Influential Russian Blogger El Murid: Putin Talks About The Protests From France, Not While In Russia; 'Basically, What Does He Have To Say?'

The influential Russian blogger El Murid criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for withholding comment on the protests in Russia and on the nuclear accident in Severodvinsk while in Russia, and responding to these events only during an official visit to France. "Putin did not find words for the Russian [audience] - yes, in fact, what does he have to say?" El Murid harshly opined in an article in his blog, titled "Alien Audience".

According to El Murid, after the controversial pension reform, Putin forfeited all credibility. "[Putin] ceased to be perceived separately from the class of thieves, and has become an integral part of it… There is no Father of the Nation, but there are bandits and their leader," the Russian blogger stated.

El Murid's conclusion is that the system is no longer able to fulfill its main purpose: the organization of normal life for people.

Below is El Murid's article:[1]

Putin with Macron at joint press conference (Source: Ru.rfi.frru)

The System Is No Longer Able To Fulfill Its Main Purpose - The Organization Of Normal Life For People

"Putin commented on the protests in Russia and on the nuclear accident in Severodvinsk. However, he made his comments not in Russia, but in France, during a meeting with Macron. Thus, the audience to which his comments were addressed to was Western. Putin did not find words for the Russian [audience] - yes, in fact, what does he have to say? For the Russian audience there is Peskov, who is calling for 'smearing [the protesters'] liver on the asphalt.'

"Previously, Putin used to have specific positions, which he pampered and nourished within the framework of the established myth [distinguishing between] the bad officials and a wise president, who lacks the time to keep track on everything, [and this is] why some outrages take place. However, now this narrative is almost forfeited- after the pension reform and [after] Putin's 'Please be understanding', he ceased to be perceived separately from the class of thieves, and has become an integral part of it. In fact, it has always been so, but the collective subconscious stubbornly clung to the myths created by corrupt propaganda. After the pension reform, the myths simply collapsed. There is no Father of the Nation, but there are bandits and their ringleader. The authorities finally acknowledged that they are anti-popular and stopped hiding it.

"Therefore, Putin has no words for the people, and anyway, what else can he say? That protests are the intrigues of hostile foreign forces? Of course, if we remember that a large part of Russian officials have a dual citizenship and that their families were evacuated by them to the West, to the villas and the castles that they bought there – it is certain that we are ruled by foreigners, for whom Russia is an alien land. They are the ones who brought the country to the present catastrophe, and they are the ones who cling to power in order to guarantee immunity for what they have stolen from the people. In this sense, foreign participation in creating the conditions for protests is quite obvious. But who exactly is responsible for this state of affairs is a more important issue. And certainly it is not the conventional and mythical State Department. Namely, it is Putin and the entire vertical [power structure that] he created. It's getting harder to deny the obvious. You can ask a population, frozen by the hatred gushing from the TV, as much as you like do you want the way it is in Ukraine (France, etc)? And the answer to this demagogic question which is heard increasingly clearly is: we do not want, the way it is in Russia.

"We live in the here and now. Let the problems of Ukraine, France, Venezuela, Syria be solved by their inhabitants. As best as they can. And we need to solve our problems, which, thanks to Putin’s thefts, out of the blue have become an intolerable burden. And the fact that the vertical [power structure] is obviously incapable of solving them, but on the contrary – it endlessly creates ever increasing [problems], bringing people to the streets, forcing them to create a camp in Shiyes [in Arkhangelsk Oblast],[2] to block the roads in the Moscow region, [means] that by now there is no problem, at a local or on a larger scale, that is soluble without a protest or a crisis. In other terms, the system is no longer able to fulfill its main purpose - the organization of a normal life for people. That's why we hear a counter-question – 'Why do you need us?' And for this, Putin has no answer. That's why he addresses a foreign audience - he has nothing to say to his own."