Courtesy of Maria Gaidar
Harvard University student and anti-Putin activist Maria Gaidar, 29, previously served as vice governor of the Kirov region. She will help manage a crowdsourced website that monitors polling stations across Russia this weekend.
By Becky Bratu, msnbc.com
Maria Gaidar knows first hand about the consequences of being a political activist in Russia.
A fierce critic of Vladimir Putin and founder of the youth opposition movement DA! (YES! in Russian and and acronym for Democratic Alternative), Gaidar was accused by pro-government media last year of fleeing the country after being involved in a car crash that killed a 13-year-old girl.
“I didn’t hit a girl,” the 29-year-old Harvard University student told msnbc.com.
Gaidar says she has also been detained after taking part in a peaceful dissenters’ march, but she refuses to back down. Gaidar remains a leader of anti-Putin organization The Other Russia as well as the opposition Union of Right Forces party.
“Why would people tolerate something forever?” she asked.
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But despite huge protests amid claims for fraud in the wake of December’s parliamentary elections, Gaidar is among the many Russians with little doubt that Putin will be re-elected as president when the country goes to the polls on Sunday. Putin served as president from 2000-2008 and then became prime minister when a constitutional bar prevented a third consecutive term as president.
And while the message of tens of thousands who attended rallies in Moscow quickly went from one in favor of fair elections to a straightforward "Putin, go!", the country’s opposition movement has failed to put forward an alternative leader. It also hasn’t coalesced behind one of the four candidates running against him.
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Gaidar credits prominent blogger Alexei Navalny for putting forward an important idea when he encouraged people to go to the polls and vote for anyone but Putin.
Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters, file
Opposition supporters take part in a rally in Moscow on Sunday. Thousands of Russians joined hands to form a ring around the city centre in protest against Vladimir Putin's likely return as president.
“The message is ‘we don’t want this anymore’ and the way to transmit this is by not voting for Putin,” Gaidar told msnbc.com.
However, that is unlikely to be enough to drive Putin from office.
Being an ocean and several time zones away won't stop Gaidar from doing to her part to try to ensure a fair vote this weekend.
Irregularities?
Gaidar will help manage a crowdsourced website that monitors polling stations across Russia. She said several thousand people have already signed up as monitors and she suspects irregularities will keep them busy on Sunday.
“Monitoring elections is the right thing to do,” she added. “[Putin] doesn’t have more than 50 percent of support.”
Gaidar says the opposition movement has so far focused on establishing fair elections, not finding leaders. Those who are the best opposition leaders are not always the best leaders of a country, she said, hinting at lessons learned following the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia.
Russia's presidential election takes place on Sunday, Mar. 4. Rock Center Correspondent Harry Smith journeyed to Moscow where he met blogger Alexei Navalny, a vocal opponent of Vladimir Putin and his party United Russia. Navalny has galvanized protesters through social media and uses his website to expose alleged political corruption. The prospect of Putin returning to the presidency has generated protests in Russia not seen since the fall of Communism. The surging public outrage has left some wondering if a movement is afoot in Russia similar to that of last year's Arab Spring.
“Right now the protest is very healthy,” said Gaidar, who is the daughter of former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar.
“This revolution is Russian and pragmatic. People understand what they want and they’re asking for it.”
'Party of crooks and thieves'
Among those leading the charge toward reform is Navalny, a 35-year-old lawyer and blogger who thrives on exposing corruption and often targets Putin’s United Russia party. He calls it “the party of crooks and thieves.”
Following December’s elections, Navalny and other activists took to the Web to post reports of the alleged abuses, sparking even more outrage. On the second day of rallies, Navalny was arrested on charges of obstructing traffic after giving a speech in front of thousands of protesters. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
“I think that corruption has been a constant irritant which kept on building along with resentment,” Navalny told NBC News' Harry Smith. “Putin’s mistake is that he engineered an electoral fraud in the city of Moscow so obvious and arrogant that it was taken by the people as a slap in the face.”
