Researcher: Russian elections serve as a Kremlin tool for gauging public mood, not changing power
Researcher Sandis Šrāders of the Latvian Institute of Foreign Affairs told Latvian Radio that elections in Russia no longer function as a democratic mechanism for changing power, but instead serve the Kremlin as a tool for measuring public mood.
Sandis Šrāders, a researcher at the Latvian Institute of Foreign Affairs, said on the Latvian Radio programme "Labrīt" that elections in today's Russia have lost their classical function — they no longer allow society to genuinely change who holds power.
A tool in the hands of power
According to the researcher, the Kremlin uses elections for a different purpose: as an instrument for finding out the prevailing public mood and gauging how much support exists among citizens for the policies pursued by the country's leadership. In this way, voting no longer serves as a path to a legitimate change of power, but rather functions as a kind of sociological measuring device that allows the authorities to track sentiment within society.
Šrāders made these remarks during an interview on Latvian Radio's "Labrīt" programme, while analysing political processes in Russia. His comments suggest that Russia's electoral system has been adapted to the needs of an authoritarian regime — not to express the will of the public, but to reinforce the position of those in power and to monitor how their decisions are received.
The researcher's remarks fit into a broader discussion of how authoritarian regimes use formally democratic institutions and procedures to create an impression of legitimacy while retaining actual control over the political process.
