(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 9, 2013) Opposition blogger Alexei Navalny, recommended for nomination as a mayoral candidate by the Bureau of the opposition Republican Party of Russia – People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS), will not pass through the municipal filter as a serious candidate, said First Vice President of the Center for Political Technologies think tank Alexei Makarkin. “Navalny can act […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 9, 2013) The Bureau of the Opposition Republican Party of Russia – People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS) adopted a recommendation on Sunday to nominate opposition blogger Alexei Navalny to run for Moscow mayor, the party’s co-chairman Vladimir Ryzhkov told Interfax. “The recommendation was adopted following a preliminary discussion. By law, the recommendation has no legal force. The […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, June 10, 2013) Even though Muscovites will cast their votes for mayor only three months from now, Sergey Sobyanin and other aspirants are already playing the Muslim card to win support among ethnic Russians, a practice that is further alienating the Russian capital’s large and growing Muslim community. In a commentary in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 10, 2013) Businessman and Civil Platform party head Mikhail Prokhorov has announced his plans to work together with former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov in the upcoming city elections, a news report said Monday. “Last Saturday I met with Yuri Luzhkov. We had a two-hour-long conversation during which we discussed the plans for summer,” Interfax […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – June 4, 2013) It’s pretty obvious why Sergei Sobyanin announced today that he will resign as Moscow mayor and run in a snap election in September. What isn’t so clear is whether the gambit will pay off. Appointed in 2010 by then-President Dmitry Medvedev and rubber-stamped by the Moscow City Duma, Sobyanin could […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Vladimir Kara-Murza – May 23, 2013) Next year, Moscow will hold its legislative elections. Traditionally, elections in Russia’s capital city are considered a national event. IMR Senior Policy Advisor Vladimir Kara-Murza contends that the democratic opposition stands a significant change of success-but only if it finally manages to unite. Russian politics are made […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 20, 2013) The new bill on mixed elections to the Russian State Duma will become the basis for the development of the political system in the country, however it is difficult to forecast what this system would be like in five years, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said on Monday. “In my point of view, this […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Grigorii Golosov – May 20, 2013) Grigorii Golosov is Professor of Political Science, Project Director, Center for Democracy and Human Rights Helix, St. Petersburg Recent protest rallies and continuing opposition sentiment have provoked the Kremlin into reform. The first part of the process sees the partial return of regional governor elections, abandoned nine years ago in favour of […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 15, 2013) The operations of the Golos association specializing in monitoring elections in Russia may be suspended for half a year if a court recognizes it as a foreign agent but it still refuses to be registered as such, a Justice Ministry official has said. Speaking at a roundtable discussion at the State Duma on Wednesday, […]
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(RIA Novosti – BOCHAROV RUCHEI (Sochi), May 16, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the majority of Russian regions is likely to choose their leaders by direct popular vote. The return of direct gubernatorial elections, scrapped in 2005, was signed into law last year in the aftermath of a wave of anti-Kremlin protests. Earlier this year, Putin […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 23, 2013) The Constitutional Court has ruled that Russian voters should be allowed to appeal election results directly, overruling earlier judgments that permitted only political parties and candidates to dispute official vote counts in the courts. The court’s ruling, published on its official website on Monday, follows complaints by human rights […]
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(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG, April 22, 2013) The Russian Constitutional Court has confirmed the right of voters to protest election returns in court and declared the practice of banning direct applications to courts unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court announced a corresponding resolution on Monday after checking several provisions of Civil Proceedings Code and federal laws on guarantees of electoral rights and […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, April 17, 2013) Heads of leading Russian NGOs disagree with accusations levelled by the authorities at the human rights association Golos facing a heavy fine. “We think it is absurd to say that the organization that led the fight for fair elections in Russia is acting in the interests of foreign states and is a foreign agent,” […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 17, 2013) The State Duma on Tuesday passed in a first reading a bill that would reintroduce a mixed voting system for parliamentary elections, despite a heated argument on the Duma floor that it favors pro-Kremlin forces. In voting late Tuesday afternoon, 296 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, 148 […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 11, 2013) The number 303 stood Wednesday on a digital clock on Manezh Square that counts down the days to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and President Vladimir Putin is watching it closely as the government races to make the final preparations for the Games. But that clock may be counting down […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 4, 2013) The Prosecutor General’s Office has requested documents from elections watchdog Golos and the organization’s newspaper, Grazhdansky Golos, as part of its check into nongovernmental organizations. Golos’ deputy director, Gregory Melkonyants, was presented with a written request for all legal documents, including information on staff, a schedule of activities with a list of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – April 2, 2013) Governor Andrei Vorobyov’s preferred candidate was on Monday declared the winner of a small town mayoral election marred by allegations of widespread fraud. Sunday’s election in the Moscow region town of Zhukovsky, 25 kilometers southeast of the capital, was seen as a litmus test of people’s trust in the […]
