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ELECTIONS-RUSSIA: Putin Warns Against Interference
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW, Dec 1 (IPS) - On the eve of the parliamentary elections here, the United States, UK and European Union
are questioning the legitimacy of Russia’s democratic institutions. Russian
President Vladimir Putin has responded by issuing strict warnings against
external interference in domestic political affairs.
"We have done everything we can to free Russia from internal upheaval and
place it firmly on the road of evolutionary development," Putin said at a
reception held for the heads of diplomatic missions in Moscow ahead of the
Dec. 2 elections. "I am forced to repeat, we will not allow any external
interference in this process. This is the main signal that I would ask you to
send back to your capitals," he told some 200 guests - mainly diplomats
accredited in Moscow.
"We know the value of authentic democracy and we want to hold honest
elections that are as transparent and open as possible, without organisational
failures and problems," Putin emphasised. "I am confident that this upcoming
election will be of precisely this kind," he said, stressing that Russia, held
many election campaigns over its 16 years of democratic development.
"Russia is a sovereign country and has stopped appeasing the West, and for
better or for worse, would do things in its way," Eric Kraus, a director at the
Nikitsky Russia and CIS Opportunities Fund, told IPS.
Russia's mistake is to use the term democracy, Kraus explains. The Chinese
refer to themselves as communists or even Marxist or Leninists although they
are not - nobody seems to think that they were under any obligation to
comply with the dictates of the West.
"Is China a superpower? Is India? Brazil? Same applies to Russia. It is a major
power fighting to retain its own sphere of influence and on the global stage, it
is looking for a new role. It is useless to look back at the twentieth century
power structures. They are obsolete," Kraus stressed.
Some critics say European and western countries are not - in any way -
meddling in Russian politics by expressing their candid views of
developments in the country.
"There is some fear in the Russian administration that western criticism will
result in the Russians rising up in a new revolution," Allison Gianneschi, a
research fellow on Russian and Eurasian politics at the Centre for
International Fellowship Programmes of the Russian Alfa Bank, told IPS.
"Russians are knowledgeable and perfectly capable of evaluating the criticism
that they hear from abroad and compare them against domestic government
messages and the experience of their own everyday lives," Gianneschi said.
"I really don't think foreign opinions will influence domestic politics very
much, but hypothetically speaking, if it seems like western criticism is
causing problems for the Russian government, it probably isn't western
criticism that is causing the problem, but rather the lack of an appropriate
and convincing government rebuttal," Gianneschi explained.
Gianneschi believes that the primary problem is connected with the practice
of freedom of speech. Anyone in any country should have the right to
comment on events and political behaviour of leaders in other countries,
Gianneschi says, adding that, "people who perceive this as dangerous are
those who don't have faith in the ability of their own arguments to withstand
open political discourse."
When Putin took office in 2000 - instead of inheriting a well-developed
democracy - he received a Gordian knot of social, political and economic
problems. For example, many local governors were corrupt and had
established elaborate systems of patronage that stifled economic
development and social mobility. In the West, this would have been remedied
by the court system, however in Russia the court system is also corrupt,
Gianneschi explained.
Gianneschi observes that it is no secret to anyone here that electronic media
faces heavy censorship. It is almost comical how inundated every street in
Moscow is with billboards and flags promoting Putin's candidacy to the State
Duma, when almost all other political billboards are conspicuously absent,
Gianneschi says. Opposition groups were denied permission to hold public
rallies and political meetings, Gianneschi concludes.
Polls predict Putin's party could win two-thirds of the popular vote and 80
percent of the 450 seats in the State Duma - the lower chamber of
parliament. A few seats may go to the Communists headed by Gennady
Zyuganov and the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
founded by Vladimir Zhirinovsky that got seven percent and five percent in
the polls respectively.
Putin has been campaigning throughout the country and has used his power
to ensure an overwhelming victory for the main pro-Kremlin party United
Russia at Sunday's elections. The election is now being considered a
referendum on Putin’s policies.
Opposition groups have accused Putin of violating the election rules and
regulations, but the Central Election Commission defended Putin’s tactics.
Putin's televised speech in which he called on voters to cast ballots for a
certain political party is not a violation of Russian electoral legislation, Igor
Borisov, a member of the Russian Central Elections Commission (CEC), told
the local media on Friday.
"The rights to the freedom of speech and the spread of information are
guaranteed by the Russian constitution," Borisov said.
"The mass media have the rights to choose freely and disseminate any
information provided that it complies with current legislation. If elections
information support complies with the legislation, that is, if it is objective,
trustworthy, and offers equal coverage, then there can be no violations,"
Borisov said.
(END/2007)
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