Member of Russia’s Opposition Reacts to Putin’s Election

By ⋅ March 5, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
Konstantin Borovoi (Photo: Dmitry Rozhkov/Wiki Commons)

Konstantin Borovoi (Photo: Dmitry Rozhkov/Wiki Commons)

Anchor Marco Werman talks to former head of Russian parliament Konstantin Borovoi. Borovoi is a member of the Russian opposition and reacts to Vladimir Putin’s election.

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Marco Werman: Konstantin Borovoi was a member of the Russian parliament from 1996 to 2000. He’s now a member of the opposition in Russia. Konstantin, what was your feeling today when you woke up to the reality that Vladimir Putin will be President for another term?

Konstantin Borovoi: For me, no doubt that Putin understands very clearly that the result of the election was against him and he couldn’t win without falsification. It wasn’t a real election but a fake election, a so-called election and he understands it’s very clearly. That’s why he’s now in a position of protecting his power against people, against Russia.

Werman: Well, independent observers seem to agree with that. They feel that this election was marked by massive fraud but, what does this mean for the opposition? I mean, you’re a member of the opposition. How much can the opposition actually do to affect the fact that Putin will remain in power?

Borovoi: I think we can do a lot of things but, first of all, we start to protest against massive falsifications and to demonstrate to people that we are fighting against Putin, against his power, against non-democratic [ways??] of Russia.

Werman: You say Putin needs to be protested; the falsification needs to be protested but, isn’t Vladimir Putin generally popular in Russia? You’re also fighting a lot of people who do support him.

Borovoi: His rating before the elections…just before the election was on the level of 38% – 42%. It means that, in the case of honest elections, it will be the next circle. He could win, no doubt, but we would like to have honest conditions for the political system – honest elections.

Werman: You say that the first thing the opposition can do is to protest more. How far are you willing to protest the outcome of this election? How far can you actually dispute it?

Borovoi: We just started today, but we expect to have more and more support from the people and, in that case, we will widely protest against actual situations here in Russia. We expect that people don’t want to live in the type of conditions when power is now in the hands of thieves.

Werman: In the hands of thieves. You say more protests. You’re going to expect more protestors to come out but, is there an obvious opposition leader…is there a replacement for Putin that you have in mind?

Borovoi: I don’t know. After creating honest, normal, democratic conditions, we have to create a lot of political parties. We have to create normal parliament. We have to create normal conditions for the elections; for the economy. We have to replace a lot of people who are now in jail. A lot of things have to be done. Today, we had a lot of problems with policemen. With our protests, no one knows what can happen in the near future.

Werman: Konstantin Borovoi, former member of the Russian parliament now a member of the opposition, very good to speak with you. Thank you.

Borovoi: Thank you.

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Discussion

One comment for “Member of Russia’s Opposition Reacts to Putin’s Election”

