The kremlin Will Crack Down on russians Immediately After the Elections

September in russia will begin with the state duma elections, and this time the kremlin’s political strategists have opted for a strategy of silence. No new bans, no high-profile restrictions. Instead, the ruling party has suddenly started speaking in a tone we haven’t heard from it in a long time.

A telling example: deputies from the “united russia” party, who for years have been stamping out restrictive laws, are now publicly criticizing their own initiatives. Labeling works that mention drugs, banning video games, regulating artificial intelligence – all of this was recently passed with their votes, but now it has suddenly turned out to be too harsh. Their political instinct for self-preservation kicked in clearly: anything that might irritate voters should be temporarily removed from the agenda.

The problem for russians is that this pause has an expiration date, and that date is the day after the election.

First in line is the paid VPN. The idea of taxing international data traffic exceeding 15 gigabytes per month was discussed back in the spring, then postponed until the summer, and now it has been tied specifically to the end of the election cycle so that millions of VPN users won’t take their frustration to the polls.

It’s a similar story with the technology tax on electronics. Instead of September 1, it will be introduced on December 1, and this three-month delay hides a very specific consequence: prices for phones and laptops will go up as soon as the tax takes effect.

The most serious part of the deferred draft law concerns mobilization. In the temporarily occupied Crimea, military commissariats are already working with reservists, laying out the future in no uncertain terms: sign a contract now, because after the September vote, a new wave of mobilization will be announced, and you’ll be sent to the front in any case.

The second reading of the draft law on development in specially protected natural areas has also been postponed – the draft law would allow land to be expropriated for projects of federal significance, but consideration has been postponed until the autumn to avoid creating unnecessary media attention ahead of the vote.

Taken together, this is a pause with a clear time limit. The kremlin has not abandoned any of its announced measures – it has simply timed things so that voters cast their ballots before they have a chance to become outraged.