing ground, they activate their own agents within the oppostion - and this way try to end up winning also when their stooge gets kicked out (like it was with Pinochet in Chile or like they are trying to do that in post-Mubarak Egypt now).
So, in the case of Georgia/Abkhazia the US is just trying to maintain relations with both sides for now and when they see that one or the other one is winning, the US can choose who to side with: Georgia or Abkhazia.

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The Power Vertical is a blog written especially for Russia wonks and obsessive Kremlin watchers by Brian Whitmore. It offers Brian's personal take on emerging and developing trends in Russian politics, shining a spotlight on the high-stakes power struggles, machinations, and clashing interests that shape Kremlin policy today. Check out The Power Vertical Facebook page or

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