Activists' banner facing the Kremlin: "Give the elections back to the people, bastards!"

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Russia's Hidden Power Struggle
By Masha Lipman
Saturday, December 2, 2006; Page A15

MOSCOW -- "Give the elections back to the people, bastards!" These words were emblazoned on a bright yellow banner more than 30 feet long that hung over the Moscow River facing the Kremlin. A couple of young activists positioned themselves in the ropework holding up the banner for about 30 minutes, until they were taken off and delivered to a police station.

Such extravagant political performances may be typical at, say, a Greenpeace protest but not over something that has in fact become increasingly common: a government encroachment on voting rights.

Russia is undergoing yet another round of election-rule tightening -- as usual, a product of the country's rubber-stamp legislature. The protesters see it as marking the "virtual elimination of the system of free elections" in Russia, as they said in their statement. Over the past two years, election rules have been repeatedly refashioned and readjusted so that no undesired forces or figures can slip through the process.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has managed to obstruct the financing of unwelcome political projects. Russian businessmen, while afraid to sponsor autonomous political activity, have given generously to pro-Kremlin political groups, movements and initiatives. With the best and biggest companies increasingly coming under the Kremlin's control, pro-Kremlin political forces are assured of virtually unlimited budgets. In addition, political loyalists can draw on what's called the "administrative resource" -- a network of administrators at various levels who are eager to do the regime's bidding.

In such a political environment, election results are preordained. There is a flatness about campaigns -- a lack of enthusiasm and emotion. Which is the way the Kremlin likes it....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101326.html?nav=hcmodule