I am getting really sick of those guys over at The Power Vertical. Every time I have a good idea for a blog post, they go out there and do it first (and then do it better than I can). Take for example this staged "walk out" of the Kremlin-sanitized "opposition," timed right during Hillary's visit to make it seem as though the country is enjoying a vigorously active plural system. Sorry, but when Zhirinovsky and Just Russia are undertaking these performances, it's no better than a $10 knock-off Rolex in a Beijing market: fake, fake, fake. From the PV:
So now we're supposed to believe that Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Gennady Zyuganov are the last great defenders of Russian democracy? They were shocked, appalled, and offended that the Kremlin would --ghasp! -- fix an election and decided to make a stand.
Yeah, right. Clearly something else is going on here. (...)
For one thing, Zhirinovsky, who initiated the walkout, doesn't do anything of this magnitude without an underlying motive (and that motive is never the advancement of democracy), and without prompting from his masters in the Kremlin.
And as Danila Galperovich of RFE/RL's Russian Service points out in a commentary today, the floor speeches by LDPR deputies that sparked the walkout, ostensibly in protest of alleged falsifications in the October 11 local elections, "were obviously rehearsed note for note."
Moreover, the parliamentary rebellion received extensive -- and largely respectful -- coverage on Russia's main state-run television channels. In the tightly controlled world of Russian television, that doesn't happen by accident.
"Could Gennadi Zyuganov, Sergei Mironov, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky with their followers summon the guts for a grandiose scandal without a condescending nod from their curators?" Mikhail Rostovsky asked rhetorically in a commentary in today's edition of "Moskovsky komsomolets."
I think the analysis of both you guys is totally off base.
First, the opposition of the Communist Party to the Putin regime is absolutely legitimate. Not that they'd improve Russia if they got power, but they want a different kind of government.
Second, Zhirinovsky isn't pretending to defend basic democratic values. He's defending his personal power within the rigged Duma, and he's quite serious about it.
Apparently, both of you have forgotten the massive economic collapse that has just befallen Russia, and the confusion that results from a government with two heads. The "opposition" smells blood in the water, and they are pushing back against encroachments on their turf. There's nothing "staged" about it, though to be sure it is a gross travesty in the name of democracy.