It's working

The Russian political system has shown resistance to the crisis

The choice is made

The main result of the past regional elections is that they went smoothly. Normal, as in pre-crisis times. And what is important is that the vote was not a protest, as the opposition had hoped. People actively and responsibly elected their representatives to Legislative Assemblies and local governments. The organizer of the hotline for reporting election violations, member of the Public Chamber Andrei Przhezdomsky, explained that there were practically no signals of violations of the electoral rights of citizens. Even the eternally skeptical representatives of the European Parliament stated the same thing.
– The elections in Russia were organized at a high level. Everything was fine. The voting took place in a similar way to how it happens in European countries,” summed up the former Prime Minister of Poland, Leszek Miller.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was at first loudly indignant at the results of his party, but then became quiet, because, despite the modest percentage of support in seven of the nine regions where local parliaments were elected, the LDPR still overcame the electoral threshold.
Even the eternally dissatisfied communists abandoned their traditional parallel counting of votes, admitting that the numbers in the final protocols from polling stations correspond to those announced by the Central Election Commission.

“We have confirmed the status of the second political force in the country,” First Deputy Chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Central Committee Ivan Melnikov rejoiced with restraint. “And they not only confirmed it, but also strengthened it thanks to voters. Out of nine regions, we have six second places. We are observing a good trend: in all regions we have improved the result that we had in these regions in the elections to the State Duma, and in some places we have improved it qualitatively and significantly.
The Socialist-Revolutionaries are also pleased, they confidently took third place, ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party by almost 2%. Even such a young party as Right Cause managed to participate in elections in 6 regions and receive 16 mandates. And it’s even more sinful to complain to United Russia, which received the support of two-thirds of regional voters - an absolute majority.

Cities are for the “bears”

United Russia's strength was tested in 79 regions at 3,360 elections and referendums at various levels. As a result, it was the party in power that won the majority of votes in nine regions where local parliaments were formed. In the Republic of Tatarstan she received 79.5% support, in Kabardino-Balkaria - 72.3%, and in Karachay-Cherkessia - another 69.7%. Moreover, in each of the 9 regions, United Russia members improved their results compared to the previous elections to local Legislative Assemblies (see chart).
United Russia also won the elections of mayors of 10 administrative centers of the country's constituent entities. In six cities, “bears” have already headed the administration, and in three more, candidates from the party in power will have to go through the second round. A United Russia member also became the mayor of Smolensk, although he ran for elections as a self-nominated candidate.
It was the self-nominated candidates who became the main competitors of United Russia in the elections of heads of 689 municipalities. If the “bears” received 59.8% of the votes, then self-nominated candidates received 35.12%. This is significant - voters voted for those who truly protect their interests at the lowest, district level.
For comparison, other parties could not gain even a percentage: the Socialist Revolutionaries - 0.29%, the Zhirinovites - 0.15%, the Communists - 0. In total, according to the results of the municipal elections, United Russia occupied 412 of the 619 seats of heads of entities and received 9,002 deputy mandates out of 12,685 possible (which is 70.97%).

“So far, the only ones who are responding to the challenges of the global economic crisis are the authorities and their party,” political scientist Dmitry Orlov explained this result. “This is the only political force capable of organizing society and mobilizing bureaucrats to fight the crisis. And citizens see this.

But the whole point is that the crisis has not yet managed to become part of the daily lives of citizens and have a decisive influence on the course of the electoral process. In fact, the March elections followed the same pre-crisis scenario as the elections to the State Duma more than a year ago. If unemployment continues to rise and living standards fall, it is unlikely that support for the party in power will remain as unconditional.

Fight for credit

However, the crisis is already beginning to have an impact on the political struggle. Two years ago, support for United Russia in the regions was 46%, but compared to the Duma elections, the party did not increase its electoral capital by much - from 64.3 to 66%.
In some regions, United Russia performed without the announced brilliance at all. In the by-elections to the Tver City Council, for example, they only got a consoling second place. In the context of growing protest sentiments as a result of the global economic crisis, an increase in the level of support for the left opposition was noted in the elections. Thus, compared to the regional elections in October last year, the share of Communist Party supporters increased by almost 5%. In some regions, United Russia was even supplanted by the Liberal Democrats.

But, according to the general director of the PR Management group, Maxim Grigoriev, it is too early to call these cases a defeat:
– Experience shows that United Russia always takes revenge where it loses: this was the case in Stavropol, and this time it happened in the “communist” Vladimir region, where United Russia now has an absolute majority in the regional parliament.

However, with the qualitative development of the crisis, the ruling party still risks suffering quantitative losses in government.
“The votes we received in these elections indicate a new credit of trust received by United Russia and the government as a whole,” explained Vyacheslav Volodin, secretary of the presidium of the party’s general council.

But the loan will have to be repaid. And given the current economic situation, sooner rather than later. So far, the voter believes that United Russia is capable of carrying out effective anti-crisis measures. However, once you fail to justify the loan received, people can give it to other applicants, since there are plenty of people who want to oust United Russia members in the government.