AS I SEE IT
Kazan
Rumours are becoming the main mover of political life
The small opposition in Tatarstan is eagerly discussing the latest rumours circulating in the capital. Allegedly, Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the Federation Council, who is also the leader of the Just Russia party, was recently granted an audience with President Dmitry Medvedev and complained about the results of the elections in Tatarstan on March 1.
Sergei Mironov is rumoured to have presented the Head of State with proof of election fraud in the Republic, to which the Head of State responded by ordering an inquiry and saying that, should the facts of large-scale election fraud be confirmed, the results of the Tatarstan vote would be canceled. Upon hearing the news, the political opposition in the Republic of Tatarstan gained new hope for change - new, because they were discussing similar Moscow rumours with the same enthusiasm right before the elections.
A month before the election, the former leader of the local branch of the Democratic Party of Russia, Rashid Akhmetov, expressed the common hope: allegedly Dmitry Medvedev had ordered that the opposition in the regions not be pushed aside, but rather be given more representation in the local parliaments. The rumour was taken at face value in Tatarstan and the opposition candidates felt their victory was assured. Imagine their disappointment when in the morning on March 2 the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Tatarstan announced a very different result than they had expected. While previously the 100-strong State Council of Tatarstan had four deputies who could challenge Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiyev, now even they had been voted out. In fact, none of the opposition members were elected to parliament. The party of power won 80% of the seats in the State Council (the highest percentage among all the regions) and pro-Shaimiyev local communists won a little over 10%. The parliament of Tatarstan, writes Marina Yudkevich, a columnist in the local weekly Vechernyaya Kazan, had turned into a club of millionaires: judging from the income declarations they filed, the majority of deputies are very rich people.
Throughout the past nine years, since the election of Vladimir Putin to the Russian presidency, the opposition in Tatarstan has been hoping for swift and large-scale changes. Similar hopes are cherished in other Russian regions whose leaders seem to be irreplaceable - Bashkortostan, for example. The hopes are fueled by rumours, and rumours are generated by tiny details revealed by visiting Muscovites. For example, during the third inauguration of President Shaimiyev in 2001, the political "underground" was discussing the gift presented to the Tatarstan leader by then-Presidential Envoy to the Volga Federal District Sergei Kiriyenko, who gave the President a horse saddle. The opposition members seriously suggested that this was a signal that Vladimir Putin had "saddled the separatist" and that Shaimiyev who would soon be dismissed. A year later, the prankish Mr Kiriyenko presented the Tatarstan President with a broom, which fueled fresh hopes. This gift was interpreted to mean that Mr Putin would soon use the broom to sweep Mr Shaimiyev out of the Kazan Kremlin. The Chief of the Presidential Executive Office, Alexander Voloshin, once publicly presented Mr Shaimiyev with a carpet, which again was interpreted as a hint that it was time for Mintimer Shaimiyev to retire and sit on the carpet in front of a mantelpiece. Years passed, however, and Presidential Envoy Kiriyenko and once all-powerful Chief of the Executive Office Mr Voloshin are no longer in big-time politics, but things in Tatarstan remain as they were. Mr Shaimiyev is still leading the Republic and the opposition still clings to hope for early change. Now these hopes are linked with the new President, Dmitry Medvedev.
Immediately after the March 1 elections, the disappointed opposition called a press conference to declare that they would not challenge the election returns because it was "futile". However, some of them decided to file an appeal with the court when rumors began to circulate about Mironov's complaint to the President. What if the election results are indeed canceled?
The fact that the elites in the regions seem to be impossible to dislodge and that the local opposition is unable to influence political life created a bizarre tradition: provincial politicians fabricate rumors, believe these rumors and pin their hopes only on the federal center and the Russian President who, they are sure, will help them.
Luzhkov in Moscow, Shaimiyev in Tatarstan, Rakhimov in Bashkiria and Ilyumzhinov in Kalmykia - these leaders have been happily ruling their fiefs for more than a decade and throughout this period there have been recurring rumours that they are "about to be sacked", that "fingers are wagging at them", or that "they are being reminded of the need for justice". Just the other day, the press service of the Bashkir President issued a denial of the rumors that Murtaza Rakhimov was about to quit. Last September, the opposition tried to deprive Tatarstan of President Shaimiyev by declaring that he was dead. Today the political underground in Kazan harbours the hope that the results of the last election will be annulled. Of course, hope is the last to die, and if the hopes of the opposition do not come true one can be sure that new rumours and new hopes will emerge. Thus, in a way, the federal centre and the Russian President will never lose their fascination in the eyes of provincial politicians: after all, in choosing between two evils people always choose the one that is farther away.
Yan Gordeyev