A Russian Diary (35 page)

We regard Law 122 as an insult to our old people in the year when we celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of victory in the Second World War. The government has discredited the sound idea of monetarization of benefits. The sole legal means of protecting our rights today is a referendum in which we can express our protest. Students have always been the most socially active part of the population, reacting effectively to events in Russia. We call on you to join us.

Millions of our people voted online against the law and the government's policy but where do these and other millions disappear to when they cannot hide behind anonymity? Fear makes them invisible.

Protest demonstrations are particularly strong in St. Petersburg, Tver, Tyumen, Samara, Perm, and in Khimki in Moscow Province. People are coming out onto the streets, blocking the roads, picketing buildings and threatening the authorities with more to come. The reason is that Law 122 is beginning to hurt.

In St. Petersburg the police tried to arrest members of Yabloko and the National Bolshevik Party. After the meeting an old-age pensioner was arrested, taken away, and brutally beaten up at a militia station. In the morning the militia arrested Vladimir Soloveichik, a member of the Joint Action Committee that has been coordinating the protest demonstrations. They also subsequently arrested eight members of the National Bolshevik Party who had taken part in the demonstration at Gatchina.

January 19

If the protests against Law 122 continue at their present level, it is clear there is going to be an increasing overlap between the interests of the protesters and those of the militia sent in to pacify them.

Most of those working for the security agencies are also losing benefits. Their wages are traditionally low—militiamen get no more than 3,000 rubles [less than $105] per month. These protests are taking place in large cities and most of the militiamen will live in the suburbs. Until this month they enjoyed free public transport. There have been reports of mass resignations in the Moscow militia. One militiaman shot himself while on duty in the center of Moscow, guarding the offices of the Directorate for the Struggle Against Organized Crime; he had told his colleagues
that he could no longer feed his family. The Ministry of Defense has officially notified the Soviet of the Federation that a survey conducted this month showed that 80 percent of officers feel dissatisfaction over the law on benefits, and only 5 percent of officers consider their material situation to be satisfactory.

I suspect the state authorities are starting to take notice because they know that, apart from the security forces, nobody supports them. They have begun offering subsidies and handouts in order to head off unrest. They saw that militiamen were refusing to beat demonstrators, and it reminded them of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine when the security forces refused to fire on their own people and changed sides. That was the decisive moment.

In Moscow, a coalition of voluntary organizations has been set up: Social Solidarity (SOS). It promptly called for demonstrations throughout Russia on February 10 and 12, “Nationwide Days of Joint Action” against the authorities’ antisocial policy. SOS is a pro-Communist organization, the democrats having missed the boat once again. It is demanding the repeal of Law 122, the doubling of pensions, reform of the tax system in favor of the regions and low-income groups of the population, the firing of all United Russia deputies, and resignation of the government.

Nobody wanted to make a fuss about this last summer and autumn. It was only when the benefits were actually withdrawn and pensioners were unable to get on to public transport by showing their pension books that the protests took off.

January 22

This Saturday too saw mass demonstrations. Further January opinion polls say that 58 percent of those who formerly enjoyed benefits in kind support the protesters. The survey was conducted by the state-owned Channel One television station.

In Krasnoyarsk, more than 3,000 people protested against a rise in electricity prices. From January 1 a customer can use only 50 kilowatt-hours a month; anything over that will be charged at double the rate. In most of the apartment buildings in Krasnoyarsk the central heating is extremely
inefficient and, as Siberia is a cold place in winter, people have no option but to leave their electric fires on. There is no way they can use only 50 kilowatt-hours in the winter months—surveys suggest that the average citizen uses two to three times that amount.

In Ufa, almost 5,000 people attended a rally in the city center demanding that President Murtaza Rakhimov should either repeal mone-tarization in Bashkiria by February 26, or resign. After the meeting, pensioners wearing orange clothing blocked one of the main streets. Bearing the orange flags of the Ukrainian revolution, they began collecting signatures for a referendum on the direct election of mayors in the cities of Bashkiria.

In Moscow, ten activists of the Avant-Garde of Red Youth have been arrested for “attempting to march to the building of the presidential administration,” although they were arrested near the Byelorussky Station, which is over a mile away. There had been an anti-monetarization rally at the station organized by the Communists and attended by 3,000-4,000 people. Many young people and the National Bolshevik Party also took part. Their slogans were “Free travel for employees of the militia and servicemen,” “Stop robbing the pensioners,” “Hands off the law on ex-servicemen,” “Down with the Putin regime!,” “Down with the El Puta clique!”

The formal reason for detaining the Avant-Gardists is that permission had been granted for the Communists’ meeting, but not for a procession afterward. All ten of those arrested were beaten up.

Street protest is becoming increasingly left-wing and nationalistic. Democrats attend protest meetings but behave as if they are doing everyone a favor. They are not popular.

According to the January social survey by the Kremlin's TsIOM polling service, the slogan “Russia for the Russians” is wholly supported by 16 percent of the population, who consider that “this should have been done long ago;” 37 percent consider that “it would not be a bad thing to implement it, but within reasonable limits.” 16 + 37 = 53 percent fascism, because this policy cannot be implemented “within reasonable limits.”

The only ray of hope is that 25 percent oppose the idea. They believe that “Russia for the Russians” is a fascist idea.

The same survey shows a very Russian reason for wanting ethnic minorities driven out. It is because, in the opinion of 39 percent of respondents, they live better than Russians. Only three regions of the Federation—Moscow, Tyumen Province, and Tatarstan—have a standard of living comparable to Europe's.

January 23

The authorities are waking up to the fact that they need to do something about these protests. The state television channels have started putting out propaganda to explain why the new monetarization law is good, and old-age pensioners say how pleased they are with everything.

