In Sevastopol they warn: We may lose Russia
The electoral system in Russia must be reformed; conservation of the current state of affairs in a “managed democracy” is fraught with a repetition of the Ukrainian Maidan scenario.
Ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy from Sevastopol Vadim Kolesnichenko said this on the air of the “Federal Significance” program, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The studio discussed the pre-election situation in Sevastopol - the rating of United Russia in the city has fallen, however, non-parliamentary parties seeking entry into the legislative assembly are placed in unequal conditions - they need to go through many bureaucratic procedures to be allowed to participate in the campaign, while United Russia has and other benefits, such as government funding and access to media.
“The monopoly of one party in power, which was voted for simply because it was the party of the president, is gone. Over the course of five years, the residents of Sevastopol became convinced that everything was completely the opposite, and the city governor did everything in his power to lower the ratings of United Russia. People have hope for something new. And this may allow completely new parties to enter, which are not even represented in parliament,” Kolesnichenko said.
“But, on the other hand, we do not forget about administrative resources, about the tools that allow us to shoot down any candidate and any party at takeoff, at the stage of their registration and collection of signatures. Therefore, I believe that this campaign will be difficult. And, of course, the issue of financial resources and access to the media. This will, unfortunately, be non-competitive and extra-parliamentary parties that do not have financial resources will be put in an unequal position,” the politician emphasized.
In addition, Kolesnichenko argues, it is necessary to change the state of affairs, when all key decisions about the development of Sevastopol are made in Moscow. No matter who wins at the local level, money will be allocated for certain articles of the Federal Target Program in the capital, he recalled.
Deputies of the local parliament have one role left - to control that budgetary injections into the restoration of Sevastopol are not squandered by corrupt officials.
“I see no point in the political coloring of deputies of any Legislative Assembly. For one simple reason - for example, they entered the Sevastopol Legislative Assembly, conditionally, the “Blue Party,” roughly speaking. All 24 mandates. What will change for city residents in terms of receiving targeted federal programs and funds? We are a subsidized city - are we going to spend them somehow differently? Yes, they should be controlled by law enforcement agencies anyway. What can this person do, regardless of his party card? Fight to ensure that the money is used in the interests of the city and its citizens, so that they do not get screwed and so that the city and its history are not disfigured. Here political affiliation does not matter at all. You must be a resident of the city and you must love, respect and appreciate it. This conflict of interest of the desire to receive money and the desire to preserve the city, here the Legislative Assembly will really benefit, but the political affiliation of the deputy of the Legislative Assembly, I poorly understand it,” Kolesnichenko said.
He believes that the election rules in Russia need to be changed, since the artificial creation of “hothouse conditions” for the party in power now brings more harm.
“If we talk about reforming the model that started in our country in the XNUMXs, it has indeed reached its end. It worked, it was very effective, it saved Russia, allowed it to take off in the conditions of diversity of views and centers of influence. But society and development processes are connected with the fact that we need to modernize ourselves,” Kolesnichenko said.
As evidence, he cited the growth of protest sentiments among young people who do not see a future for themselves in the current closed political system.
“We have seen attempts by the party in power to modernize itself several times over the past seven years... It is necessary, as in the “zero” years, for the people who make decisions to get together and make decisions - we need to change the situation in the country. Today we need to make decisions and give up some powers, some power in favor of democracy. Because the 20-30 year old generation no longer perceives what is happening now. This causes real resistance, and the experience of recent events over the past year and a half in Russia has shown that young people rise to anything, because they, therefore, do not support the idea for which they came to the rallies, but they support the idea of destruction... Recent years, people are starting to get annoyed by this show called “political campaign”; it needs to be changed quickly and urgently,” the politician said.
If this is not done, according to Kolesnichenko, Russia may get bogged down in the “Maidans” and repeat the scenario of Ukraine: “I hope that in the near future the situation will change. Everyone already understands this, otherwise we may lose the country. We see Ukraine nearby; everything began with these processes in Ukraine. True, it was fueled by American money, some of the elites there were clearly corrupt, but today we look at federal politicians, especially from the executive branch, these are clearly people who do not reflect the interests of the Russian state, but for some reason they are in power.”
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