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bjbjLULU JEFFREY BROWN: Next, Russia two days before voters go to the polls to elect a new
president. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin voiced confidence today that he will be the victor,
and he called the massive protests by opposition groups -- quote -- "a good experience for
Russia." Margaret Warner has been in Moscow all week, and she filed this report. MARGARET
WARNER: Vladimir Putin is out on the stump making a pitch to get back his old job, president
of Russia. As the month-long official campaign season here closes in on Sunday's election,
the prime minister is favored to win, and big enough to avoid a runoff. WOMAN (through
translator): With all my soul, with all my heart, I am rooting for Putin. MARGARET WARNER:
Term limits forced him to cede the presidency four years ago to Dmitry Medvedev. But now
he's back in full presidential wannabe mode on state TV nonstop, as he crisscrosses the
country. And he's everywhere here, too, on the banners of an opposition movement that's
sprouted in a few short months. Thousands formed a human chain in central Moscow last
Sunday to call for Russia without Putin. MIKE TOHONYUK, Russia: I believe that 12 years
of Mr. Putin is too much for Russia. MARGARET WARNER: Opposition stars mustered alongside
ordinary citizens, young and old, in a defiant, yet jubilant display unthinkable just a few
years ago. Environmental activist Evgenia Chirikova has blossomed into an opposition
leader. EVGENIA CHIRIKOVA, environmental activist (through translator): It's a clear cue for
Mr. Putin that a crook and a thief has no place in the Kremlin, had enough humiliation.
MARGARET WARNER: For many, that humiliation was epitomized by Putin's bid to return with
a job-flipping announcement by Medvedev last September. Simmering resentment let loose
on the Internet. Then suspicions of widespread fraud in December's parliamentary elections
blew it open into the streets. DMITRY MAKAROV, interpreter: We have to stop sitting in our
apartments. We have to now do something for the political system. MARGARET WARNER: We
rode to Sunday's rally with 25-year-old interpreter Dmitry Makarov. Never active before, he was
stirred to action when social media spread videos of voter intimidation and ballot-stuffing.
DMITRY MAKAROV: Actually, so evident and so arrogant that we thought that, no, that's
not real, that couldn't happen. But when your friends tell you that, when your friends upload
the video to Facebook or they send a photo to Twitter, and you believe your friends,
right? MARGARET WARNER: Twelve years of Putin power have brought benefits to Makarov and
many like him, as Russia's freed-up economy rode atop sky-high oil and gas prices. Now,
he says, government needs to catch up. DMITRY MAKAROV: We're not satisfied with how the
government works. They are too far behind us. Right? We want good service at a restaurant,
but, at the same time, we want good service at a court. MARGARET WARNER: But you don't
get that good service, he said, unless you pay bribes, and the same goes for lucrative
government contracts. DMITRY MAKAROV: We want laws that would protect a regular person.
MARGARET WARNER: So, you mean you want an end to this sort of privileged government
class? DMITRY MAKAROV: Absolutely. We don't want privileged people. MARGARET WARNER: Alleged
sweetheart deals for Putin's friends and family have been aired by bloggers like activist
Alexei Navalny. Veteran Putin opponents use older-style methods to publicize what they
say is a deep and pervasive rot. VLADIMIR RYZHKOV, co-founder, Party of People's Freedom:
Watches. They have very, very expensive watches. Many people understood that he's working not
so on Russia, but much more on his personal wealth and his personal good life. MARGARET
WARNER: Independent politician Vladimir Ryzhkov was muscled out of parliament after Putin
ascended. VLADIMIR RYZHKOV: Putin is not reformist. He's a reactionary. He tries keep same corruption
status quo in Russia. We want real system reforms. MARGARET WARNER: Systemic reform
of corruption can't come under Putin, believes analyst Masha Lipman of the Carnegie Moscow
Center. MASHA LIPMAN, analyst, Carnegie Moscow Center: Corruption in Russia is not a malignant
tumor on an otherwise healthy body that can be severed, and then body can live and develop.
It's actually the very texture of the Russian governance. People who are close to Putin,
who constitute his elite can expect, can rely on the government cover-up if they do something
unlawful. MARGARET WARNER: Among those affected by that corruption, young professionals like
32-year-old Denis Fedorov. At an art opening this week, he said his American employer loses
business because it's banned by U.S. law from paying bribes. DENIS FEDOROV, Russia: We cannot
do some part of our work, we cannot get some contracts because, otherwise, we need to give
money. MARGARET WARNER: And this colors Fedorov's feelings about Putin and his entire rule.
DENIS FEDOROV: What I feel about the government and Putin is that I feel ashamed. MARGARET
WARNER: Fedorov's friend, Sergey Balandim, baby daughter in his arms, concedes the system
is rigged. But he values the stability and opportunity Putin has brought. SERGEY BALANDIM,
Russia (through translator): I'm afraid of disorder. Any change of power threatens economic
and political instability. In the elections, I will vote for Putin. MARGARET WARNER: The
gains of the Putin years ended the turbulence of the post-Soviet '90s and the ruble's collapse.
