[Report by Besik Pipiya, Andrey Riskin, Sergey Sergiyevskiy: "Feel Free To Call Them Elections, as Long as They Produce a Result; Can You Become St. Petersburg Governor Even if 82.2 Percent of the Voters Don't Support You? Yes, You Can!"]
Two political events that took place yesterday, in St. Petersburg and Chechnya, have much in common. Firstly, they are both called "elections". Secondly, in each case the victor's name was not in doubt long before election day, that is, there was apparently no real choice. Thirdly, both the main contenders received the quite blatant, practically undisguised backing of the head of state.
Now for the differences.
Valentina Matviyenko, who has become governor of St. Petersburg, said at the very first press conference following the election: "I am proud that the majority of St. Petersburg's citizens supported me. That's worth a lot." The exact science of arithmetic, however, shows that this support is not worth all that much: The president's plenipotentiary representative obtained 63.12 percent of the votes in favor, but only 28.24 percent of voters went to the polls. This means that only 17.8 percent of St. Petersburg's voting population elected Valentina Ivanovna [Matviyenko] as their governor. Over 82 percent of St. Petersburg's inhabitants, in one way or another, did not support her. If those figures are pleasing to the new governor, it means she has not yet recovered from the fright she suffered after the first round.
Akhmat Kadyrov became president of Chechnya with a quite different set of numbers. The turnout was simply unprecedented -- 86.8 percent, and the unanimity was equally impressive -- 81.1 percent in favor. Which means that 70.4 percent of the republic's electorate wanted to have Kadyrov as their president.
There are also other differences, which may be called differences of style.
In St. Petersburg individual extremist-inclined adversaries of Valentina Matviyenko expressed their feelings in a way that was both loutish and at the same time had some claims to elegance: By thrusting a bunch of carnations in the winner's face [reference to the carnations laid on a mock memorial earlier in the campaign after allegations were made of election fraud whereby some of the signaturees on some candidates' lists of supporters were allegedly those of deceased individuals]; for this they each received 15 days in prison.
Nobody attacked Kadyrov armed with carnations. Not the right face, and not the right atmosphere. One of the polling places was under fire throughout the night, some others for a brief period, and at one a plastic canister filled with hexogen was discovered one hour before voting began. It is curious that this polling place, like all the others, had long been under 24-hour guard. In the village of Assinovskaya a local man armed with a Kalashnikov automatic and a "Mukha" grenade launcher tried to enter a polling place. He was stopped, but only by use of firearms.
It is typical that one of the first reports on the successful management of the elections came from none other than the Regional Operations Headquarters for the conduct of the counterterrorist operation in the North Caucasus, stating that observers and journalists "recorded a high turnout of voters and a well organized poll." The Regional Operations Headquarters source also claims that "journalists gave a positive assessment of the course of the electoral process, and called it 'legitimate, democratic and in keeping with universally accepted international norms.'" Admittedly, as the journalists themselves claim, the majority of them were only allowed into Tsentoroy [Kadyrov's native village], where Kadyrov himself was voting. But those press representatives who took it upon themselves to visit the polling places independently, at their own risk, discovered quite a number of violations: from the fact that some cand idates' observers were not allowed into the polling places, to Kadyrov's overt self-promotion on election day. "Nobody apart from me can achieve peace," Kadyrov declared upon arriving at the polling place together with his wife and two grandchildren.
Kadyrov also promised financial rewards to anyone who got married that day, and also to anyone who gave birth (10,000 rubles). Chechen mothers and their babies displayed rare political savvy: On Sunday a record number of babies -- 190 -- came into the world. How St. Petersburg's women giving birth reacted to the election of the first woman governor in Russian history is not yet being reported, but it is clear that they cannot have failed to notice this event.
But let us return to the differences between the two elections, which, strangely enough, share one principal similarity.
Nobody was surprised by Kadyrov's victory. His main opponents were removed in advance -- some by the court, others by persuasion, and others by offers which they could not refuse. The situation in the republic is more than conducive to obtaining the desired outcome: People are scared, and it makes no difference to them whom they have to fear -- whether it is gunmen from the mountains or Kadyrov's guards. Besides that, everyone can see that Kadyrov is supported from Moscow, so why should anyone vote against him -- you can't fight guns with sticks? About 462,000 people came to the polling places. Among those voting were 30,000 military personnel alone, plus 13,000 staffers of the republic's MVD [Internal Affairs Ministry], plus 25,000 members of the regional "United Russia" party. These categories of electors vote in a disciplined way, and they are not the only ones.
Nobody was surprised, either, by Matviyenko's victory. In St. Petersburg a 90 percent turnout cannot be guaranteed by any administrative resources [Matviyenko had used these to maximize her chances of winning], but it is not even necessary. A minimum turnout threshold for the second round does not even exist. If just three turn up to vote, only two of them need vote for a particular candidate. The people of St. Petersburg realized back in the first round that everything had been decided on their behalf long ago. On Sunday not one complaint was received by the city electoral commission. But then, who do you complain to?
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