RIA Novosti
Who will oppose United Russia?

06/07/2005 10:40

        

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Yury Filippov) -- The main aim of the election law reform, due to be introduced in Russia this year, is to ensure that national political parties dominate Russian elections.

 The single-member constituency seats in the State Duma will be scrapped, parties will need 7% rather than 5% of the vote to make it into the lower house, and no party blocs will be allowed in the run-up to elections.

Critics of the reform, both from the left and the right, are calling it undemocratic. For instance, Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal democratic Yabloko party, believes that the reform will strip the parliament of what little independence it has left and wholly subordinate it to the executive branch. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov suggests that the reform is aimed primarily at strengthening the position of the pro-presidential party United Russia, which has every intention of maintaining its supremacy in the Russian political arena for many years to come.

Nonetheless, even the critics are forced to admit that the reform grants Russian political parties unprecedented rights and opportunities. Since the Soviet Communist Party was banned and the USSR collapsed, new parties have consistently been unable to make it to the forefront of Russian politics. For a long time the main players were charismatic individuals who were able to talk the language of the people and win votes without having any long-term political programs or adhering to a party line. These politicians depended entirely on personal charm and modern electioneering techniques.

Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, who left the Soviet Communist Party in 1990, and has not joined another party since, was the undisputed leader in this respect. All the political parties courted Yeltsin and made repeated attempts to lure him into their ranks.

Less high-ranking politicians established dozens of political parties and movements, but the names and programs of these parties have all but been forgotten. The public only knew them for their famous leaders. They were "Rutskoi's party," "Lebed's party," "Shumeiko's party," "Rybkin's party," "Chernomyrdin's party," and so on. In essence, they were nothing but the private parties of politicians who sought nationwide popularity. However, these parties vanished into thin air when their leaders tripped up or were dropped from important state posts.

Yavlinsky and Zyuganov, both critics of the election law reform, fared better than other "charismatic leaders" in the 1990s and after. Their parties have survived and are in receipt of state funding. The Communists have 50 State Duma deputies. It is quite possible that these men are opposed to the new election procedures because they are not sure whether their parties, which were established in the years when individual politicians ran the show, will be able to master the new political rules.

Most importantly, the election law reform will require all Russian political parties to become powerful national election corporations that will take part not just in federal elections, but in regional elections as well. They will have to make sure they have people at all levels of the Russian state machine, and play according to the rules set out by the state. Both the critics of the reform and its authors agree that any party that refuses or proves unable to do so will be doomed to extinction.

Opposition parties face other problems as well. The government itself is not always willing to cooperate with them or to treat them as partners. Vladimir Putin's aide, Vladislav Surkov, considered to be the man behind the Kremlin's ideology and political technologies, made a revealing comment in a recent interview for the German magazine Der Spiegel. He said that he could not imagine what would happen to the country if the Communists or some other left wing patriotic party, such as Rodina (Motherland), came to power. (Rodina also has seats in the State Duma.) In an earlier interview, Surkov criticized Yavlinsky's liberal-democratic Yabloko party, saying that it worked against national interests.

Gleb Pavlovsky, President of the Effective Politics Foundation, believes that, "Russia has no civilized political opposition." However, as there are still two years until the next State Duma elections, there is plenty of time for a political party to assume that mantle and consolidate its position. It seems that all the main "old" parties still have a chance to successfully join the new political cycle and to compete against United Russia. The only question is whether they will see this chance and know how to use it.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050706/40851641.html