Russians ‘vote’ overwhelmingly to keep Putin in power, ban gay ‘marriage’

Wednesday was the final day of voting in Russia on the all but inevitable re-election of President Vladimir Putin to another 12-year term, and on whether or not to formally ban state recognition of same-sex “marriage.”

Putin said in February that he would back a national referendum to “clarify some things,” including that “marriage is a union of a man and woman” and that “as long as I am president, we will not have parents #1 and #2, we will have ‘papa’ and ‘mamma.’” The comments were consistent with his past opposition to formal promotion of homosexuality.

This week’s amendment, for which polls opened last Thursday, “clarifies” that only monogamous heterosexual unions will be recognized as marriages in Russia. Other amendments put up for referendum include one that adds the phrase “faith in God” to the Russian constitution, and another that would eliminate term limits for the Russian president, effectively allowing Putin to remain in power for life.

The marriage amendment has come under fire from international observers, prompting supporters and Putin allies to accuse foreign countries of attempting to interfere with Russian elections, the CBC reported.

On June 27, the ambassadors to Russia from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand issued a joint statement to “celebrate Pride Month by applauding LGBTI activists and their allies,” and to “call upon the government of the Russian Federation to adhere to its stated commitment to protecting the rights of all citizens, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.”

"In Russia, this situation (over gay rights) is compounded by an increase in violence and intimidation of the community by local authorities and other actors,” declared Canada's ambassador to Russia, Alison LeClaire, “and proposals for constitutional amendments that if adopted would lead to an increasingly less inclusive national legal framework.”

The New York Times reported in March that polls indicated the referendum would have low turnout and enthusiasm, and suggested that putting the marriage amendment on the referendum was intended to turn things around and, according to Moscow-based political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann, “reinven(t) the vote as a referendum for traditional values.”

“They gave it a label to attract both those in favor, and those opposed,” Schulmann said. “If turnout is properly high, then this new amended constitution will be legitimized both in the eyes of the internal audience and international community.”

Elections are not truly free in Russia, but the state seeks high voter turnout in order to give them the appearance of legitimacy. NBC News reported that, according to Russia’s Central Election Commission, the state’s efforts seem to have yielded a turnout of more than 60 percent.

The CEC further reported 73 percent support for the package of Putin-backed amendments, including the marriage language.

Despite its hardline stance on LGBT issues, however, Russia is far from a model of pro-family governance. On top of its authoritarian rule, the country is a world leader in abortions per capita and allows surrogacy for profit to run rampant.

Russia is more a competitor than a real threat.

On the world stage, every country is either a producer or consumer of energy, and ***everyone*** falls into the sphere of influence of either them, or us. A few big players like China hedge their bets and try to be on both sides as a consumer, so no one can entirely turn the spigot off if relations sour.

That said, in this competitive struggle, we have the upper hand and we are both always trying to strip major sources away from the other, i.e. our involvement in Syria. That wasn’t about human rights, democracy, any of that horse shit... Some of the Muslims we were backing were cutting off heads. Syria has had official relations with Russia since the 70s and is in their sphere, a producer. It was our attempt to peel them away from Russia.

The Russians are more “consistent” and predictable than we are! Because they do NOT have the massive turn over politically, because they are not as flip-flopping based on whatever is in the news today, they tend to have their agenda and stick with it, whereas we tend to be for the Vietnam war and then against it, for China trade and now against it, for Iraq war and then against it, for a Somalia intervention and then against it, for a Lebanon intervention and then against it (see a trend here?)...

The Russians do not want a large conflict with us (they have something to live for). Sure, they have their own interests are are not our friends, but they are not the existential threat they are made out as.

It’s easy for the Russians to be the bad guys. Cold War perceptions persist and are easy ruts to fall into. They are not part of the Western banking and media network and outsiders that have competing interests financially as well with BRICS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS

They do not go along with every Western media and politically generated bullshit story like Global Warming, the homo agenda, or now the Covid-19 idiocy (the way we are)... You have to realize, they are a world to their own and Western media simply doesn’t have a control over them like it does in say Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand... Real world examples: Solche Winter Olympics, whaling... When Western media made killing the whales a big story and even Star Trek had a save the whales movie, the Russians were shooting harpoons at them. They simply don’t chase Western pop culture themes and this makes them into bad guys also. Just think about something silly like wearing a mask in America today. If you don’t do it, you are unpatriotic, unprofessional, irresponsible, unethical... Whatever the fad of the day is in America, you are a bad person if you don’t jump on the bandwagon. They are also made out as scapegoats at times, i.e. why they are now the bad guys again: US elections 2016 and them being the classic scapegoat for the Democratic party/HRC’s failure.

Will they screw us? In a second. Are they our buddies and can we trust them? No way. But do they want a real conflict with us? No. Are there areas where we can work together and help one another? Absolutely yes. Are they unpredictable? No.

However, the Chinese who we helped industrialize, technologically develop, are that threat. But there we try very hard to see, hear and speak no evil. The likelihood of tens of thousands of American children dying in a conflict with China in the future is by an order of magnitude higher than with Russia.

IMHO-

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.