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MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a law that allows regions to decide whether they want to elect a governor by a direct popular vote or let regional legislatures choose them from nominees approved by the president. The State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament whose members initiated the bill, passed […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 1, 2013 – Natalya Krainova) ZHUKOVSKY, Moscow Region This town of 100,000 people, 25 kilometers southeast of the capital, elected its mayor on Sunday in an election marred by numerous reports of falsifications and vote-buying in favor of the government-sponsored candidate. The election was seen as a litmus test of people’s trust in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – March 27, 2013) Unprecedented numbers of independent poll workers will help ensure clean elections in Moscow and St. Petersburg through 2018, a group of leading vote monitors said Tuesday, but the ruling United Russia party and local governments will continue to control polling stations elsewhere, a lingering risk of electoral fraud. In […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris – March 14, 2013) The Kremlin said on March 13 that the author of a report that claims the ruling United Russia party actually lost the 2011 elections to the Communist Part of the Russian Federation thanks to fraud needs psychiatric help is surprising and extremely embarrassing. The report is embarrassing as […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – March 14, 2013) Senior government officials on Wednesday rejected as pure fantasy a leaked report that cast doubt on the ruling United Russia party’s victory in the 2011 State Duma elections, saying its author should seek psychiatric help. The report, written by Stepan Sulakshin, director of the Governance and Problem Analysis Center, […]
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(Interfax – March 13, 2013) Russian Central Elections Commission (CEC) Chairman Vladimir Churov has criticized a report issued by a think-tank claiming that the 2011 elections to the State Duma were rigged and that the Communist Party actually garnered more votes in them than the United Russia party. A number of media outlets on Wednesday published conclusions from a report […]
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(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – February 26, 2013) The Justice Ministry has refused to conduct a check into election watchdog Golos’ compliance with recently passed legislation requiring foreign-funded organizations to register as “foreign agents” despite over 100 requests to do so. The ministry received 120 requests to recognize Golos as a foreign agent, and 350 such requests for the Levada […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 25 – Richard Arnold – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – February 11, 2013) United Russia brought a bill before the Duma for a first reading on January 23, 2013, that would permit regional legislatures to cancel direct gubernatorial elections for the “multi-ethnic” regions of Russia. Instead, parties in regional legislatures would pick three candidates […]
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(www.opendemocracy.net – Daniil Kotsyubinsky – February 4, 2013) Daniil Kotsyubinsky is Russian historian and journalist based in St. Petersburg Russian lawmakers have given preliminary approval to a law to allow governors to be appointed in the country’s 83 regions, reversing last year’s move to restore direct elections. As Daniil Kotsyubinsky reports, this issue is unimportant in itself, but it exposes […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, Combined report – January 31, 2013) Nine months after popular gubernatorial elections were re-introduced on the initiative of former President Dmitry Medvedev, a 90 percent majority in the Russian Duma votes “yes” on a bill that gives regional legislatures the right to scrap them. President Putin believes the measure could prevent […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) – A little more than half of Russians are against the hypothetical dissolution of the State Duma and early parliamentary elections – about twice as many as those who want new elections, an opinion poll suggests. Moreover, more than two-thirds of Russians don’t want to take part in protests such as those that have been rocking […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – January 24, 2013) State Duma deputies on Wednesday overwhelming passed in its first reading a bill that would give regional assemblies the right to abolish direct elections for governors, likely weakening a key pro-democracy reform signed last year by then-President Dmitry Medvedev. A total of 403 deputies voted in favor of the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – January 22, 2013) A presidential election in Russia isn’t scheduled for another five years, but the people who will run the polling stations and count the ballots are already being selected. Regional elections officials have until April 30 to form more than 90,000 local elections commissions nationwide one for every polling […]
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(RFE/RL – Tom Balmforth – January 22, 2013) Russian politics is so inclusive, pluralist, and teeming with new political parties that each party should adopt an animal as its insignia to make it easier for overwhelmed voters to remember which party is which. This is the solution put forward by Aleksandr Sidyakin, a 35-year old United Russia parliamentary deputy, to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – December 19, 2012) A bill that could once again abolish direct gubernatorial elections, which were reinstated this year, was submitted to the State Duma on Tuesday by members of the majority United Russia party. Popular elections of governors were discontinued following the Beslan school hostage crisis in 2004, when Vladimir Putin, early […]
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MOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti) President Vladimir Putin warned against foreign interference in Russia’s domestic affairs during his state-of-the-nation address Wednesday, casting local political actors who get money from abroad as a fifth column serving foreign interests. “Direct or indirect interference from outside in our internal political processes is unacceptable,” he said. Someone “who receives money from abroad for […]
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(Interfax – November 19, 2012) Leading Russian NGOs intend to ignore the legislative amendments which require the registration as “agents of foreign influence” of non-governmental organizations with Western backing. The law will enter into force on Nov. 20, Tuesday. “I do not know a single human rights organization, which has appealed for being registered as a “foreign agent,” said Lyudmila […]
