Olivia Woosey

What is so great about Russia’s Vladimir Putin?

Vladimir Putin is set to lead Russia for another six years after securing 73.9% of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election. Yes, the same man who is currently being blamed for the attempted murder of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

The turn out for the elections this year was 63.7%, less than the number who voted in the election in 2012. Despite a number of attempts made to encourage people to get out and vote, this reduced turn out is likely to be because of the certainty of Putin’s victory. So, what is it that makes Putin so popular?

The majority of those seen at ballot boxes and polling stations on Sunday afternoon were from the middle to older generations of society. These are the people who really remember the struggles that ensued upon the collapse of the USSR and who appreciate how much better their life is now. While in the home of an elderly Russian lady earlier this week, I asked her about her decision to vote for Vladimir Putin. In response she simply opened her fridge, pointed to the shelves of food and said “life is so much better now”. In 1992, almost 35% of the Russian population was living in poverty and now the figures are as low as 13%, with Putin promising to further reduce the number of Russians living in poverty. He has also pledged to increase living standards and the minimum wage. Just how well he will deliver on these promises remains to be seen, but he is telling the country what they want to hear.

So, what is it that makes Putin so popular?

It is the younger generations of the Russian population who are not so united in their views. This is where the main support base for Alexei Navalny lies. The opposition leader was barred from the race due to a corruption conviction, which he argues is politically motivated. He urged his supporters to boycott “the election with no choice”. The students and teens who were protesting on the streets of 82 Russian cities at the end of 2017 opted to stay in their homes on the day of the presidential election. They see no point in voting in an election where the outcome is already determined and there is only one real choice.

However, they may have course mates and friends who do not share this opinion. I spoke to a young English teacher at a school in the town of Yaroslavl, 4 hours north east of Moscow, about how she felt towards the Russian election and Putin’s inevitable victory. Initially, it seemed that she shared the same view of the other young people that I had spoken to, but then she said “even if you don’t support his policies, the one thing that Putin does represent is stability.” You only have to take a brief look at Russia’s history to see that change hasn’t always brought them what they want. Electing someone new would mean venturing into the unknown, and that’s not something Russia’s ready to do. Not again, that’s for sure. A little over 100 years ago, revolution in Russia shook the world as they saw off the tsar and welcomed a new communist regime. What followed was decades of turmoil culminating in the collapse of the USSR and a country left poor and hungry by the 1990s. It would be difficult to argue that Putin didn’t have something to do with bringing the country back to the status that it now has. You’ve got to give the guy credit where it’s due.

It would be difficult to argue that Putin didn’t have something to do with bringing the country back to the status that it now has.

So, for the majority of voters, Putin is promising them the Russia that they want, and he’s got the track record to prove it. For those that are less convinced by his policies, at least a vote for Putin is a vote for stability. And what of those seemingly most dissatisfied with the leader and political climate as a whole? Well, perhaps they’re just not quite willing to see what a fight for change will actually bring.

Moscow: A City Haunted By Its Past?

“Please, be careful!” The parting words from a 90-year-old Russian woman I met on the metro this week. This may come across initially as nothing more than friendly advice, but it was not the first time in the conversation that she had expressed concern over my safety in Moscow. As the train pulled away I got to thinking, what is she so scared of? I have been living in Moscow for three months now and it is not vastly different to any other European capital, with a Starbucks on every street corner and arguably one of the best metro systems in the world. Furthermore, their crime index is not especially high, ranking lower than that of London, Paris and Brussels just to name a few and if that wasn’t enough to put my mind at ease the police presence is excellent. You’d struggle to go more than a few hundred metres without passing a police officer. However, as I continued on my commute to college, I began to look past my brief experience of life in Moscow and think about just how much this elderly woman has seen and lived through.

From being born in Moscow in 1927 she has lived through some of the most turbulent years of Russia’s fascinating history, experiencing life in both Stalin’s Russia and Putin’s and all those who ruled in between. The childhood of a great number of the elderly population of Moscow was one filled with fear. Even for those who showed loyalty to Stalin could never be sure if they were safe, due to the system of informing and the ruthlessness of the Great Terror. Between 1937 and 1938 an estimated 30,000 Muscovites were shot. Furthermore, having always been a very religious country the Soviet authorities abolished it all together, destroying a great many churches with the Church of Christ the Saviour being turned into an outdoor swimming pool.

Moscow is effectively still trying to recover from the world’s worst hangover.

The 1920s and 30s were therefore a period of great upheaval and terror but, come 1940, life for the ordinary Russian didn’t get any easier as they then faced a tough battle for victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. It was a war that left the country in ruins, with over 20 million deaths on Soviet soil, two-thirds of which were civilians. In the years that followed it was Stalin’s Five Year Plans that picked the country back up and, ultimately, made it the dominant world power that it is today. Arguably a period of rest and recovery, in relative terms, for the civilians of Moscow and the reason why a surprising number of Russians today believe the dictator should be honoured for what he did to help the country.

