Russia: law to exclude Navalny supporters from elections

Alexei Navalny, April 28, 2021. REUTERS - ANTON VAGANOV

Text by: Anastasia Becchio

6 mins

The offensives against the opposition are accelerating in Russia, with the approach of the legislative elections of September 19.

Alexei Navalny's movement is in the process of disappearing completely, marked with the seal of "extremist" organization.

The government also wants to ensure that no partisan or sympathizer of the opponent can stand for election.

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The Duma examines at first reading, Tuesday, May 18, a bill prohibiting people involved in organizations classified as "extremist" from standing for election.

However, the representative offices of Alexei Navalny in several dozen regions have already been placed on a list of "extremist and terrorist" organizations by the federal financial monitoring service.

A final decision on these qualifiers was due to be considered yesterday, the hearing was adjourned to June 9, but the outcome is not in doubt.

Without waiting for the court decision, the leaders of the movement announced on April 29 the closure of the network of regional headquarters so as not to expose the activists to criminal prosecution and heavy penalties.

"A war of eradication"

After the numerous legal actions against several relatives or supporters of Alexei Navalny, rendering them, in fact, ineligible, the circle of candidates deprived of the right to participate in an election will widen.

"There is this desire to acquire an instrument that will allow all those who have participated directly or indirectly in Alexei Navalny's activities to be excluded from the elections, even if it is only a" I like "on Facebook,"

explains political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya, head of the

R. Politik

research center

, specializing in the observation of Russian elites. The power will be inflexible, according to the researcher:

“It must be understood that for the Kremlin, it is a war of eradication, an operation to clean up the political field.

If a person makes any gesture in favor of the Navalny Anti-Corruption Fund, for the authorities, it means that he must be prevented from running for an election and even from taking part in the political life of the country ”.

One of Alexei Navalny's right-hand men, Leonid Volkov, who headed the movement's representations in the regions, estimates that this law could apply to more than 200,000 people.

Cleaning up the political field

If in recent years, the authorities have tolerated the movement of Alexei Navalny, after the return of the opponent to Russia on January 17, his arrest and his imprisonment, his relatives and his organizations are the object of harassment. The economic situation, the fatigue of the population after two decades of Putin's presidency, encourage the authorities to put pressure on the so-called “non-system” opposition, with the approach of the legislative elections of September 19. This opposition was already very reduced, underlines Cécile Vaissié, professor of Russian and Soviet studies at the University of Rennes, but the dynamism of Navalny's supporters had cause for concern in the Kremlin:

“He found himself facing efficient, intelligent people who take risks to improve life in their country.

It had become obvious that enemy number 1 was Navalny and his teams, who are very active ”.

The behavior and rhetoric of power is in the direction of a lockdown of political life, which consists in not letting those who are not the candidates for power compete.

And this also affects the candidates of parties considered "in the system", such as the LDPR of Vladimir Zhirinovsky or the Communist Party of Guennady Ziouganov.

"It's a new trend: power having become so rigid, nervous, and inflexible, it is a question of cleaning the system of all those who start to doubt",

points Tatiana Stanovaya.

Alexei Navalny survived his poisoning attempt, he returned from Germany, creating many problems for the government, believes the political scientist:

“This led to an acute conflict with the liberal elites. Power considers him to be a victim of Navalny, because he forced him to cross the red lines. Imprisoning the opponent, hitting the demonstrators with batons, all this comes at a cost ”.

On his return from convalescence, Alexei Navalny achieved several highlights by showing a film on the construction of a "palace" that he attributes to Vladimir Poutine or by trapping on the phone an FSB agent who participated in his poisoning last summer.

"For Vladimir Poutine, these attacks by the federal security service are a blow to national security and there is no possible dialogue, the only way out is elimination,"

said Tatiana Stanovaya.

The smart vote, the fear of the power in place

With the approach of the legislative elections in September, the government is also worried about

“smart voting”,

a technique implemented by Alexei Navalny's teams.

"To ensure that candidates from United Russia do not end up in too large numbers in the Duma, the idea is to vote for any other candidate so as to strengthen a democratic game which has been de facto wiped out in Russia »,

Explains Cécile Vaissié.

The method has proved its worth in local elections.

"If the elections take place in a more or less honest way, the smart vote constitutes a threat for the party in power, it is undoubtedly",

adds Tatiana Stanovaya, recalling that this tactic has significantly reduced the number of candidates for power elected to the Moscow Duma.

But this sophisticated system, requires resources, which Navalny's decimated teams no longer have,

"most of the leaders of the movement having emigrated and the regional offices being paralyzed and no longer having financial resources",

underlines the Russian political scientist, who predicts that the government will do everything to block this system of

“intelligent voting”.

" 

I do not think that in Russia, people will start to massively use VPNs to know which candidate they should support according to the Navalny method

,

"

says the founder of the think tank

R. Politik.

According to a poll by the independent Levada center, only 15% of Muscovites are preparing to vote for United Russia, the ruling party.

Kira Iarsmysh, spokesperson for Alexei Navalny comments on Twitter:

“No wonder they are banning everyone from participating in the election.

With such a popularity rating, they don't stand a chance ”.

► See also: The Navalny case, a thorny diplomatic question for the EU against Russia

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