Russia's bid for 'competitive' elections

As 14 Russian regions prepare to hold local elections slated for March 11, the country's electoral system appears to have the healthy glow of democracy. Two Kremlin-backed parties, Fair Russia and United Russia, are competing smoothly against each other in the full glare of media coverage.

But in what some see as a full dress rehearsal for December's parliamentary polls, other parties complain they are being blacked-out and even stricken from the ballot in some cases. For example, in St. Petersburg, the centrist Yabloko party was barred from running because of a lack of substantiation of signatures on its registration papers.

"The authorities are doing their best to prevent us from taking part in elections, especially in places where we have the best chances," says Sergei Mitrokhin, Yabloko's deputy chair. "The legislation now in place permits authorities to bar any party from participating in elections, and they are using this to eliminate any real opposition. In this situation, it hardly matters which of the two 'parties of power' end up with the most votes."

Welcome to Russian democracy, version 2.0. Experts say that Russia's old party system, which developed during the freewheeling 1990s, is being phased out through tough legislation and administrative crackdowns. In its place is forming a field of two – and maybe three – giant, pro-Kremlin "virtual parties" that are expected to dominate the landscape thanks to backing from the government and the state-run media.

Fair Russia, a self-described left-wing party, says its goal is to displace the opposition Communists. The centrist United Russia, established five years ago to "support President Vladimir Putin," already controls a majority of seats in the State Duma and many local legislatures. Experts say that there are also plans to create a Kremlin-friendly liberal party, to be named Free Russia, tasked with squeezing out the independent Yabloko party and the Union of Right Forces.

"Voters are being invited into a Soviet-style shopping experience, where you can choose from two kinds of white bread and two kinds of brown bread," says Boris Makarenko, deputy director of the Center for Political Technologies, an independent Moscow think tank. "It's an imitation system. The Kremlin is skillfully constructing an entirely democratic facade."

Most experts predict that Fair Russia, which was created in October by folding together three smaller parties, will rocket to second place in Russia's parliamentary polls this December, even though many people on the street do not – yet – even recognize its name.

Reclining in a wood-paneled conference room in the party's plush and spacious downtown Moscow headquarters, Politburo Secretary Nikolai Levichev doesn't deny that Fair Russia's explosive debut on Russia's political stage might owe something to Kremlin sponsorship.

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