A performance by the Kremlin leaders in front of young people in Sochi acts as a trial, before the presidential election in 2018, in those points which go against him on the road. Must make Putin Worry?
Vladimir Putin presents itself as a young and dynamic (archive image of 2014)
Dmitry Peskov dismissed in the run-up speculation, the appearance of Vladimir Putin would have to do with the election campaign. The question and answer session in a training centre for talented young people in the southern city of Sochi on the 21. July was a continuation of the previous talks in this round, the President, the speaker and the event is transferred from the NTV television channel under the title “No child conversation”. According to Peskov, there is no further development of the “Direct line”, an annual multi-hour citizens ‘ question and answer session in television. Putin had recently completed the end of June this shipment and left open, if he stood as a candidate at the presidential election in March 2018 for the fourth Time.
Surprise for the Kremlin
Except for the upcoming election, there is a reason why Putin’s appearance alleged Routine in front of young people for attention. The round of talks will take place shortly after the country-wide opposition protests, which were driven primarily by students. 12. June and before that on 26. March were followed by thousands to the call of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny, anti-corruption, and the government is on the road.
Dmitry Gudkov, Director of the renowned opinion research Institute “Lewada-center”, believes that Putin have to do is in Sochi with both the elections as well as with the protests. “The Kremlin is worried about the participation of the youth in the protest actions and attempts to advertise to this population shift,” the Moscow sociologist.
Particularly many young people attended the country-wide protests on 12. June part
“I can well imagine that this is a reaction to the protests,” says Benjamin Bidder, former Moscow correspondent of the Hamburg news magazine “der Spiegel” and author of the book “Generation Putin”. It had been a development, “the Kremlin has not seen it coming.” A part of the youth was ready to open “against the state, construct and demonstrate against Putin as a Person”. A similar protest wave in Russia since the Winter of 2011/2012, at the time, triggered by Putin’s announcement to run again as President, and by suspicions of irregularities in parliamentary elections.
Putin-critical minority
Today, as then, the majority of young Russians between the ages of 18 and 24 years for Putin, Gudkov says. “This is the most Putin-loyal category of the Population”, says the sociologist. “Which was socialized under Putin and is under the maximum influence of the irradiation with Propaganda.” Bidder adds, that it was one of the parents and the environment”,” learned “support”. The political opinion-forming was not completed for many young Russians.
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A critical minority there is only in large cities, and these, too, have made only recently in the protest actions is noticeable. “It has been estimated that about 25 percent of the population in the whole of Russia with Putin is dissatisfied, of which about 10 percent are young people,” says Gudkov.
Against government-mandated Patriotism
Since his first took office in 2000, Putin has consistently invested in the youth work. The President meets regularly with young people in a summer camp in the Russian province. Kremlin-abiding movements, such as “Iduschtschije wmeste” (“Those who go together”), or “Nashi” (“ours”) provided with street actions for Putin and against the opposition for headlines, until they have been resolved. The publicist Bidder believes that the youth work in Russia “lacked a thought-out strategy”, and projects such as “Nashi” “to a considerable extent, PR-purposes”: the task: the President as a young and dynamic politicians.
After the annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin has always tried to be stronger Patriotism, Putin’s national idea explained, to associate with military enthusiasm. This task since 2015, the movement “Junarmija” (“The young army”), which is overseen by the Ministry of defence. Your target students are. The Kremlin party “United Russia” reported in March on a draft law to make Patriotic education compulsory.
The mood among the young people could soon become a Problem for Putin, sociologist Lev Gudkov
The sociologist Gudkov believes that it was this “state-ordered Patriotism”, was motivated, among other things, students to oppositional actions, such as in June. “This is no political Protest, but rejection as part of the youth counter-culture”, so his assessment. “The Crimean euphoria and the mobilising effect subsides when young Russians faster than in other layers of the population,” adds Bidder.
Emigration of the Talented
A real danger for Putin and his possible new presidential candidacy, the young people protest waves are not, in Gudkov and Bidder agree. To do this, you are too weak and too little politically.
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Russia’s new protest generation
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Russia’s new protest generation
And yet, the mood among young people could be in the coming years for the country and for the President to be a Problem. “I have found in discussions that many young people, especially well-qualified and very talented, not more the opportunity to realize their Potential in Russia,” says the author of the book Bidder. It is not the opposition activists, but people from Kremlin-friendly circles, or employees of Internet Startups. A former leadership cadre of the ‘Nashi’ have explained it to him this way: “In China, I don’t want to live.”
The isolation rate and the confrontation with the West, this part of the Russian youth reject apparently. The consequence: a to the from Hiking, the other at least think about it. Exactly the kind of young Russians, the gifted and talented, meets Putin in Sochi.