Now many Russians are ready to vote their gratitude. Far from cosmopolitan downtown
Moscow is this gritty industrial district and Andrey Bondarenko's auto repair shop.
The former communist opened his own business after the Soviet Union collapsed. Those were
hard early days, but Putin righted things. ANDREY BONDARENKO, business owner (through
translator): I support Vladimir Putin. He brought Russia up from its knees. We didn't
have enough food then, and now the store shelves are full. MARGARET WARNER: The protesters
are saying he's too much like a czar. ANDREY BONDARENKO (through translator): He's not
a czar. He's a regular guy, a real common man. He's a man of action. MARGARET WARNER:
Do you feel a lack of freedom? ANDREY BONDARENKO (through translator): I absolutely do not
feel anything like that. Working-class people have lots of freedom. PAVEL ZENKOVICH, Vladimir
Putin campaign manager: If you remember Russia in the '90s, it was a country with a catastrophic
situation in the economy. MARGARET WARNER: Putin's deputy campaign manager, Pavel Zenkovich,
says millions of Russians like Bondarenko have long memories and know his candidate
has delivered for them. PAVEL ZENKOVICH: What people see in Putin, they see the guarantee
that there will be an evolution, but there will be -- that there will be stability. They
see in Putin that they won't lose their salaries, that the factories will be growing. No other
candidate in this campaign can guarantee them. They see no alternative. MARGARET WARNER:
That's just the point, the opposition says. There is no real alternative in Sunday's election.
The Kremlin's election commission permitted only three old faces on the ballot, like the
perennial communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov, and just one new face, billionaire New Jersey
nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov. Despite his Western-style campaign, he hasn't cracked
10 percent in the polls. Still, he sees an emerging coalition waiting to be led. MIKHAIL
PROKHOROV, Russian presidential candidate (through translator): A year ago, my nomination
for presidency was not even possible. But after the parliamentary elections, the situation
drastically changed. I will bring together a new political force to unify not only protesters,
but those who want real change. MARGARET WARNER: But Ryzhkov says this campaign is a phony
competition, because the Kremlin stacked the deck. VLADIMIR RYZHKOV: Putin selected opponents
himself. So, it was selection before election. No one from real opposition was registered.
All so-called oppositioners running for elections are more or less managed by Putin and his
regime. MARGARET WARNER: The integrity of the vote itself is being watched by civic
groups and liberal parties who've trained volunteers as election observers. KSENIA SOKOLOVA,
Golos: During election day, a team of people, one or two persons, they travel from one polling
station to another. MARGARET WARNER: Ksenia Sokolova's independent group Golos also runs
a website that's compiling allegations of pre-ballot vote-rigging. KSENIA SOKOLOVA:
Here, they say that head of administration was promoting the candidate Mr. Putin, and
he promised some presents for good votes. MARGARET WARNER: Even the Russian government
is installing Web cameras in 90,000 voting stations. However that vote goes, Putin will
retake the reins of a society that's deeply split between old and new. MASHA LIPMAN: Putin,
of course, has his core constituency, people who are -- do not live in big cities, people
who still share the psychology of dependence, and they rely on the government. MARGARET
WARNER: On the other side, says analyst Lipman, is an urbanized middle class increasingly
working in the private sector. That split can be seen in Moscow itself. On the solid
ice of a windswept lake near Soviet-era apartment blocks, Venyamin Batov was having little luck
with the fish, but no matter. VENYAMIN BATOV, pensioner (through translator): Everything
changes to the better. Look at me. I'm a pensioner. I'm sitting here enjoying myself, and I get
my pension on time, and I am happy. MARGARET WARNER: His pal nearby isn't quite so happy,
but feels the protesters offer him nothing. MAN (through translator): They are uncoordinated.
There are not many people, and there are no leaders with a clear and realistic program.
MARGARET WARNER: A half-hour away, inside a one-time chocolate factory, is Rain TV,
an Internet and small-scale cable channel that runs live coverage of protests and voices
not heard on state-controlled television. Chief producer and newscaster Renat Davletgildeev
says the fact that his mostly 20-something staff came of age after the Soviet Union,
but before Putin, makes Rain TV different in crucial ways. RENAT DAVLETGILDEEV, chief
producer, Rain TV (through translator): Honesty, freedom, a feeling of fresh air. Our journalists
do not have these mental barriers of inner censorship that tell you what you should say
and what you shouldn't. MARGARET WARNER: He says they also embrace different values than
those celebrated by the Putin era. RENAT DAVLETGILDEEV (through translator): For the last 10 years,
society pursued a concept of happiness that meant a salary that is paid on time, you can
go to Ikea once a week to buy a piece of furniture, and you own a Ford Focus car. Now people want
more. At the base of the pyramid, you have basic human needs. But at the top is this
self-identification that people are now striving for, that their opinion should count. MARGARET
WARNER: If Putin wins handily on Sunday, how he handles this emerging new class could be
crucial to his success. JEFFREY BROWN: Our team in Moscow will be filing a special online
report on Election Day. You will find that on our website at NewsHour.PBS.org. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
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