  • Bogomir Lookoff

    The political elite in
    Russia consists of 90% ex-members of the Communist Party of USSR and 65%
    officers of the KGB or FSB. Accordingly, system which they created on
    the basis of decaying soviet socialism named “Chekism-Bolshevism”
    (“CheKa” is the first name of KGB from 1918). So, they are
    chekisty-bolsheviky.   CheKa-NKVD-MGB-KGB-FSB is an instrument of
    torture the people of Russia. With this sophisticated mechanism Russian
    elite was destroyed in 1917, 1937, 1954, and 60th years. The rest of
    the elites are squeezed out of the country or contained in an alcoholic
    anabiosis. While working in Kremlin  chekisty-bolsheviky protect new
    social order  – Chekism-Bolshevism. The Lustration Law should pass not
    only them but also all former members of the Communist Party. That’s why
    the KGB-FSB now protected without rules. They’re in panic like Nazi in
    1945.   How they protected themselves today, in XXI century?
    Primitively, like Stalin with NKVD in the XX century. They killed
    opposition journalists, politics and economic leaders, for example
    Kholodov, Listyev, Litvinenko, Politkovskaya, Magnitsky. While Russia
    does not pass the crucible of lustration and purified from
    Chekism-Bolshevism, reforms will not work. The Germans drove the country
    through lustration twice: denazification in 1940th – 1950th and
    purification of communism in the 1990th.   Lustration is not the
    fight with specific concrete crimes. For this purposes there are laws.
    Lustration is a system of measures aimed at not a recurrence of these
    phenomena in future. But while USA, EU, Commonwealth are flirting with
    Putin and do not adopt the strongest Law of Magnitsky – the dictatorship
    of the chekisty-bolsheviky will flourish in Russia.   Europe and
    the U.S. will pay highest price of their weakness and indecision in
    politics against the dictatorship of the KGB, which eventually lead the
    world to World War III. On the establishment of Western countries fault
    lies as well as for the Munich Agreement in 1938 with Hitler. You can
    afford to flirt with Iraq or Iran for decades, North Korea or Cuba,
    Siria or Livia. But not with such a powerful actor in international
    geopolitics as Russia. Putin’s KGB junta has long abandoned plans to
    wage war in its ordinary sense. They began a long-term economic sabotage
    war for global energy dominance. This is the secret weapon of Russia –
    its natural resources.   Of course, Putin will be forced under
    pressure from the West TEMPORARILY make concessions in order to
    legitimize his imperial ambitions. Chekisty-bolsheviky after elections
    2011-2012 will be little relief in korruptsionomike. But in general,
    these antics will not affect the malignancy of perverted principle of
    society. In Russia, the policy defines an economy, in the rest of the
    world – economic is policymaker.   Russian democratic opposition
    can not afford to act in appropriate ways as KGB. This junta of
    chekisty-bolsheviky STOKE democracy and liberals in the blood, pushing
    them to the nationalists, drowns cynically manipulating information. 
    Corruption and incompetence of officials as a phenomenon are the two
    biggest and most obvious threat to Russian national security. We are
    seeing in terms of currency flow from Russia, the number of departing
    into exile, and the shaft of man-made disasters. Falls civil and
    military aircrafts, space rockets and satellites, burn and explode
    nuclear submarine, bases and arms. Everything will clear up when the new
    authority of Russia will investigate with the help of the International
    Criminal Court crimes of chekisty-bolshevikys, committed last 20 years
    against the citizens of Russia and the world.   BUT before that
    time, world can be blown up with a Russian chemical and bacteriological
    weapons and nuclear missiles, including by accident.   The
    question of democracy in Russia today is self-preservation matter of the
    WHOLE PLANET, the World tomorrow. Think, gentlemen, with a strong
    social imperialism. YOUR tomorrow may never come! The sooner you accept
    the Law of Magnitsky in the EU, U.S. and Commonwealth – the faster you
    will protect yourself and your future!   We,  Russian democratic
    opposition, are preparing a draft of Lustration Law. This Law will
    demand from the candidate to state or municipal office to open foe
    public belonging to the Communist Party or the KGB-FSB. Citizens are
    entitled to know that their mayor, police chief, the Minister of Health,
    the school director or the Chief doctor of the hospital supported this
    ideology and promoted it. If they vote for him with such baggage – then
    it’s a clear choice. The Germans after the WWII twenty years cleaned
    themselves from Nazism. After German unification in 1989 is still
    working Gauck Commission. If Yeltsin did not show cowardice, not afraid
    and then banned completely in the 1990s Communism and Chekism, we would
    not have NOW hemorrhoids with the dictatorship in Russia.   I’m
    not interested was my neighbor in past security officer, a Communist
    informer or “snitch”. But for me is very important to know, the history
    teacher at the school of my children What would tell about the policies
    of Stalin and Putin! I need to know, the Minister of Culture “knocked”
    at the KGB or not. I need to know, the nurse in a kindergarten went to
    the “Komsomol bath” or not, etc.   We are preparing a draft of
    Lustration Law. When draft will be ready and published, I’ll be glad to
    hear even the MOST unflattering comments. At present, the remaining
    members of the Communist Party in Russia, about 5 million We sure that
    in the power of about 1 million. They are 90% higher officials, 70% of
    federal civil servants, and 55-60% of municipal employees. We have a
    hard thankless job. But we do it! The Art of Strategy is
    the ability to wait. After March 2012, when “the Iron Curtain” will only
    have a small hole, we’ll find support of the millions. We are not in a
    hurry. We are building a NEW RUSSIA. Suppose that it is decades away. Russia
    has the right to a civilization as well as all the countries. Our
    children and grandchildren need a “New life” in an evolutionary way –
    through work, respect, tolerance, equity and spirituality. Drive efficiency 100% (CPD 100%)! https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=1I7D1G-gCiURJ0zAjG9Nx3qjYTzytuj4U8OnkGtIqqc8&sort=name&layout=list&pid=0B7gtl0nFGxmqYmU0NWI0ZDktNGU0OS00OWQwLWE5NTctOWZjZjlmNGI3NmI5