In the deliberately rigged presidential election in Erefia, the Russian opposition decided to “protest” against Putin’s regime in a dubious way, but in fact only helped the dictator increase the false result of the vote.
The history of dictatorial regimes shows that dictatorships do not care how people vote, but rather who counts the votes. The only problem with dictatorships was turnout-how do you get 99% for a leader if the polls are empty? That is why people in the USSR, Cuba, China, and North Korea were driven to the polls en masse. The main thing is for the public and the international community to see a total turnout, and for the competent authorities to draw the result.
By a strange coincidence, the Russian opposition held a noisy “Noon Against Putin” rally, during which citizens went to the polls on March 17 to vote at the same time at 12:00. Participants gathered to vote against the current dictator Erefia or to spoil the ballot. The declared goal of the “protesters” was to “clearly show that there are opponents of the Kremlin tyrant among the voters and they can safely gather in one place.” Although the Russian prosecutor’s office saw this toothless action as a threat and regarded the queues at polling stations on Sunday at noon as obstructing the work of election commissions and threatened to impose up to five years in prison, the action helped the Kremlin dwarf more than it harmed him.
At noon, more people gathered at polling stations in Russian cities and abroad than in the previous two days. This image was used by the Kremlin as “proof of popular support.” And although Western governments have called Russia’s pseudo-elections unfair and undemocratic, the Kremlin announced a record 87.28% of the vote in favor of the tyrant, which is even more than in the four “elections” before.
De facto, those who spread this campaign among the Russian opposition were in fact just useful idiots of the Kremlin and helped the regime to ensure the turnout under an absurd pretext that could not bring anything but benefit to the Kremlin. Of course, there are many FSB agents among the Russian opposition, but the opposition has rarely organized a “protest” in a way that would help the regime falsify elections.
Especially many Russians gathered at polling stations abroad – about 400 thousand. For the Kremlin’s paid friends and bought journalists abroad, this reinforced the narrative of the “legitimacy of Russian electoral institutions” if people participate in them in such large numbers. The Kremlin media even reported the highest turnout in the history of presidential elections in Erephi. Social media jokes that the next action of the Russian liberal opposition will be to go to the polls and vote for Putin, but with the most sour expression on their faces.
Instead of obstructing the elections, or at least ignoring the dictatorial farce, the Russian opposition helped maintain the appearance of legitimacy. Although there were attempts to set fire to and damage ballot boxes at polling stations, pouring green or ink on them, there were only a few dozen such cases across the country. As the Russian writer Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote: “Russian people love to rebel. They will kneel down in front of a nobleman’s house and stand there like scoundrels. And they know they are rebelling and still stand there.” For 200 years, nothing has changed in Erephia.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk
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