Irish Examiner View: Putin’s sham victory snubs democracy
Vladimir Putin won the presidential election in Russia last weekend. Picture: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP
Despite an 87.28% winning electoral margin in the Russian election over the weekend, Vladimir Putin strangely looked like a lonely, haunted, figure when delivering his "victory" speech after what was widely denigrated as a rigged poll.
In contrast to victors in regular democratic contests we are used to witnessing, where there will be all the trappings of victory – champagne, balloons, streamers, and people losing the run of themselves – Putin, surrounded by hand-picked well-wishers and supporters, looked like the isolated man he is.
Expected congratulations came in from fellow authoritarians Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, Victor Orban, and Kim Jung Un; wannabe dictator Donald Trump has his own problems. Brickbats came from everywhere else, including Irina Scherbakova, the co-founder of Memorial, the Russian rights organisation, who called the vote symbolic of the “rise of this dictatorship”.
Warning of “hard times” ahead for Russia’s domestic opposition, she predicted those who had voiced their contempt for a vote which had “nothing to do with reality” could expect nothing other than “violence and repression” as Putin wanted revenge.
The independent Russian vote monitoring group Golos (Voice) said that the three-day election could not be considered genuine, because “the campaign took place in a situation where the fundamental articles of the Russian constitution, guaranteeing political rights and freedoms, were essentially not in effect”.
That Golos went as far as to say that never before had it seen a presidential campaign which “fell so far short of constitutional standards,” is indicative of the widespread opinion that the whole charade was fraudulent and corrupt.
Just one month after the mysterious death of the most prominent anti-Putin activist, Alexi Navalny, in an Arctic prison colony, people in occupied areas of Ukraine were forced to the polls and voted with guns trained on them.
By any accepted standard of democracy, Putin’s election is nothing other than a sham. It is no wonder he looked isolated and alone when claiming victory.
There is no doubt many of us — citizens of a modern, inclusive, and caring Ireland — celebrated our individuality, our character, and our nationality over the course of a weekend in which we marked St Patrick’s Day.
Our national holiday gives this country a unique place in the world, whereby Ireland and Irishness is celebrated globally in a way that is replicated by few other nationalities, and in a manner which gives this country a singular ability to put our message on a world stage.
However, as many Irish people will attest, it has been the work of educators and teachers which has focused so many individuals in this country on maximising their talents and the opportunities that are presented to them during the course of their lives — be that at home or abroad.
Inspirational tutors at every level of education have played a part in the creation of our nation and each one of us that has been through that system. They have been every bit as influential on the development of our society as any patriot or political, cultural, or sporting icon.
These are the largely unrecognised heroes of our country, and the past weekend saw the passing of one such man.
The deputy principal and renowned physics teacher at the Coachford Community College in Cork, Diarmuid Hickey, touched many following his diagnosis with motor neurone disease two years ago.
His intractable dedication to inclusiveness, fairness, and kindness was not only an inspiration to his students, but also to their parents and his fellow teachers.
His was a life of dedication to his vocation, his family, and those he was charged with educating and, as such, was inspiring to a much broader church. The value to our society of such modest and humble people is inestimable.
It appeared churlish for the British Horseracing Authority’s chief executive, Julie Harrington, to suggest that the Irish dominance of last week’s Cheltenham festival was somehow “damaging” for the sport.
Irish trainers won 18 of the 27 races, including 12 of the 14 Grade 1 contests, with Willie Mullins accounting for eight of those for a haul of nine wins, which brought his astonishing lifetime Cheltenham-winning record to more than 100.
However, for Harrington to suggest that Irish success was becoming “more pronounced” and more “damaging for the sport on both sides of the Irish Sea” was disingenuous at best.
She rightly added that the “rate of decline” of British racing at the top end had “outstripped the measures put in place to tackle it” and that the need to incentivise the breeding, owning, training, and racing of top bloodstock in the UK was now paramount.
This is something the Irish authorities have been doing for decades and the results have been evident with stellar Irish successes on the world stage in both flat and national hunt racing.
As it has been in many other fields — be they sporting, industrial, or economic — the failure of the British to accept they are no longer in the vanguard in racing has been a key element of their downward spiral.
It might be more in Harrington’s line to start focusing on re-establishing the British bloodstock industry than blaming the Irish.
It might also be worth her while to consider the words of Kim Bailey, one of the few victorious British trainers at the meeting, who said that talk of Irish dominance was “overplayed”.
Bailey, who scored a Champion Hurdle/Gold Cup double in 1995, with Alderbrook and Master Oats, also said Cheltenham needed to look at itself, in terms of over-pricing and poor treatment of spectators. His views were much more realistic than those of the BHA boss.
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