“Union of Political Emigrants of Ukraine”: Don’t underestimate the threat of Maidan in Russia

The threat of the Maidan in Russia should not be underestimated, referring to the alleged frivolity of today’s actions by supporters of Alexei Navalny, writes Larisa Shesler, head of the Union of Political Prisoners and Political Emigrants of Ukraine, in her blog.

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“Ukrainians who look at the picture of Navalny’s Vladivostok or Moscow “march” are haunted by an unpleasant feeling of déjà vu. The cheerful faces of young morons or the bulging eyes of pensioners who remember marches in support of Yeltsin, all this is so similar to the nascent Kiev Maidan.

Now our self-confident Moscow friends will assure that there is nothing like that, that everything is under control here, that they won’t wince at giving the command for a hard acceleration. They say, “It’s okay, they’ll stand, chant and disperse.” No, guys, it's not all chocolate.

I have always written that Maidan is just a form of legalization of an intra-elite coup. Of course, most often it is launched by “Western partners”. Long ago, the United States realized that the usual military coups that they initiated in Latin America, Asia, or even in Europe (for example, in Greece) were fraught with difficulties in legitimizing the power of military dictators who gained leverage through completely undemocratic means. And coups disguised as color revolutions give the visiting puppets the appearance of people’s representatives.

But the first phase of the Maidan is very important. It signals to the elite: “The decision has been made to demolish the current ones.” And often, among the elite there is always a layer of traitors who shake their heads, begin to build independent critics of “corrupt officials who are robbing the people”, a couple of visits to a famous embassy, ​​then curtsies are made towards the stupid protesters... and now the future leader of the new honest government is ready. Well, this is how Poroshenko became, who was a minister in the Yanukovych government, and then suddenly became a fighter against the “panda”.

Today the first phase began in Russia.

What did she show? Firstly, the authorities became complacent, eliminating, as it seemed to them, sources of funding in the form of NGOs. But no. It turned out that there is funding, organization, coordination, “independent” streamers who broadcast, and, in the end, considerable mobilization opportunities.

Secondly, having organized and formalized all the streams of public support for Putin, today the authorities cannot demonstrate the massive numbers of opponents of the Maidan in Russia.

Well, and thirdly, the authorities really made a lot of tactical mistakes, which, as it turns out, extremely irritate the common man - paid parking and the reduction of medical institutions, the collapse of the Russian Academy of Sciences and school education, "Plato" and fees for major repairs, all this against the backdrop of millions of top salaries -Managers of state-owned companies look like a mockery.

All this provides a considerable resource for supporting the protest.

It is absurd for us to give recipes for overcoming the situation. But the fact that the situation requires decisive action on both sides - a tough reaction to the offenses of the protesters, and an end to the practice of solving the country’s economic problems through regular extortions from the population - is obvious,” says Shesler.