'Fear Of A...Rash Step'?
Police, particularly in Moscow, appeared unusually restrained at the January 28 boycott rallies -- possibly giving an insight into thinking in the Kremlin as the election approaches. Over 1,000 detentions were made in the capital at a rally in March, compared to 16 on Sunday.
Speaking on a weekly current affairs show on Ekho Moskvy on January 29, Russian political expert Nikolai Petrov said this suggests the authorities are being careful not to create lines of tension or to anger protesters in the runup to the election. “It seems to me it is entirely evident that the change is linked to the approach of the elections. And the fear of the authorities to take a rash step that might provoke action from the other side.”
An activist in Kirov is facing charges for a one-man protest against another term for Putin.
Komsomolskaya Pravda is reporting that Ksenia Sobchak has officially submitted the 100,000 signatures needed to run in Russia's presidential election. She told reporters that people from more than 50 regions had signed her petition to run.
- By Carl Schreck
Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny says Russian authorities are deliberately dragging out an administrative case against him linked to nationwide protests he organized over the weekend so that he'll be in jail when the Russian presidential election is held.
Navalny was arrested in Moscow on his way to the January 28 protest in Moscow but was later released pending a court hearing. He says he's been charged with repeatedly violating Russian laws on public demonstrations -- an administrative offense punishable by up to 30 days in prison.
Navalny said on his website on January 31 that authorities opted not to try his case immediately because if he'd served a 30-day jail term right away, he'd be released weeks before the March 18 election.
"And Putin wants me to be sidelined directly before elections, and preferably during the elections," Navalny wrote. "So I presume that I'll be jailed with the intent of making sure I'm in a cell on March 18."
Navalny, who has spearheaded several nationwide anticorruption protests, is calling on Russian voters to boycott the election. He was barred from running due to a financial-crimes conviction he calls fabricated and politically motivated.
Amusing fake ballot asks whether people are not against Putin being president again. Responses are "yes, I'm not against it" and "no, I'm not against it."
From RFE/RL's Russian Service:
Declaring the need to build a country where people are respected and live “without fear,” and where the state “finally deals with problems of its own country,” Grigory Yavlinsky, co-founder of the Yabloko party, handed over 105,000 signatures to the Central Election Commission for registration as a candidate in Russia’s March 2018 presidential elections.
Yavlinsky's Platform
As announced, Yavlinsky's platform consists of five points: end the "aggressive" war in Ukraine, renounce the "reunification" of Crimea, and organize an international conference on its status, and "reject the policy of limited sovereignty regarding FSU states; withdraw from Syria; normalize diplomatic and economic relations with the EU and U.S., including by renouncing interference in domestic affairs of other countries; revive the political and public life of the country, including by observing the division of powers outlined in constitution, establishing independent courts, ending administrative pressure; and guarantee property rights and the legitimacy of private business.
Ekho Moskvy editor in chief Aleksei Venediktov highlights data showing Putin won just over 20 percent of Moscow voting districts in 2012, receiving less than 45 percent in just over 31 percent.
Election Monitor Defends Russians' Call For Vote Boycott
NGO Golos -- an independent election monitor that Russian authorities compelled to register as a "foreign agent" -- issues a statement arguing that public calls for an election boycott are legal and protected.
It says: "The Constitutional Court has repeatedly said that elections can only be considered free if citizens have a guaranteed right to receive and distribute information and the freedom to express their opinions."
It also says elections without the conditions for the free exchange of information cannot be considered free or legitimate.
Golos calls on the Election Commission to revoke local election commission orders to shut down Navalny offices, confiscate his materials, and ban calls for boycotts.
Volynets Abandons Presidential Bid
While Sobchak appears to have taken a formal step to run in the presidential election by submitting the required signatures, another candidate has announced she is bowing out. Irina Volynets announced on January 31 she was ending her a campaign that few probably knew had even started.