"Opposition from Above"

Are signs of a real multi-party system appearing in Russia?

About how the victory of the candidate from the Party of Life over the candidate from United Russia in the elections of the mayor of Samara will affect the development of the party system in the country and whether the authorities will be able to keep under control the party projects they themselves created, Vremya Novostey correspondent Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA was told by representatives of the leading political parties of the country.

"This is not a victory for the Party of Life"

Valery RYAZANSKY, deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma:

— I don’t think that the results of the elections for the mayor of Samara can be assessed as a confrontation between United Russia and the Party of Life. Georgy Limansky joined United Russia at the very last moment; before that he had not been associated with it. And the election results can be assessed not as a victory for the Party of Life, but as a victory for those who voted against Limansky. Apparently, this candidate did not turn out to be optimally successful for us. There is no structured organization of the Party of Life in the Samara region, and the past elections to the legislative assembly did not show any results there. Therefore, here we still need to talk about the struggle of personalities. In Russia, a two-party system may develop in the future, but I think that some forces to the left of this spectrum will appear, associated with pronounced social democrats.

"Real political competition in Russia is quite possible"

Nikolai LEVICHEV, deputy chairman of the Russian Party of Life:

- It was not the Party of Life that defeated United Russia, but Viktor Tarkhov defeated Georgy Limansky. It's a big difference. Limansky joined United Russia recently, and this was the biggest mistake on the part of United Russia. Because such political repositioning in favor of the political situation went against the will of the voters. Voters understood perfectly well that this union was inorganic, that there was an easy political swindle going on here. In the sense that Mr. Limansky was going to inflate his rating at the expense of the party in power, and the party in power wanted to inflate its political results at the expense of such a strong business executive as Mr. Limansky was considered. Both of them made a political mistake, which could not be compensated for by any sophisticated electoral technologies, even the dirtiest ones. In general, if we talk about the party system in Russia, we advocate a multi-party system. And if it so happens that one party is dominant, as it is commonly called, then in the interests of the entire society and in the interests of the development of the state, the processes of political competition should be stimulated. The elections in Samara just showed that real political competition in Russia is quite possible. This was demonstrated by the residents of Samara, ensuring an unprecedented turnout for elections in this region in nine years. They showed that the people cannot be intimidated, they cannot be deceived, they will figure everything out.

"This is a temporary two-clan confrontation"

Ivan MELNIKOV, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, State Duma deputy:

— I think that talking about bipartisanship in relation to “United Russia” and the Russian Party of Life with its allies is superficial and premature, this is an everyday idea. I would use different terms here. This is not a desire to offend anyone, I’m just talking about the essence of what is happening, as I see it. In my opinion, this is rather a temporary two-clan confrontation that will last until bets are made regarding the candidacy of a successor. This two-clan confrontation is expressed not in political party competition, but primarily in an administrative and financial battle. And the citizen here is not a voter, but an object of mutual manipulation in a tug-of-war. I agree with the “Samara thesis” of the Party of Life that the myth of popular support for “United Russia” has been dispelled. But I agree not because their candidate won, but because there really wasn’t and isn’t any such support. Let me explain: taking into account the low turnout, taking into account the colossal protest vote, the real percentage of citizens voting for United Russia is very low. After all, the 40-50% that they gain in different regions is only from a small number of voters today. In reality this is very little. At the same time, I am confident that United Russia’s statements that there were numerous violations and falsifications in Samara are grounded. However, all this looks exclusively like the scenario “darlings are scolding - they’re just having fun.” Because the roots of both United Russia and the Party of Life are the same - the current government. But the main problem is that, growing branches from the same tree, it is impossible to rely on different electoral soils. In this sense, if we talk about bipartisan confrontation in some form, then I agree with the point of view of Oleg Morozov, a member of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party, that this is rather a confrontation between United Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

We ourselves spoke about this picture, about a kind of two-story struggle between “United Russia”, closer to the authorities, and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, closer to the people, at the March plenum of the Central Committee. And for now we do not move away from this vision of the situation, although we consider the Party of Life to be an opponent and competitor, playing on the sentiments of socially oriented voters. In general, the confrontation between United Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church is doomed either to the speedy victory of one structure over the other - in the event of a victory of one part of the power elite over the other, or to their reunification at a new stage. As for the “vertical of power,” then, of course, a crisis awaits it. It is difficult to say in what form it will take place.

"We are the only country in the world where the opposition is created from above"

Alexey MITROFANOV, deputy of the LDPR faction in the State Duma:

- The two-party system itself is normal. But we are probably the only country in the world where the opposition is created openly from above, and artificially, using administrative resources. It will end the way everything created from above usually ends. We already had a bloc of Ivan Rybkin, the party of Viktor Chernomyrdin, “Democratic Choice of Russia”. And where are they now? This is a repetition of the same experiment. The “Fatherland-All Russia” party is a different matter; it was created from life, albeit also with the use of administrative resources. But this was a certain political situation, a struggle, the outcome of which no one could predict. Everything must be born naturally. If at least the LDPR had managed to take second place in Russian party life, given its history, it would be understandable. And so all these new formations will exist for some time. But then they will collapse. A party created from above must know that its life lasts only as long as the people who created it are in power.

"The confrontation between the two parties in power will not be a problem for the government itself"

Sergei MITROKHIN, deputy chairman of the Yabloko party:

- I don’t think that the confrontation between the two parties in power will result in any problem for the government itself. Why is one party in power worse than another? They are not much different from each other. And the task is to pull votes away from independent parties. And this task is being successfully solved, because when the administrative resource works for United Russia, there is still room for non-administrative parties. And when this new party with a complex name joins in, there is no room left for other parties, as the regional elections clearly showed. They revealed a decrease in the percentage of almost all non-administrative parties that come from society. Therefore, I don’t see any problem for the authorities. In some regions there will be deputies and mayors from United Russia, in others - from the Party of Life. The difference between them is mainly role-playing. In some regions the Party of Life plays opposition. In other regions it wins. For example, in Samara. Well, if there is another party in power there instead of United Russia, the authorities have nothing to worry about. The fact that some pawns on the board are exchanged for others is a tragedy only for those pawns that were exchanged. But in order to create a full-fledged two-party system in the country, it is necessary to first create at least just a party system. Managed administrative parties have nothing to do with a multi-party system. It is necessary to remove all administrative resources from elections and put all parties on equal terms. Then a party system will be created that will truly work for the development of the country, and not for its degradation, as it is now.