Despite Intimidation and Ballot-Rigging, Putin’s Vote Was Down From Previous Polls

To: NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: Laura Osio, media relations manager of the Cato Institute, +1-202-789-5200, losio@cato.org

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Andrei Illarionov, Cato Institute Senior Fellow and former advisor to Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, released the following statement on Russias parliamentary election held on December 2:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is celebrating his partys parliamentary win but in spite of the harassment of the opposition and a dirty campaign that used the full power of the Kremlin to achieve victory, Putins vote was down significantly from previous elections.

The regime used its full political, administrative, judicial and financial power to pressure its political opponents. It violated massively the electoral laws and the Russian Constitution during the whole campaign including on the day of vote. It undertook massive ballot rigging around the country. In some regions, for example, in the Mordova Republic, the Putin-headed United Russia party collected more than 99 percent of the total vote. In one district, only five votes out of 2347 eligible votes were cast for the opposition.

But in spite of all of this intimidation Putins vote dropped. In the 2004 presidential election almost 50 million citizens voted for Vladimir Putin. In the 2007 parliamentary election presented to the public and organized by the regime as a referendum on Mr. Putin, only 43 million people voted for the incumbent, almost 7 million, or 14% less than 4 years ago.

Bearing in mind an unbelievably dirty public campaign of terrorizing the electorate, it is clear that the real support of the Russian president should be revised down — by many millions.

The very fact that with all the might of the government machine, the FSB and other secret police intrusive operations, storm-trooper brigades harassing political opponents, Vladimir Putin nevertheless has got less votes than he collected in the much more competitive 2004 presidential election, and very probably less votes than even in the 2000 presidential election, is a heavy blow for him personally and his authoritarian regime.

That may well explain the heavy presence of the military and the intelligence services on the streets of Moscow since the official poll results. With support for Putin waning in reality, the Russian President has no other choice, if he wishes to continue as an anti- democrat, but to escalate the repression against political opponents and critics of his regime. Of course, he could elect to cease his manipulation of Russian politics and to step down from power when his term ends next year.

The Cato Institute is a nonpartisan public policy research foundation dedicated to broadening policy debate consistent with the traditional American principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace.

SOURCE Cato Institute

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