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The process of election degradation is taking place in Russia. And it is especially strong in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories – in the Crimea and temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Russian political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin said it in the comment to UA TV channel.
He believes that the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, which take place on September 17-19, will not be recognized by the world community.
“Putin has already brought the country to a state where he can only say: we do not care about this world public opinion, they all are Russophobes. In my opinion, it has seriously damaged Russia, made its image toxic, shameful, unpleasant, and removed it from the circle of countries with which can speak on an equal. Russia should be one of the leading countries in the world – in terms of population, potential and many other indicators. No, it is not” – said Oreshkin.
“The holding of “elections” in the occupied Crimea is important for the Kremlin from the point of view of “this symbolic Putin vertical”. The political scientist is sure that the results of the “voting” on the peninsula will be “drawn” in favor of the ruling “Yedinaya Rossiya” (“United Russia”) party and its “support” will be about 70%. Not to the same rate as in Chechnya, but still” – said political scientist.
Oreshkin recalled that about RUB 200 billion are allocated annually from the state budget of the Russian Federation to Crimea, which is equivalent to USD 3 billion.
“Crimea receives about 20% of all the money that the Kremlin distributes to the regions. Here we have 85 regions, and Crimea receives one fifth of all regional subsidies” – he clarified.
Nevertheless, socially and economically, the situation in Crimea is not so brilliant, as funds are being stolen by the local “elite”. As a result, in the Russian rating, the peninsula is about 10th from the bottom in terms of GDP per capita. The Kremlin allows the local “authorities” to steal in exchange for controllability and, among other things, for providing the necessary results in the “elections”, the political scientist added.
“That is, the money falls somewhere in a bottomless barrel, a significant part of it is stolen. But in return, these Crimean “elites” generate, produce and achieve the above average electoral results in favor of Putin and in favor of “Yedinaya Rossiya” (“United Russia”) party” – he noted.
Large subsidies to the region and the control of the local “authorities”, according to Oreshkin, do not allow the majority of Crimeans to resist Putin’s regime.
“From my point of view, there is absolutely no reason to expect that Crimea will collapse, or Crimean citizens will show “fig sign” to the Kremlin” – he is sure.
“In general, there is a process of degradation of elections, and it is especially strong in Chechnya and Crimea, and even more in the “DPR”/ “LPR” – summarized Oreshkin.
Earlier, Dmitry Oreshkin explained that the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation are unlikely to be recognized by Europe as legitimate, since they do not meet three generally accepted criteria – equality, honesty and transparency.
