Epress.am News from Armenia
It took only a few hours after its launch on Thursday for Vladimir V. Putin’s presidential campaign website to become an object lesson in the hazards that await him between now and the election on Mar. 4, The New York Times reports.
The prime minister — who in 2010 dismissed the Internet as “50 percent pornographic material” — is now embracing online platforms as a tool to increase public accountability, and his site encouraged voters to offer him suggestions online.
And so they did. Andrei Antonenko suggested, “Please leave politics; it is obvious that power is a narcotic, but it is the right thing to do.” Arkady Vishnev said “the most useful thing you could do for the country now” would be to withdraw from the race. Svetlana Sorokina suggested he step down so that, as she put it, “you do not turn the situation into a revolution.”
Within a few hours these messages had vanished in a flood of support for Putin, who remains the country’s single dominant political figure and is virtually assured of victory in the election. The new comments were less embarrassing, touching on issues like pet care and agriculture. Many of them just wished him luck.
But already, chatter about the calls for Putin’s resignation had taken off, and a blogger discovered a way to access comments that had been submitted but not published. Putin’s press secretary was forced to respond on the issue, saying during an afternoon interview with the online news channel Dozhd that the site’s moderators were removing only those suggestions that contained obscene language. He also said the flood of suggestions had frozen the site.
The episode underscores the line Putin must walk between now and the election. He could ignore last month’s protests, set off by the public rejection of parliamentary election results, but that would risk further undermining the government’s legitimacy. He could also engage with his critics and embrace some of the political reforms they are demanding — but that would risk making his government look weak.
One thing he cannot do is lie low. Political analyst Nikolai Petrov has described Putin’s predicament using the chess term “zugzwang,” in which a player sees only moves that will damage his position, and yet does not have the option of passing.
Statistics released on Thursday by the independent Levada Center showed that if the election were held this weekend, Putin would win 42 percent of the vote — far beyond any of his competitors but not enough to win in the first round of voting, as his campaign staff says he will. A third large demonstration against his government is planned for Feb. 4.
So far, Putin’s campaign has been muted and cautious, focusing on pocketbook issues like utility tariffs. Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitri S. Peskov, told the Interfax news service on Thursday that Putin would not engage in televised debates, because he was busy carrying out his duties as prime minister.