PrøvGOLD- Free

Putin's puppets How stagemanaged polls string along the voters

The Guardian Weekly|March 15, 2024
Two election cycles ago, in 2012, Sergei Mironov was loudly playing the role of opposition to Russia’s ruling party, wearing the white ribbon of the protest movement in the State Duma and claiming his run against Vladimir Putin was “serious ”.
- Andrew Roth
Putin's puppets How stagemanaged polls string along the voters

If made president, he said, he would even appoint the now deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny as the head of Russia’s accounts chamber as an anticorruption measure.

Today, Mironov is a loud booster of the war in Ukraine. Since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion two years ago, he has toured the occupied territories, posed with a sledgehammer from the Wagner paramilitary group and reportedly taken a two-yearold missing child from Ukraine for adoption and changed her name . ( He has disputed the report. )

Puppet candidates and pocket opposition parties have long played a role in Russia’s elections, part of a fake democracy that will put on its greatest show this week as the country goes to the polls to elect Putin for another six-year term.

But Mironov’s transformation into a grotesque war hawk has surprised even some of his former friends and associates .

“I considered him a decent person before the war,” said Alexey Lushnikov, a publicist and TV host, who met Mironov for the last time in 2021. “But this monstrous degradation that has taken place – it’s just an insane horror. I have no words to understand Mironov . ”

Those who know Mironov describe him as a political survivor who has sought to “catch” political trends to his own benefi t.

“He’s always been a bit of a player in life,” said Yaroslav, his son from his fi rst marriage (Mironov remarried for a fourth time in 2022). “He’s a person who doesn’t think any rules exist and whatever advantage he manages to obtain for himself is correct.”

Denne historien er fra March 15, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9500+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra March 15, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9500+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA THE GUARDIAN WEEKLYSe alt
The Guardian Weekly

Alison's world The graphic novelist faces up to midlife in this playfully fictionalised memoir

Alison Bechdel emerged in the 1980s with Dykes to Watch Out For, a groundbreaking weekly strip that featured a group of mostly lesbian friends. Since then, her acclaimed graphic novels have focused mainly on herself and her family.

time-read
3 mins  |
June 06, 2025
The Guardian Weekly

I need to drop everything and get on with doing nothing, quickly

I am sitting in my office shed, marvelling that an email from a car hire company I last used six years ago feels entitled to employ the subject line DROP EVERYTHING.

time-read
2 mins  |
June 06, 2025
Fire starter Springsteen's anti-Trump broadside divides fans
The Guardian Weekly

Fire starter Springsteen's anti-Trump broadside divides fans

As the lead singer of a Bruce Springsteen cover band, Brad Hobicorn had been looking forward to performing at Riv's Toms River Hub in New Jersey last Friday.

time-read
3 mins  |
June 06, 2025
The Guardian Weekly

A new Syria: sanctions relief gives the shattered country a chance to rebuild

The startled joy that greeted Bashar al-Assad's fall six months ago was shadowed by the fear of what might follow.

time-read
2 mins  |
June 06, 2025
The Guardian Weekly

I wanted us to finish our journey on a high'

Saint Etienne are calling it a day after 35 years. They discuss their final album, turning down Cher's Believe and a career defined by friendship and invention

time-read
3 mins  |
June 06, 2025
The museum of absolutely everything
The Guardian Weekly

The museum of absolutely everything

Poison darts, a dome from Spain, priceless spoons and Frank Lloyd Wright furniture... our architecture critic is wowed by the V&A's new east London outpost for 250,000 of its mind-boggling artefacts

time-read
5 mins  |
June 06, 2025
Over a barrel Shortage of sugar shakes Cuba's rum industry
The Guardian Weekly

Over a barrel Shortage of sugar shakes Cuba's rum industry

It is a crisis that would have sent a shiver down Ernest Hemingway’s drinking arm. Cuba’s communist government is struggling to process enough sugar to make the rum for his beloved mojitos and daiquiris.

time-read
3 mins  |
June 06, 2025
Whiz up or wing it? Dips worth doing yourself and the ones to buy
The Guardian Weekly

Whiz up or wing it? Dips worth doing yourself and the ones to buy

Is it always better to make your own dips, or can I just buy them?

time-read
2 mins  |
June 06, 2025
How a tiny village was engulfed by a mountain
The Guardian Weekly

How a tiny village was engulfed by a mountain

It took a couple of minutes for 9m tonnes of rock to obliterate Blatten-but as glaciers melt, such disasters are more likely

time-read
4 mins  |
June 06, 2025
The Guardian Weekly

Time warp Romance is beautifully drawn in a tale of two couples whose lives overlap, a century apart

Time is layered in Northern Irish writer David Park's latest novel.

time-read
2 mins  |
June 06, 2025

Vi bruker informasjonskapsler for å tilby og forbedre tjenestene våre. Ved å bruke nettstedet vårt samtykker du til informasjonskapsler. Finn ut mer