RUSSIA: Putin Triumphs as Party

By Kester Kenn Klomegah Reprint | | Print |

Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW, Dec 6 2007 (IPS) - Notwithstanding accusations of vote manipulation and intimidation of opposition groups, the Dec. 2 vote for the state Duma has changed the political scenario in Russia: the Kremlin-backed United Russia has parliamentary majority, both the Communist and Liberal parties have strengthened their positions, and the Social Democrats – A Just Russia – enter the Duma for the first time.

United Russia inevitably has most reason to celebrate. "It was a unique achievement for us in several ways," party spokesperson Natalya Vertozhova told IPS. "The impressive victory also simply indicates strong support for (President Vladimir) Putin&#39s leadership."

Created in 2001 with strong support from Putin, United Russia party has now emerged as an influential political force.

Putin ordered his administration to draft an ordinance this week for holding the first meeting of the fifth parliament ahead of schedule. "I think it would be right not to wait for the authorised 30 days but hold the first meeting of the State Duma earlier," he told a government meeting.

Putin declared "doubtless success" for the party. "United Russia will make up the constitutional majority. I topped the candidate list of that party. Their support means trust," Putin said.

Putin declared his own stamp on political life, that he said Russia needs. Russians would "never allow their country to follow the destructive path taken by some post-Soviet countries," he said in an apparent reference to street protests in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan that brought pro-Western leaders to power.

After the final vote count, United Russia gained 315 seats in the new legislative assembly made of 450 members, and elected every four years. Four parties overcame the seven percent threshold to take seats in the State Duma. The Communists will have 57 seats, the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party 40, and A Just Russia supportive of the Kremlin 38. Voter turnout was estimated at 63 percent.

In an official decree last month, the Central Election Commission said political parties that gain seats in the fifth parliament would earn the right to nominate their candidate for president without collecting signatures. The parties have up to Dec. 29 to nominate candidates. The campaigning period has been set for Feb 2 to 29 next year. Putin is president until May.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said he supported Putin but disliked the party that won the parliamentary elections. Gorbachev, 76, whose policies of glasnost and perestroika jump-started democratic reforms in Russia but led to collapse of the Soviet Union, harshly criticised the ruling United Russia party for questionable practices in the election campaign.

"I am on Putin&#39s side," Gorbachev told a news conference in Moscow. "I do not have great respect for the State Duma (the lower house of parliament), but I think Putin has rendered great service to Russia."

Russia has made significant progress towards prosperity and stability under Putin&#39s presidency. But human rights advocates in Russia and abroad have criticised the Kremlin for tightening its grip on democracy and human rights since Putin became president in 2000.

Now that United Russia has a more than two-thirds majority, A Just Russia leaders are considering joining forces with small parties to "check and balance" excessive use of power. Its leader Sergey Mironov has already proposed a parliamentary coalition with the Communist party.

But local media reports quoted Pavel Shcherbakov from the Communist party as saying that no coalition with A Just Russia is being considered. "Regardless of how many seats the Communist party has in the next Duma, it will remain the only opposition force, and does not plan to unite with the &#39Kremlin project&#39," Shcherbakov said.

The lack of an effective opposition has drawn mixed feelings.

"If you look at Russian history through the 1990s, Russians have experienced some extremely difficult times, especially when the economy completely collapsed in 1998," Susan Freese, research fellow for Russian and Eurasian politics at the Centre for International Fellowship Programmes of the Russian Alfa Bank told IPS. "Under Putin, Russians now feel stability that they have not had for years. Many have seen improvements in their lives, and they fear the unknown consequences that a change might bring."

Freese said there is not much that minority parties can in any case do in terms of forming a coalition for checks and balances. United Russia has the two-thirds majority necessary to pass amendments on its own, she said.