The Russia Blog
Moscow is gearing itself up for more protests and rallies on 23 February. Approval has already been given for two large rallies – one pro-Putin and one pro-Communist – and decisions are due shortly on a number of other rallies.
What are the political parties doing?
Saturday saw Muscovites take to the streets in a duelling pair of rallies expressing both support and opposition for Vladimir Putin and his campaign to return to the Russian Presidency.
The rallies attracted between 75,000 and 200,000 people in total, but no-one really knows for sure how many attended. With all the different claims and… Read the rest
The Central Election Commission (CEC) has confirmed liberal Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky and independent candidate Dmitry Mezentsev will not be allowed to enter the 2012 Russian Presidential Election.
Although both candidates claimed that they had obtained the 2 million signatures needed for a candidate from a party not represented in the Duma to secure a… Read the rest
Outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev used his final State of the Nation address to promise a “comprehensive reform” of Russia’s political system.
Key proposals include directly elected regional governors, making it much easier for new political parties to register for parliamentary and presidential elections, and a form of proportional representation in the State Duma.… Read the rest
It’s been a busy few days for Russian elections news, so I thought I’d roundup a few of the key stories that caught my eye.
Webcams in every polling station
In his recent marathon TV interview, Vladimir Putin proposed placing webcams in every single polling station during March’s Presidential election. The proposal came in reaction… Read the rest
After an enforced break (a doctor jabbed a very sharp needle into my thumb joint – long story) TWiRB is back to update you on what Russia bloggers have been talking about in the last week – which as it turns out was one of the most interesting weeks in Russia for ages.
As there’s… Read the rest
Mikhail Prokhorov’s dramatic entry into the 2012 Russian Presidential race has caused confusion among analysts. Put simply, no-one can fathom why Russia’s third richest man would want to have another stab at entering Russian politics.
After his humiliating failure this summer – Prokhorov announced to great fanfare that he would turn Right Cause into a… Read the rest
United Russia won 49.54% of the popular vote in this weekend’s Duma Election, which was just enough to secure it an overall majority in the Duma.
By and large, election observers felt that the ballot itself was run fairly across the country, BUT, there were a few ballots in which the results were just absurd.… Read the rest
The big story of this year’s Russian Duma election is that United Russia’s share of the vote has dropped below the psychologically critical 50% mark. With 95% of ballots counted, United Russia has 49.67% of votes which, because of the 7% threshold needed for parties to enter Russia’s Duma, means that United Russia will actually… Read the rest
The 2011 Russian Duma elections are underway today.
Results (even preliminary results) are not expected until late this evening and tomorrow. United Russia, the party led by Vladimir Putin, has slipped slightly in the polls recently and is expected to lose the constitutional supermajority that it currently holds – it is, however, still expected… Read the rest
In an odd piece of news, Marina Smirnova, a candidate for the A Just Russia party, has been barred from standing as a candidate in this year’s Russian Duma elections. The story is notable because Smirnova is the daughter in law of Igor Smirnov, the leader of Transnistria (the breakaway Moldovan republic that has,… Read the rest
