Duma Mania

Duma Mania

Shuffling the Deck, Jockeying for Position

Duma elections (see Russian Life, Sep/Oct 2003) are set for December 7. In the final weeks of the nationwide electoral race, key players have been hastily changing names and forming new blocs. Life and Rebirth became as one when The Party of Life, headed by Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov, agreed to form an electoral bloc with the Party of Russia’s Rebirth, led by State Duma Chairman Gennady Seleznev. The chairmen have managed to attract a very interesting mix of public figures into their new bloc. Among them are the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Bolshoi theatersoloist Nikolai Baskov, and ex-Miss Universe and Interior Ministry officer Oksana Fyodorova.

Meanwhile, Liberal Russia’s co-chairman, Viktor Pokhmelkin, has formed a bloc with the Republican Party, headed by former Finance Minister Boris Fyodorov, and with Forward, Russia, headed by Vladimir Lysenko. Their electoral bloc, which also includes the Movement of Car Drivers of Russia, has been named New Course-Automotive Russia. Pokhmelkin’s deputy and vice-president of the Movement of Car Drivers is lawyer Leonid Olshansky, popular among drivers and car-owners for his relentless battles with traffic police officials, who are universally loathed for their extortion of traffic fines.

Duma deputies Sergei Glazyev and Dmitry Rogozin have formed a leftist bloc called Motherland National-Patriotic Union. The bloc is composed of the Party of Russia’s Regions, the Socialist Unity Party of Russia, and the People’s Will Party, headed by Sergei Baburin. Economist and communist Glazyev, who fell out with KPRF leader Zyuganov earlier this year, pro-Kremlin chairman of the Duma Committee for International Affairs Rogozin, and 1991 coup plotter Valentin Varennikov will occupy the top three spots on the bloc’s election list, respectively. Experts suggest that the new coalition has been tasked by the Kremlin to rob the Communists of as many votes as possible.

A number of not very well-known “patriotic” parties have formed the Great Russia-Eurasian Union bloc, whose party list is topped by the Secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union Pavel Borodin, former Ingush President Ruslan Aushev and retired General and acting vice-president of the Academy of Geopolitics, Leonid Ivashov. The bloc also boasts hockey star Pavel Bure, who is number 4 on its list.

The major parties have also made public the top slots on their party lists, revealing quite a bit about their respective electoral strategies.

The Communists’ list is topped by the party’s never-changing leader, Gennady Zyuganov, with the second slot held by Nikolai Kondratenko, the former governor of Krasnodarsky krai who is now a senator, and who is notorious for his anti-Semitic remarks. The third position is held by Nikolai Kharitonov, recently expelled from the Agrarian party, apparently positioned there to attract some of the rural electorate.

The Communists’ only significant rival, Unified Russia, scores highest in opinion polls and enjoys the support of the Kremlin and President Putin. The party list is topped by Interior Ministry Boris Gryzlov (also party head), head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev. Unified Russia’s list is packed with government officials, who, according to the law on elections, must go on leave from the time that the party list is registered until after elections are over. But, as this issue was going to press, many seemed unwilling to do so.

The party list of the liberal Union of Right Forces (SPS) is headed by SPS leader Boris Nemtsov, Duma Deputy Speaker Irina Khakamada, and the head of Unified Energy Systems (EES), Anatoly Chubais.

Chubais is an interesting choice, as he is quite unpopular among a large section of the electorate for raising energy tariffs. On the other hand, he could galvanize anti-Duma support, as that body has unsuccessfully sought his ouster 62 times. Chubais has said he does not intend to become a deputy, but has added his name to the list to help SPS earn more votes. According to surveys by the Public Opinion Foundation, 8% of the electorate view Chubais positively.

The other major liberal party, Yabloko, has given its top three spots to its leader Grigory Yavlinsky and to Duma deputies Vladimir Lukin and Igor Artemiev. The excruciating courtship dance between Yabloko and SPS this summer came to naught (talks resulted in little but conflict and mutual recriminations) and the two liberal parties were unable to form a common strategy for the Duma elections.

The party list of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) is topped by its notorious leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and by two other candidates, who are not nearly as well-known to the general public: Colonel Pavel Chernov of the Federal Security Service reserves and Aleksei Ostrovsky, an aide to the LDPR’s Duma faction.

The Agrarian Party, whose Duma faction leader Nikolai Kharitonov has abandoned it for the more successful Communists, has announced it will not form blocs with any other party and will participate in the elections independently. Its party list is topped by its head Mikhail Lapshin, head of the Altai region Duma Alexander Nazdratenko (formerly, and infamously, of the Scandal in Vladivostok) and the party’s deputy head, Aleksei Chepa.

The People’s Party, which is, according to the head of the Effective Politics Foundation, Gleb Pavlovsky, backed by the Kremlin’s silovoki clan, has topped its list with party leader Gennady Raikov, Colonel General Gennady Troshev, a former commander of Russian forces in Chechnya who is now the presidential adviser for Cossack affairs, and Nikolai Derzhavin, an aide to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexii II. The People’s Party was formed in 2001 from the Duma group People’s Deputy, which included 62 independent deputies. The party calls itself “left-centrist” and, according to the experts, enjoys the support of the Kremlin, just like Unified Russia.

Moscow mayoral elections will be held on the same day as the Duma vote. Current Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is widely expected to win a third term. His only declared rival is State Duma Deputy Aleksei Mitrofanov and member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Other major parties, namely the Communists, Union of Right Forces and Grigory Yavlinsky’s Yabloko said they decided not to waste energy and resources on the mayoral race. In 1996, Luzhkov was elected with over 90% of the vote; in 1999, he was reelected with 70%.

— Lina Rozovskaya