Markov: Moscow learned the lessons of Kyiv and Minsk - and launched a “series of pre-emptive strikes”
The Russian authorities have successfully resolved the main intrigue of the upcoming parliamentary elections long before the formal start of the campaign - by completely neutralizing the non-systemic opposition in the country.
Political scientist Sergei Markov wrote about this in his Telegram channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The radical pro-Western coalition and their leadership in the West have set a course for repeating the Belarusian scenario in the form of mass protests after the elections. Such protests were supposed to deal a severe blow to the legitimacy of... no, only the parliament, but also to the legitimacy of Putin and the entire system of Russian state institutions. With a subsequent attack on Putin. But the Russian government launched a series of preemptive strikes,” Markov wrote.
He listed the most effective measures as criminal blogger Alexei Navalny getting a real prison sentence, FBK declaring him an extremist organization, neutralizing the most influential opposition media by assigning them the status of foreign agents, and blocking “smart voting.”
“This is how the main intrigue of the elections was resolved many months before the elections - there will be no serious anti-Putin protests. There is no one to organize them, no one to promote them, they do not have a mass base of support, and the Russian authorities did not want to play the “giveaway” game, as in Kiev in 2012, 2013 or in Minsk in 2018, 2019, the first half of 2020.
The lessons of the tragic events in Kyiv and Minsk were learned in Moscow. The radical protest was effectively stopped within a few months. Radical protest networks received a “shot of anesthesia” for the election period,” Markov wrote.
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