Eva Hartog in POLITICO on Navalny's posthumous role in the ele | Екатерина Шульман

Eva Hartog in POLITICO on Navalny's posthumous role in the electoral exercise starting tomorrow. Riveting cover picture, and some explanations of the self-evident from me inside.

НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ (НАИМЕНОВАНИЕ, ФАМИЛИЯ, ИМЯ ОТЧЕСТВО (ПРИ НАЛИЧИИ), СОДЕРЖАЩАЯСЯ В РЕЕСТР ИНОСТРАННЫХ АГЕНТОВ) ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА (НАИМЕНОВАНИЕ, ФАМИЛИЯ, ИМЯ, ОТЧЕСТВО (ПРИ НАЛИЧИИ), СОДЕРЖАЩАЯСЯ В РЕЕСТР ИНОСТРАННЫХ АГЕНТОВ)

"It’s also the first election since 2020, when Putin flouted the constitution by rushing through changes to allow him to run for two more six-year terms.

“The goal is to make it all seem real and to whip up the semblance of majority support, to obscure in the eyes of Russians and the outside world the fact that Putin has no legal right to participate in these elections in the first place,” said Ekaterina Schulmann, a Russian political analyst at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.

“This ritual is being maintained because this is the way it’s been done for the past twenty-five years,” she added. “It’s a way for the system to press Control+S; to re-save itself.”

"However, the plan still might not go as hoped. Attending Navalny’s funeral was seen as a quintessentially moral act, Schulmann said, but many anti-Kremlin Russians will be loath to associate with an election they see as corrupt and dirty.

There’s also the risk the opposition might not achieve its goal of showcasing large crowds, given that participants will be scattered across hundreds of polling stations throughout the country.

Fyodor, a Muscovite in his early thirties whose surname is being withheld for safety reasons, said he could live with that outcome. “They’ll be like local mini-protests,” he told POLITICO. “That’s also fine, as long as you don’t feel alone.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-election-alexei-navalnys-final-plan-to-cause-vladimir-putin-maximum-damage/