Alexander Zhukov, the first deputy prime minister, is the chief apologist. Here is an example: “There are protests where the payments received from the regional budgets are less than the real cost of the abolished benefits. When this law was passed, however, it was agreed that regions that have sufficient resources can make higher payments if they so choose.”

This is the main aim of the central government authorities: to shift the blame onto the regional authorities, even though eighty out of eighty-nine regions are totally dependent on the subsidies they receive from the federal budget. Zhukov relies on the fact that most people are simply unfamiliar with how the financing works.

Mikhail Zurabov, the minister of health and social development, is forever urging people not to worry. “Additional sums are being allocated from the federal budget. In 2004 expenditure on benefits was one hundred billion rubles [$3.5 billion], but in 2005 we are allocating three hundred billion rubles [$10.5 billion]. We're just working out the details. The decision will be made either today or on Monday.”

Zurabov claims that Law 122 was introduced in order to regularize the delivery of benefits. He says that although people had benefits in kind, no finance was allocated for them. “We need to make people free and independent of the state, and for that we need to improve their financial situation.”

This is poppycock: the new system is so onerous and overadministered
that to talk about freedom is casuistry. Old people have to stand in lines for hours in order to get the cash for a month's bus travel! The next month they will have to start all over again. No doubt the old social welfare system was cumbersome and had many faults, but the new system is worse and, moreover, is causing great financial hardship to millions of people.

Another constant claim on television is that all the protest meetings are being organized by the mafia who control drugstores and the transport system. The opposition is said to be exploiting the situation in order to score political points. The democratic opposition, on the contrary, is making no attempt to score points, although it could and should.

January 25

The steering committee of the National Citizens’ Congress holds a meeting at the Journalists’ Club in Moscow.

Everything at this festival of democracy degenerates into a fruitless discussion about who is the most important person.

Boris Nadezhdin tries to mount a takeover bid for the Union of Right Forces. The Yabloko supporters try to behave like the owners of the enterprise. There is a lot of shouting, but no sign of action. Lyudmila Alex-eyeva in the chair gets cross. Garry Kasparov says how fed up he is with everything, and rightly points out irregularities in the procedure for adopting resolutions.

Kasparov leaves before the end of the meeting. He stands outside in the corridor for a long time, complaining that the democrats are again missing the boat. The boat is already transporting the people of Russia to a different landing stage and the orchestra waiting to greet it there is not the Citizens’ Congress.

Only St. Petersburg has managed to corral all the opposition parties and movements into a consultative assembly called the Petersburg Citizens’ Resistance. Even more amazing is that it is in action every day.

Demonstrations in St. Petersburg are the most energetic and outspoken in the country; Putin is least loved in his native city. Petersburg Citizens’ Resistance is demanding restoration of the election of governors,
dissolution of the Duma, abolition of Law 122, resignation of the president and government, the raising of pensions, and the abolition of censorship on state television.

January 27

Demonstrators in St. Petersburg formed a living corridor at the entrance to the city's Legislative Assembly on St. Isaac's Square. As the deputies arrived they had to pass along this corridor to shouts of “Shame on United Russia,” “Shame on this dull, gray Duma,” “Putin out!” One of the protesters burned her United Russia membership card at the door of the Legislative Assembly.

January 28

We are discussing what is going on at the Citizens’ Congress with Lyud-mila Alexeyeva. She admits that she does not have high hopes of it.

“Then why waste time?”

“Who knows—it might work!” she replies.

January 30

From the Internet: “Right, and now Comrade Deputies, all those who voted in favor of the election of Vladimir Vladimirovich as tsar may put their hands down and move away from the wall.”

A year ago no jokes like this were circulating. It was the era of the Great Political Depression. People were afraid of the high-and-mighty Putin, who had broken the opposition.

Whenever there is an acute crisis, Putin waits in the wings, and only when the dust has settled does he come out with some thoroughly gray utterance. Is he now seen as a joke? Or are people resigned to him, anticipating a return to the Period of Stagnation, and to laughing, as they did at Brezhnev, in the privacy of their kitchens. Revolution from above seems to be what we favor, when something prevents those at the top from being able to carry on in the old way.

February 1

An opinion poll by the Yury Levada Analytical Center, commissioned by the People's Verdict Foundation, finds that 70 percent of respondents do not trust the law enforcement agencies and view them with apprehension. Seventy-two percent believe they might suffer as a consequence of their lack of accountability. Only 2 percent stated that there is no problem of arbitrariness in the law enforcement agencies.

February 2

The Duma has granted permission to the army to conduct operations inside the country. What efforts were made in the Yeltsin period to ensure that the armed forces could not be turned against Russian citizens! Now we are back to the situation as it was in the USSR. An amendment to Article 10 of the federal law “On Defense” reads: “The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation may be employed to counteract terrorist activity using military resources” (Addendum to the law “On Defense”). This is included in the so-called Beslan antiterrorist package of laws. The only group to express concern that the army could be put to improper use, if this amendment was passed, was the Communists. They were brushed aside.

The government has quelled the wave of anti-monetarization protest by throwing money at the regions.

The Islamic underground, however, is growing in strength. Nonoffi-cial Islam is becoming increasingly attractive to young people because of the shortsighted religious policies of the Kremlin. After Beslan, the Kremlin decided to revive Soviet methods of containing Islam. The FSB took over responsibility for dealing with it, just as its former incarnation, the KGB, had in the days of the Soviet Union. The intelligence services will foster “tame” Muslims, and put the rest in jail. The result will be the same as it was under the Communists: the formation of underground religious groups.