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(Mikhail Loginov – www.opendemocracy.net – November 2, 2012- Mikhail Loginov is a journalist and novelist based in St. Petersburg. He is the author of the recently published bestselling political thriller “Battle for Kremlin”.) October is Russia’s local election month, and some regions have just elected governors for the first time in seven years, part of an electoral reform designed to […]
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WASHINGTON, November 5 (By Maria Young for RIA Novosti) – If the 2012 US presidential election is close enough in the right states, the winner could be determined in part by a group of voters barely acknowledged on the national political scene: Russian Americans, who number more than three million in the US and overwhelmingly vote Republican. “States where the […]
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Russia: Other Points of View – Gordon M. Hahn – October 24, 2012 – http://www.russiaotherpointsofview.com/2012/10/more-russian-election-intrigue.html Gordon M. Hahn examines recent Russian gubernatorial, legislative assembly, mayoral, and municipal council elections across the country: Russian authorities’ at all levels in the United Russia (UR) party continued use of the infamous ‘administrative resources’; that is, using state institutions to give their party and […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Yulia Ponomareva – October 22, 2012) In contrast with official polls, the transparency of the elections to the opposition’s coordination council has not been questioned by watchdogs and this is beside the fact that all of the candidates faced off in televised debates. The results, however, will have little if any practical effect […]
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Kremlin.ru – October 15, 2012 – photo is a file photo Meeting with Central Election Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region Mr Churov briefed Vladimir Putin on the results of elections held in a number of regions around the country. Local and regional elections took place in 77 regions around Russia on a single voting day on October 14. […]
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(“The voters do not show interest in the gubernatorial elections “- ITAR-TASS – RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW – October 15, 2012 –http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/546081.html) ITAR-TASS reports on recent regional elections in Russia, termed “dirtier” than the December election and characterized by allegedly low official turnout: On Sunday, the Single Voting Day was held in Russia. The elections and referenda at various levels were […]
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Russian elections preserve Putin’s dominance, opponents cry foul – Reuters – Gabriela Baczynska and Maria Tsvetkova – October 14, 2012 – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/14/us-russia-elections-idUSBRE89D0GC20121014 Reuters covers Russia’s recent regional elections. Vladimir Putin-backed ruling party United Russia came out on top, but amidst widespread allegations of voting violations: The first big elections since Putin began a new six-year term in May will do […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, 14 October) Russian Prime Minister and One Russia (United Russia) (ruling party) leader Dmitriy Medvedev has said that, judging by preliminary results, the party did better in the (regional) elections held on Sunday (14 October) than in the election to the Russian State Duma (in December 2011). “Regarding elections results in the regions where vote count has […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov – October 15, 2012) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies dominated Russia’s first gubernatorial elections in eight years that opposition parties said were marred by abuses. The ruling United Russia party’s candidates won all five races for governor and six local legislative contests, according to preliminary results announced today by officials from local election commissions […]
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MOSCOW, October 12 (Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti) – Russians vote in regional elections on Sunday from the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad to the Pacific coast, but with the focus firmly on the heated battle for ballots in a small Moscow satellite city. The nationwide polls are the most important in Russia since Vladimir Putin was elected to a third presidential […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov and Anton Doroshev – October 12, 2012) Russia’s regional elections, including the first gubernatorial polls in eight years, are testing President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to reassert control after the largest protests in more than a decade. Contenders backed by the ruling United Russia party may suffer setbacks in at least 10 mayoral and local […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – October 4, 2012 President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a law introducing a single voting day for regional and federal elections, a measure that opposition politicians said was illegal and would benefit the ruling party. Meanwhile, the Central Elections Commission proposed restrictions on how people can take photographs and make video recordings […]
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Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow – October 5, 2012 A round of 73 regional and municipal elections that start on October 14 will be the first real test for Russia’s nascent protest movement. The first protests were sparked by popular outrage to rigged Duma elections last December and were followed by large crowds protesting against […]
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By Helena Bedwell and Henry Meyer – Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – September 28, 2012 Public outcry over the rape and beating of prisoners in a Georgian prison is threatening the nine-year rule of U.S. ally President Mikheil Saakashvili in Oct. 1 parliamentary elections. While Saakashvili’s ruling party held a lead of more than 20 percentage points in a poll conducted […]
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MOSCOW. Sept 20 (Interfax) – The independent election monitor Golos is searching for Russian sponsors to substitute grants from the closing Moscow office of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Golos said some of its projects were endangered by the USAID pullout. “Nevertheless, we will continue election monitoring no matter what,” says the Golos statement received by Interfax […]
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