There is a lot of media coverage worldwide about the parliament elections in Russia this weekend. While this is not the presidential election, which is only in March 08, this is important because Putin needs the majority in the parliament in order to become the premier minister, which is his plan of staying in power, even after his 8 year 2 term presidency. There is no doubt that Putin’s party will win this election, but still it is interesting to see how the public reacts.
I assume the public is either to lazy, think they will not change anything (with voting against Putin) or they will vote for him, because things changed to a better for most of the people in their personal lives, since Putin is in power. For the single citizen its more important, that he can buy (and afford) a TV or car with a credit nowadays, then the freedom of speech or any other democratic value, missing in today’s Russia. Even the poor people in the Russian regions support Putin, since Russia became a “worldpower” (again) since Putin is in power and for the poorest of the poorest in this country, nationalism, oh sorry patriotismn, is all they have and they can identify themselves with.
While CNN and others do the usual stupid Western Putin bashing, James Hill, an English photographer working for the NY Times brings it to the point with his slideshow:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/
world/20071201_RUSSIA_FEATURE/index.html
Share
Technorati Tags: EM, nationalism, patriotism