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But in addition to the fraud storyline marking United Russia again, low voterturn-out should be seen as a rejection of Russias regained status as a one-

party town. According to a recent poll by the Levada Center in Moscow, 52%

said United Russia was a political instrument for Putin. Only 30% believed it

was an independent party. This September was a stark reminder of that

political reality, when Medvedev said that he would swap roles with Putin.

Voters saw it as cynical and they turned on both leaders soon after.

INVESTING | 12/06/2011 @ 8:41PM | 2,398 views

Can Russia's Communist PartyMake A Comeback?

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Kenneth Rapoza, Contributor

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Putin first came to power when Boris Yeltsin chose him as his Prime Minister

in 1999. Putin became Russias second president soon after. From 2000

onward, oil prices rose and blessed the Russian economy with loads of money.

Russia is dependent on oil and gas. Its the countrys main commodity and a

government cash cow. It was all good times, and in 2004, Putin was re-elected.

People have forgotten how crappy it was under Yeltsin and before Yeltsin

now. Under Putins first two terms we saw a huge jump in living standards,

but not anymore. Its harder to replicate. Income divides are widening.

Medvedev is seen as a wimp. Sundays vote wasnt the start of a rebellion, but

it was a sign of disenchantment with the Kremlin, said Walter Connor, an

international relations professor at Boston University.

Its not that Russians are angry about economic policy, or unemployment.

The economy is not growing as fast as the other big emerging markets, but as

Putin has pointed out, it is doing better than it did under the Communists.

Voters are mostly fed up with corruption. Transparency International ranks

Russia as the most corrupt of the big emerging markets, even more corrupt

than some countries in Africa.

Russian political leaders dont seem too worried about corruption, said

Shan Nair, founder of Nair & Company, an international business consulting

firm with clients in Russia. Corruption is a major political issue in India this

year, for example, and all the politicians are talking about it. Its not even

discussed seriously in Russia.

Whether or not people are waking up to crony capitalism in Russia remains to

be seen, but young people did take to the streets on Monday and again on

Tuesday to protest political foul play.

Thats a story line that Putin will have to deal with carefully. The government

has orchestrated the Putin image as Russias James Bond bold, decisive

and even sexy.

The current protests dont bode well for the more media friendly youth

movement, known as the Nashi, which means ours in Russia. Nashi was set

up by the government as a response to the Orange Revolution in 2004

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Ukraine, where young people protested against voter fraud in the presidential

elections there.

The Kremlin realized young people could effectively mobilize and cause a

problem to the political power system so they created the Nashi to co-opt the

youth movement, said Olena Nikolayenko, a political science professor atFordham University. Some of the pro-Putin rallies you see with young kids

singing happy birthday to him are probably just from Nashi. These election

show discontent across the age groups. Its a new image problem for Putin,

and the political technologists will have to deal with that. The problem is the

Communist Party doesnt have the charismatic political leaders who could

take Putin to a second round vote in March, she said. For Russian political

youth groups, the best case scenario has them modernizing the Communist

Party to be more like a social democratic/Chinese developmentalist hybrid.

That wont happen before next years election.

Putins challengers are Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party, Sergei

Mironov of A Just Russia Party, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal

Democratic Party. A Levada Center poll shows they dont have a chance.

When asked which political party represented their political interests, United

Russia got 30%. The Communists got 11%; Liberal Democrats 8% and A Just

Russia received 5%.

United Russia maintains the leader in the parliament. Putin will be the nextpresident, Arizona Senator John McCain told National Public Radio Tuesday

morning.

Sundays vote means Putin can no longer count on the elections going

smoothly without proposing a serious election program. United Russia at

least looks weaker and the three other parliamentary parties look stronger

than they did before the election. But a Communists comeback wont take

them to the presidency next year.

The only party that has Western friendly policies is United Russia and that is

one reason why people keep voting for them, said Harris. The social liberal

opposition is like the Greens or the Libertarian party in the U.S., they have no

power in parliamentary politics. If they wanted to put a guy on the ballot they

would need two million signatures. And then the Kremlin could just say a few

of them were phoney and dismiss the whole thing.

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Comments

The problem for the communist party in russia or anywhere where the global market of

economic capitalism exist is the ability to functionalize their philosophy. Lets assume the

wealthy the ridiculously wealthy of Russia would allow the communist party to

implement an economic socialist plan on Russian society, what would it look like? Has

the communist party of russia ever defined it online or in a video or in some fashion? the

problem with nearly all modern governmental philosophical parties is the lack of true

planning. The Greens in the USA never explain exactly what they would do. We know

what they want to accomplish but direct actions are rarely noted and dont have an in

depth paper online. Policy listing isnt action. Governments role is to govern and if you

dont have a structured and in depth set of actions for your philosophy, then the

corruption of the government under your party is eventuality.http://voices.yahoo.com/the-end-dynasties-beginning-ones-10267305.html?cat=9

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