“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

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Can Russia's Communist Party
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But in addition to the fraud storyline marking United Russia again, low voter
turn-out should be seen as a rejection of Russia’s regained status as a one-
Most
NEWS
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
Why Best B
was an independent party. This September was a stark reminder of that Business...
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.
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2. Can Russia's Communist Party Make A Comeback? - Forbes Page 2 of 6
How To Be
Putin first came to power when Boris Yeltsin chose him as his Prime Minister Simple Ste
in 1999. Putin became Russia’s second president soon after. From 2000
onward, oil prices rose and blessed the Russian economy with loads of money. K
New York
Russia is dependent on oil and gas. It’s the country’s main commodity and a
government cash cow. It was all good times, and in 2004, Putin was re- The Seven
elected. Unsuccess
“People have forgotten how crappy it was under Yeltsin and before Yeltsin How To Liv
now. Under Putin’s first two terms we saw a huge jump in living standards, Life
but not anymore. It’s harder to replicate. Income divides are widening.
Medvedev is seen as a wimp. Sunday’s vote wasn’t 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.
It’s 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. I covered Brazi
the last
Voters are mostly fed up with corruption. Transparency International ranks for Dow Jones,
Russia as the most corrupt of the big emerging markets, even more corrupt Me
and with a
than some countries in Africa. parachuting int
if A
“Russian political leaders don’t seem too worried about corruption,” said
The
Shan Nair, founder of Nair & Company, an international business consulting are
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. It’s not even K EN NE T H RAP
discussed seriously in Russia.” Obama
Awaits
Whether or not people are waking up to crony capitalism in Russia remains to Rubber
be seen, but young people did take to the streets on Monday and again on 265,273 views
Tuesday to protest political foul play. Earthquake
Kyodo
That’s a story line that Putin will have to deal with carefully. The government The
has orchestrated the Putin image as Russia’s James Bond — bold, decisive Where
and even sexy. 35,972 views
The current protests don’t bode well for the more media friendly youth M ORE FROM
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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3. Can Russia's Communist Party Make A Comeback? - Forbes Page 3 of 6
Ukraine, where young people protested against voter fraud in the presidential
elections there. Kenneth
Show all activity
“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 Comment
youth movement,” said Olena Nikolayenko, a political science professor at
Fordham 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. It’s a new image problem for Putin,
New Post
and the ‘political technologists’ will have to deal with that. The problem is the
Communist Party doesn’t have the charismatic political leaders who could
take Putin to a second round vote in March,” she said. For Russian political
New Post
youth groups, the best case scenario has them modernizing the Communist
Party to be more like a social democratic/Chinese developmentalist hybrid.
That won’t happen before next year’s election.
New Post
Putin’s 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 don’t 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 next
president, Arizona Senator John McCain told National Public Radio Tuesday
morning.
Sunday’s 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 won’t 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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4. Can Russia's Communist Party Make A Comeback? - Forbes Page 4 of 6
See: Moscow Sees Second Night Of Election Protests–Ria Novosti
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ch2forbes 1 month ago
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 don’t have an in
depth paper online. Policy listing isnt action. Government’s role is to govern and if you
don’t 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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