Putin and the others

About 108 000 000 of Russian citizens had right to vote during elections on December the 2nd to Russian Parliament. About 60% of them used their right and came to make their choice. Among the regions with the highest level of participation Chechenia Republic (99%), Tatarstan (84%), Chukotka (78%), Kemerovsky and Tyumensky regions could be named. To attract attention to elections and to invite more people to participate in the elections different things were made. The number of points for voting abroad was enlarged. As organizers expected the number of Russian citizens voting abroad would be twice bigger than it was during elections in 2003. Another thing was to create voting points at railway stations and in airport buildings. Special points for people having no official registration in some Russian regions were organized as well. According to new system all the deputies coming to State Duma will be elected from the parity lists. As the law demands the lowest level provides the participation in State Duma nowadays is 7% of voices (in comparison with former 5%).So the competition was very high. After counting majority of bulletins it becomes clear that 4 parties will be presented in new 5th State Duma. There are “United Russia” 64,1%, Communist party (11,6%), Liberal Democratic Party (8,2%) and “Fair Russia”(7,8%). Russian experts’ opinions conditionally could be divided into three groups. The first – of those who are agree with the results – sees that the general policy of Russian State powers will be continued after forming of new parliament. And this – as a consequence – will strengthen the main state course. As some of arguments for this there are that proportion of powers is kept and existing direction could not be seriously disturbed and electorate mostly voted to the program of leading party. The second point of view (is also agree with the results) could be generally described in a following way – after these elections Russia is coming to a new step of the development. It could be illustrated by quotation from the president of Effective Politics Foundation Gleb Pavlovsky who supposes that Russia “will enter in the new phase of existing after elections when the opposite powers will stop fighting Putin”. So probably we could see there some tracks of normal competitions between several political programs. The third position belongs to those who are not satisfied with the voting or counting of the results. Traditionally the most active in protesting is Communist party. Its leader Gennadiy Zyuganov declares the intention to appealed against the results which – as he considers – could be on 3-4% higher. Moreover he pointed the involvements taking place during the elections and fixed by spectators of Communist party.Estimating the elections foreign spectators express different opinions as well. Some of them was interested in learning Russian experience and comparing it with the practice in there countries. Expressing general positive attitude they noted high activity of electorate and legacy of the procedure. Others intend to see both positive and negative features of elections in Russia. For instance vice-president of Parliamentary assembly of the Osce K. Kilunen blames the very close cooperation between executive powers and political parties. He sees there a “problematic point”.But they suppose that elections in Russia could be considered democratic and as the main reason for such conclusion they name the fact that “Russian citizens had opportunity to vote for opposition parties”.