While Navalny was in jail, the rallies grew even larger. "Of course, we were very upset that we could not be there,” Navalny said. “But we could not believe that such things were really taking place in Moscow.”
Anton Golubev / Reuters, file
Prominent blogger Alexei Navalny, left, listens to opposition leader Garry Kasparov during a meeting on January 31.
Navalny was released on Dec. 21, and an even bigger protest followed on Christmas Eve.
“At the demonstration I said that right now we can go and take the Kremlin, which frightened many people. But it was true,” Navalny told Smith.
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The activist said the government “did everything to make sure we did not exist.” He told Smith there is a car that always follows him around, and another that follows his wife.
“And it's very funny because they are changing plates on the cars but they are not changing cars,” he explained.
But Putin’s press secretary downplayed Navalny’s importance.
“[Putin] wouldn't over exaggerate his importance,” Dmitry Peskov told Smith.
If Putin wins on Sunday, he could run for another six-year term in 2018. A victory then would mean Putin had chalked up 24 years in power out of the 33 years since the collapse of Communism.
Generous social spending
While the anti-Putin movement is unlikely to change the results of this election, experts agree the protests have eroded Putin’s legitimacy.
Over the past decade, Putin benefited from a high approval rating, an economy that performed relatively well and an apolitical public that he kept under control through generous social spending.
“All three of those things are gone and not likely to return,” Timothy Frye, director of Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, told msnbc.com.
While the opposition has grown in recent months, Putin continues to do well in the countryside, among older voters, the empowered bureaucracy and people who are dependent on the state for their livelihood, but he has lost the support of the middle class and the urban population fed up with the endemic corruption. At the same time, his campaign strategy has been to appeal to the core rather than court the opposition.
“If there is no rigging, he would probably win half of the vote anyway,” Maria Lipman, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment Moscow Center, told msnbc.com.
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Navalny has said he would participate in the political process if elections were open to anyone who wants to run.
Gaidar, who is currently pursuing a mid-career masters degree in public administration at Harvard and who previously served as deputy governor of the Kirov region, says she doesn’t have any political ambitions. Being a politician in nowadays Russia is like hitting your head against a wall, she said.
But Gaidar does plan to return home after she completes her studies and try to enable change within the system.
“In five to 10 years we’re going to live in a different Russia,” she said.
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As long as they stay away from Super PACs, they should be OK.
Before we start pointing fingers we should look in the mirror. The Russians have a long history of taking care of people in government that they don't like. If I were Putin I'd be pretty concerned about watching my back. A big part of the problem is there is no plan, not in Russia and not in the US. There is no clear agenda on either side of the pond, our countries just flounder along day by day. Is there a single leader out there anywhere that has a plan and a clear cut agenda as to how to execute and achieve it.
True - as I recall, Boris Yeltsin was the first Russian leader that didn't leave the Kremlin feet-first.
Putin should reach out and form a personable political relationship with Maria Gaidar. Thing is, Putin, has a hard time forming personable relationships with anyone, including his wife.
Yep! The Cold War is definitely over. (sic) Mr. Putin, Tear Down this Democracy!
In the US, these activists would be called socialist losers. Double-standard? I wish them the best, but the same thing has to happen in the United States in order for the US to survive the global economic turmoil. Don't just vote and protest. A federal tax revolt (pay your federal taxes to your state, county or city government instead) is a bold, effective first step.
Good luck with that idea. The irony is that Russia has a FLAT tax. We should be so lucky here in the US.
not a bad revolting idea, but our State would take it and say they never got it or hand it over to the federal gov and fine us for them having to do so.
There is another crisis staring Mother Russia in the face: the plummeting birth rate and rapidly aging population amongst ethnic Russians. In another generation or two, there' won't BE a majority Russian population anymore, even in Russia itself. It's already happened amongst many of the former Soviet republics, where Muslims, Kazakhs, Ukraines, and other ethnic groups are now the majority.
Buh-by, Putin.
I find it interesting that every modernized or industrial nation on Earth is facing financial problems that are so dire that they have fallen into civil dissatisfaction, and protests.
