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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

ALTERNATIVE

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

General Aleksandr Lebed’s victory in Krasnoyarsk, becoming its Governor, shows that today’s Russian leaders are nowhere near to controlling the situation in that vast country. Between the first and second rounds of the elections Lebed was opposed by the entire Russian Establishment, even by Alla Pugachiova, the trend-setting veteran of Russian pop music (the latter being eloquent evidence that those in power had little trust in their own resources). And the electorate refused to listen to both. They voted for Lebed which is evidence not so much of the General’s personal abilities as of the electorate’s desperate search for an alternative to the existing political wheeling and dealing, in both government and opposition. Elsewhere in Russia, in Karelia and Smolensk oblast, established political figures lost to rival contenders, quite obscure figures compared to Aleksandr Lebed.

People are sick and tired of a regime which, instead of creating market economy conditions, hands out fat pieces of the pie to happenstance favorites, making the country a hostage of petty adventurers who carry millions of dollars in hard cash of very dubious origin, part of which discreetly settles in the pockets of top bureaucrats. People don’t give a damn about an opposition which prefers blackmail to alternative action programs, bullying the rich and the famous, squeezing out of them new privileges, limousines for the Parliamentary motor pool, plots for dachas close to ministerial villas. So the people choose Lebed or other ambiguous but ambitious politicians with slogans not very different from Yeltsin’s during perestroika. However, the most important lesson of the elections in Krasnoyarsk is that the authorities are not as strong and sure of themselves as they seem. They have long lost their teeth and there is no guarantee that whoever comes to office in their stead will not turn out to be another political con man and will be the happy alternative to the existing regime. Last but not least, this lesson is important for Russia, and in Ukraine a similar situation could well end in a death sentence for this young national state.

 

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