Police officers stand in front of a hotel where participants of a forum of independent members of municipal councils gathered in Moscow on March 13. (Victor Berezkin/AP)
MOSCOW — For years, local politics have been the last bastion of pluralism in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. After the Kremlin cemented its control over national institutions — taming parliament, manipulating elections and denying registration to opposition parties — municipal legislatures have continued to provide a platform for regime opponents and independent politicians who often scored upset electoral victories despite the regime’s worst efforts. From Moscow to St. Petersburg to Siberia, local opposition lawmakers have made a visible dent in the Kremlin’s carefully crafted image of unchallenged political dominance.
But with Putin’s approval numbers at near-record lows, and as September’s parliamentary election draws closer, it seems that even this low-level political challenge is now too dangerous to be tolerated.
On Saturday, some 150 lawmakers representing 56 regions and tens of thousands of voters across Russia gathered in Moscow for the first-ever national Forum of Municipal Deputies. The goal was to spend two days networking and sharing experience about local elections and grass-roots campaigning. I was among those scheduled to address the meeting. This was a continuation of the venerable tradition of the Zemstvo Congresses, which also brought together elected local government representatives in the early 20th century, ultimately preparing the way for Russia’s first constitution and parliament in 1906.
This point was not lost on the Kremlin. As the forum was getting underway, several dozen police officers marched into the conference room. The commanding officer seized the floor from former Yekaterinburg Mayor Yevgeny Roizman, who had just begun his opening remarks, and announced that our meeting was “illegal” and that all its participants were being taken into police custody. The initial burst of laughter from the audience quickly changed to chants of “shame” and “fascists” as officers grabbed each of us by the arms and escorted us outside to waiting prisoner vans.
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