Naturaly the governent responses are repressive and attempt to paint the protesters as the evildoers. The entire globe is turning into fascist or communist member nations to an unwanted globalist singularity. As the peoples of the world face joblessness, poverty, and homelessness, the elite top 1% everywhere are doubleing and tripleing thier profits.
What can we all expect to happen to so many people needing government assistance to live? They will die. Starvation, exposure to elements, enlistment into military so they can fight for more repression, more wasted rescources for war at the expense of working , unemployed and disabled people.
Has Russia become more democratic? No. All it has done is become a global trading block. In the meantime The USA becomes more fascist, and China gets all the worlds prosperity along with the top 1%.
Financial engineering is forcing everyone into desperation but it is happening gradualy to keep revolting at a minimum.
It can only get worse.
Comparing Communism to Democracy as opposing sides (in the 8th grade - what do you expect from a Nun) The Nun-in-Command got one thing right. She predicted that over the next 50 years Communism would slip slowly toward Democracy and vice-versa.
Even though it should have been about Socialism and Capitalism, she hit the nail on the head. NOW BOTH OF THE NATIONS ARE IN THE MORASS TOGETHER. Will Mankind ever learn that what is needed is a Global View of commerce and production?
Probably not, our race seems to be too suspicious of others to learn to co-operate and live together in peace. AND SO WE SUFFER from our own greed and stupidity.
Everyday almost we see an anti-Putin story on these news boards.The main reason for all these stories is that Putin won't toe our line.He has the "weird" idea that he should stand up for what's best for Russia.Is Russia corrupt,yes.Is Russia,more corrupt than it was under our buddy,Yeltsin,very doubtful that would be possible.Do most Russians feel they have been better off with Putin,absolutely.The opinion polls that we run, even show that.Have we,and do we,support rulers much worse than Putin.Without a doubt we do.Are we trying to interfere in Russia's internal affairs,yes.Will it work for us,no.Most Russians are extremely Patriotic people.They don't like foreign meddling,and it will not end well for meddlers,and their Russian stooges.Most Russians remember the Yeltsin years,when he was our friend,as one of the worst periods they ever suffered through.That is part of the strength of Putin's appeal.
We really don't know much here about Russian politics,so here's a short primer.There are 5 candidates running for President.The first and far and away front runner is Putin,with 50-60% or over in the polls.The next poll leader is the Communist candidate,with around 15% support.Then the very,far-right,candidate with around 10%. The other 2,one a billionaire playboy,and the other a failed ex-supporter of Putin's.They are running at around 5% or less a piece in the polls.There is not a single candidate,that could possibly win, that would support US policy.The important thing for Putin is to win the vote with over 50% in the first round vote.If not there is a run-off election,with the next highest vote getter.It's very likely without any fraud at all he will get that vote.But even if he had a run-off,there is no possibility the Communist or Right-Wing candidates,the next most likely candidates,could defeat him.Before we put our eggs in the baskets of these so-called anti-Putin activists.We really should know who we are supporting.Take Navalny,the new darling of the west.This blogger,that the west is falling all over themselves to portray as a courageous democrat in Russia.
Here's what I found on him,and also the feelings of many ordinary Russians on Putin:
Western liberals seldom mention Navalny’s other side, a caustic Russian nationalism that has led him into the sordid company of neo-Nazis.
Westerners tend to accept his claim that a creepy video, in which he used the word ‘cockroaches’ to refer to terrorists from the Caucasus, is a joke.
Some joke. While actual cockroaches can be killed with a slipper, he says in the 2007 recording, ‘for humans I recommend a pistol’.
Guardian readers and BBC types, currently lionizing Navalny, would rightly cast him into outer darkness if he were an Englishman who held comparable views.
On Putin's support:
The same point was made to me by Dmitry (I have decided not to use his surname), a worker for a Moscow small business, introduced to me by a Putin critic, and absolutely not a plant.
‘Foreigners like meeting people who are protesting against something,’ he scoffs. ‘If I look at the whole political spectrum from Left to Right, I can see only one candidate to whom we can trust the future of my country, and that is Putin.’
