Small local political issues are often the last opportunity for protests against Putin’s power apparatus. Anti-war party excluded from governor election.
Moscow – Resistance is brewing in the Ural Mountains against the Russian President’s local representative Vladimir Putin. Citizens of the village of Tyulyuk want to boycott the regional elections next Sunday (8 September), reported the exile media Moscow TimesThe reason for the protests is therefore not the Ukraine Warbut the anger of the mainly elderly population over the neglect of the region by Governor Aleksei Teksler and distant Moscow.
Far from Moscow: People want to rebel against Putin’s governor in regional elections in Russia
Tyulyuk is located at the southern end of the Ural Mountains, which form the border between the European and Asian parts Russia’s in the border region of Chelyabinsk. It is closer to the Kazakh capital Astana than to the approximately 1700 kilometers away MoscowThe specific reason for the citizens’ protest is disappointment over the condition of the only road into the village. The road is “unusable,” the portal quoted a citizen as saying, criticizing huge potholes and washed-out passages. The road had been neglected for 20 years, and now the village is practically cut off from the outside world.
Putin’s governor ignores cries of souls ahead of regional elections in Russia
According to the report, instead of building infrastructure, the regional government of Governor Teksler promoted the reconstruction of two towns in the Russian-occupied territories in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk. “Since they ignore us and do not hear the cries of our souls, we will not go to the polls in our village,” one citizen said in a protest video addressed to Teksler. According to the Federal Agency for Civic Education (BpB) In many places in Russia, local citizens’ initiatives on specific issues are the last opportunity for protest.
On paper, there are three opposing candidates against Teksler, who has been in power since Russia’s full invasion of the Ukraine subject to US sanctions, were allowed to run. However, it was already clear before the election that these were merely “sparring partners” for incumbents, the report quoted a so
urce as saying. A candidate from the anti-war party Yabloko was not allowed to run. Criticism of the war is suppressed with long prison sentences. Governor elections are scheduled for Sunday in 21 Russian regions.
“Stay out of it” – Putin creates climate of fear in Russia
Most recently, protests broke out across the country during the presidential election in March, which was orchestrated by the Putin regime. These were sometimes brutally suppressed. Putin won with about 88 percent of the votes cast. He does not sound “as if he sees the next six years in the Kremlin as the last chapter of his reign,” commented at the time on the Frankfurter Rundschau.
Aside from the local political details, Putin’s power apparatus has various means at its disposal to keep people silent, especially on the big issues of war, peace, freedom and democracy. With laws that prohibit criticism of the Russian army, Putin has created a climate that “conveys to people: stay out of it, then the state will leave you alone,” said Peter Franck, Russia expert from “Amnesty Germany” before the presidential election our editorial team. (kb)
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