When I come across reports on how the organizers of the opposition rallies on Russia Day are negotiating the place and time of their conduct, I involuntarily recall the humor of the Israeli writer Efraim Kishon, who described in a colorful manner how a local bureaucrat conducts endless consultations with hostage-torn terrorists - Observance of all necessary formalities - and leads his confidants to a white heat, so that they no longer need hostages, money, or fulfilling political requirements. The Russian government also treats its citizens as terrorists when they want to go out and make a noise, and as a result, even the smallest concession begins to seem like the biggest victory, writes on the portal Crimea. Realist journalist Vitaly Portnikov.

I do not understand this fear of power before citizens. And not because I do not understand the fear of democracy, but because I clearly understand that the Russian leadership in any case, there is nothing to be afraid of. At least on this day of Russia.

Russian leadership is poisoned by fear of the Maidan. But the same fear of the Maidan poisoned and Russian society. Maidan in the Russian understanding - chaos and deconstruction. I remember well that after the victory of the Ukrainian Maidan in 2013-2014, one of the Russian "liberal" publicists, who for many years earned money in Kiev, and then turned to Western bread, smugly wrote: the Russians won, and the Ukrainians lost. Because the Russians have not shed blood and remain within the "legitimacy". And Ukrainians - shed and legitimacy questioned.

In this thesis, shared by many sincere supporters of democratic choice and Ukraine's friends, there is no understanding of the most important. Maidan - it's not about blood, it's about legitimacy. Both Ukrainian Maidan were able to take place and win precisely because the protesters had a representation base in the Ukrainian parliament. The party of Viktor Yushchenko "Our Ukraine" won parliamentary elections in general on the eve of Maydan in 2004. The Ukrainian opposition in 2013 is not a few deputies, but almost half of the Verkhovna Rada. Citizens know that they have someone to represent during negotiations with the authorities, and these are not some rascals and self-appointed rally speakers, but those for whom they voted more recently or relatively recently.

That is why immediately after the start of both Maidans, the mechanism of consultations and round tables was launched. Leonid Kuchma was ready to play by these rules - and stayed in politics. Viktor Yanukovich wanted to imitate these rules - and found himself in Rostov. But the essence of what is happening in Ukraine does not change from this. The Maidan is a popular continuation of Ukrainian parliamentarism even when the citizens themselves want an uprising rather than an election. And the collision, after all, is unleashed in the parliament.

There is nothing like this in Russia, and it can not be, because in this country almost from its very appearance on the political map of the world a course has been taken to imitate parliamentarism. The Bolsheviks dispersed the "Constituent Assembly" elected by the people and replaced it with cardboard congresses of the Soviets, and then with a pseudo-parliament with drummers of production and "all-Union elder" Michal Ivanych. Democrat Boris Yeltsin dispersed the congress of deputies elected by the people and replaced it with the Duma, after the Crimea finally degenerated into some People's Chamber of the GDR, an imitation party of power, a non-existent opposition, trained deputies obediently following the directives of the curators from the presidential administration.

Such a parliament does not represent anyone. People who take to the streets in Moscow and other cities of Russia can not count on the negotiation process with the authorities. This process should be led by those for whom they did not vote - but each protester has his own ideas about the legitimacy of those who are at the head of the rally. The Polish way - when the organization is headed by Solidarity, the Russians are also ordered. "Solidarity" could arise only in the monopoly state economy. The epoch of strikes has long since passed.

Ukrainians are often surprised that the Russians simply go to rallies and disagree - such a tool of pressure on the authorities makes sense only in classical democracy, when real parties are afraid of defeat at this election. But to answer myself to the question - why, in fact, Russians stay? Is also not easy. I well remember the days of the Maidan when there was no political process and the protesters literally did not know what to do in the square. The authorities, in fact, counted on this - that she would not talk with Maidan and "sit out" the protesters.

But the parliamentary opposition in such a situation has no other option than to push the authorities to the negotiations, because on this depends on its own political survival, it depends on it whether it will vote for it in the next election.

That is why Ukrainians - that in the parliament, that on the street - can really say about themselves "we are the authorities here". And the Russians can not say this about themselves - even when there are a lot of them, very much at any of the rallies.