His main motivation is a hatred of the Western-dominated Yeltsin era, and a strong patriotic pride. Dmitry says Putin saved the integrity of the country by crushing the Chechen revolt – something Yeltsin tried and failed to do, with equal brutality but much less foreign criticism.
‘In 1999, our country was on the edge of falling apart. If we had lost Chechnya, we could have lost the whole North Caucasus and been reduced in the end to a rump state of Muscovy. That would have been the end of Russia.’
We should not underestimate the feeling of wounded patriotism in a country which – not unreasonably – feels itself constantly vulnerable to invasion.
Nor should we neglect the millions of older people who have – under Putin – received their pensions regularly, and been able to save without fear of inflation, thanks to the Moscow government’s prudent and astute use of oil revenues.
The mother of an old friend of mine, a naval widow who lived most of her life in conditions of unbelievable Soviet drabness, now looks forward to regular holidays on Turkish Mediterranean beaches.
As for corruption, Dmitry snorts at Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption campaign. And, as so often, the loathed name of Boris Yeltsin comes up. He recalls Yeltsin, in the Eighties, as Moscow’s Communist Party boss, abandoning his chauffeured car, travelling on a crowded trolleybus and making a great show of his incorruptibility.
‘It made him very popular. But he ended up as the most corrupt of all. He destroyed everything that was good from the Soviet times. It was wasted and given away. The gap between the very rich and the very poor was greater than ever.
‘He ended up totally, totally corrupt and gave everything away to the oligarchs.’
And on Maria Gaidar,from the story's famous father.I think this will show how much support she would have in Russia:
Gaidar was often criticized for imposing ruthless reforms in 1992 with little care for their social impact. Many of Gaidar's economic reforms led to serious deterioration in living standards. Millions of Russians were thrown into poverty due to their savings being devalued by massive hyperinflation. Moreover, the privatization and break-up of state assets left over from the Soviet Union, which he played a big part in, led to much of the country's wealth being handed to a small group of powerful business executives, later known as the Russian oligarchs, for much less than what they were worth. As society grew to despise these figures and resent the economic and social turmoil caused by the reforms, Gaidar was often held by Russians as one of the men most responsible.
Anti Putin demonstrators and protestors are paid and incited by west to instill chaos and disturbance. The west does not wish Putin to be the next Russian president as it will counter the interest of the west.
West's interference in Russian election is doomed for failure and Putin will emerge as a strong leader and rules Russia for the next 12 years.
Rally on Vladmir Putin! ! You have rectified the oil and resouces fraud foisted upon Boris Yeltsin by those of the ilk of Kasparov, Kodorkovsky, and many who were ran out of Russia into London magnacondos and into Israel. This is apparently the same faction who is attempting to "take their country back" much as the 1%=ers in our own United States of America!
Rally on Vlad! ! !
rebel
How much of an "Russian activist" can one be while living comfortably in Cambridge, Mass? Sounds more as though she is trying to boost her career options in the USA.
Don't forget about King Richard in Chicago. He left his throne and they have a new King Rahm now. Long live the King!! Of course that was what Daley and Obama had decreed.
If you look at what Russia and China say about the killing in Syria now, it's no wonder they are for the Moron that kills more every day there. Just wait and see what happens in both of those countries within the next 5 years. They will both show the world what kill is. We won't be talking just about thousands of dead, try millions in China alone.
Radical Muslim infiltration of the Russian people and government. Over 25% already converted.
Dang it ! That could happen here. Obama can stumble to re-election here.
AOL USERS or NON_USERS
I am sure there are many, many emails coming around to sign to FLUSH RUSH. I signed one a couple of days ago to have ProFlowers to pull their ad from limbaugh… and it worked! But it seems AOL is, “STAND BY YOUR MAN” type thing and is also giving a 75% discount for limbaugh listners… that sounds kind of arrogant to me… or maybe even a challenge…. Here is the website.
http://sumofus.org/
Putin as president for another fourteen years??, that's semi dictator isn't it. Oh well, as the world grows, corruption grows exponentially faster and fertilizes evil.