Komsomolskaya Metro Station, Moscow (Image: Flickr)

Unfortunately it was not long before the country was once again trying to cope with political instability and economic decline. In the years that followed Stalin’s death Russia worked its way through a number of rulers with the steadily worsening instability culminating in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The late 1980s and 1990s saw the emergence of the oligarchs but, while these elite few were living the high life, ordinary Russian civilians were queuing for bread and losing loved ones to war once again, this time in Chechnya. Furthermore, all the lifting of censorship did was to enable them to see just how much better life was in the West. Based on this turbulent past it is actually not hard to see why, in a Moscow of 2017, Putin enjoys such high approval ratings with the older generation. If you walk into a supermarket there’s food on shelves which just twenty years ago, were bare.

In restaurants the menus still have grams next to the prices, a reminder of the days when customers needed to be assured that they were getting enough for their money.

With a rise in incomes and living standards and a population that is now growing having been in decline for decades, things are looking up for the residents of Moscow. However, that sweet elderly woman I met on the metro is just one example of how the city still bears the scars of its chaotic past. In the centre, the man who brought communism to Russia is embalmed in a tomb on Red Square. In the outskirts, babushkas sit in underpasses selling anything from socks and slippers to photo frames and opera glasses, trying to make back the savings lost in the 90s. In restaurants the menus still have grams next to the prices, a reminder of the days when customers needed to be assured that they were getting enough for their money.

Moscow is effectively still trying to recover from the world’s worst hangover. 90 years of turmoil are not easily forgotten, particularly not by those who have lived through the worst of it. The Muscovites who lost their lives will, rightfully, always be remembered and the new generation should be grateful for the price they paid. However, it is now time for the city to look forward, appreciate the progress that has been made and stop living in fear.

What Does Putin’s Controversial Birthday Present Really Tell Us?

On Saturday 7^th October, Russian president Vladimir Putin turned 65, and to mark the occasion Alexei Navalny’s campaign organised protests in around 80 cities across Russia. Ahead of a protest rally in the week leading up to Putin’s big day, Navalny was sentenced to 20 days in prison for organising unsanctioned rallies and on 7^th October his supporters were calling both for his release and for the resignation of President Vladimir Putin. More than 270 people were detained nationwide and police estimates say that there were at least 700 protestors in Moscow alone.

Alexei Navalny’s approval ratings and levels of support [are] demonstrating that you don’t necessarily need mass support to create change.

Now I’m not saying that there’s a revolution on the horizon and the turn out in Moscow and St Petersburg was in fact lower than at previous protests such as those in March and June. Furthermore, the outcome of the 2018 elections is still more or less decided. Putin will stand and most likely win. According to the independent Levada centre, at the beginning of September 83% of the Russian population supported Putin. However, what we can glean from the events on 7^th October is that a battle for change is brewing. Alexei Navalny’s approval ratings and levels of support don’t come close to those of Vladimir Putin, but he is demonstrating that you don’t necessarily need mass support to create change. His ability to mobilise huge crowds and organise mass protests has led to a disruption in Russia of the status quo. Regardless of the popularity ratings, Navalny’s actions provoke a reaction and so he is indirectly affecting what goes on behind the Kremlin walls. Not only this, the crowds of protestors are evidence of that fact that there is a group in Russian society, who are willing not only to listen to what Navalny believes but to fight for it.

Alexei Navalny, Image: Wikimedia Commons

Politics may not be the safest topic to bring up in this country but what has become clear to me on speaking to Russians in light of the events on 7^th October is that there is a growing divide between the old and the young in the Russian population. The older population, by and large, are full of praise for their strong and powerful leader. In fact, in the eyes of my elderly Russian neighbour, the man simply cannot be faulted. However, on speaking to the younger population, Mr President doesn’t receive quite such a glowing review. One young man I spoke to is so dissatisfied with where the country is going that he intends to move to Canada as soon as his savings allow. Similarly, I got chatting to a very friendly Russian lady in a café who was in Moscow visiting family. She moved to California at the age of eighteen and has no intention of moving back to Moscow any time soon. When I enquired as to her reason for moving she simply replied, “you have seen how this country is governed, why would I stay?” And what about those who are similarly dissatisfied but have no choice but to stay in Russia? Well, they were on the streets of major cities nationwide with banners and posters on 7^th October.

Putin is keeping to a very conservative agenda. For example, he wants to ensure that the Russian Orthodox Church has a leading role in society, and this was demonstrated through the criminal case against Pussy Riot in 2012 and the “gay propaganda” law enacted four years ago. He turns his nose up at what we in the West believe to be normal human rights, arguing that they are a “destruction of traditional values”. However, it is this conservative agenda with which a growing number of the Russian population are becoming dissatisfied. There is a new generation coming through with a dwindling interest in preserving Russia’s traditional values. With the world becoming more interconnected than ever before they are more concerned about improving economic performance and relations with the West. While Putin is busy cutting ties and therefore looking more and more to the east for allies, many believe that Russia needs to work on firmly securing its place as a European nation, which it undoubtedly has the potential to be.

Putin is keeping to a very conservative agenda…He turns his nose up at what we in the West believe to be normal human rights, arguing that they are a “destruction of traditional values”.

The President’s birthday protests aren’t exactly going to go down in history and its not as though crowds are building to storm the Kremlin walls. But it’s these events that we need to analyse to gain a deeper understanding of the political situation in Russia. Yes, Putin’s hold on power is secure for now, but for how long can he ignore and suppress the battle for change that is brewing?