BRUSSELS — The European Union used a summit with Russia today to highlight concerns over claims of massive fraud during this month’s Russian parliamentary elections. Russia’s December 4 State Duma elections and their aftermath — including the detention of demonstrators — were not officially on the agenda of the summit, which otherwise focused on economic [...]
Tag: state duma elections
December 16, 2011
December 12, 2011
‘Prokhorov seeks to articulate the democratic mood’
Mikhail Prokhorov’s decision to run in next year’s presidential election may signal a new era of political pluralism in Russia. And while the billionaire’s shot at victory is uncertain, experts say the Russian electorate will win out come March When billionaire entrepreneur and New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov was elected to head the Right [...]
December 12, 2011
Russian billionaire challenges Putin for Kremlin
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov announced on Monday that he would challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the upcoming presidential elections next March. In order to register, Prokhorov needs either to be nominated by any of the existing seven registered political parties or needs to collect 2 million signatures in support of his bid. The billionaire [...]
December 11, 2011
Medvedev dismissed most Saturday protesters’ demands
President Dmitry Medvedev disagreed Sunday with the demands of the tens of thousands of Russians who took to the streets the day before in protest over the results and alleged fraud at the Dec. 4 legislative elections. “People have a right to express their position as they did yesterday. I disagree with slogans and claims [...]
December 11, 2011
Adygeya Republic Head Nominated For Second Term
Caucasus Report Adygeya’s Aslan Tkhakushinov at his swearing-in ceremony in Maikop in 2007 December 09, 2011 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has nominated Aslan Tkhakushinov to serve a second term as Republic of Adygeya head, ignoring requests by several prominent opposition figures to replace him. Whether Medvedev’s decision was prompted by the higher-than-average vote in Adygeya [...]
December 11, 2011
A Just Russia nominates pro-Kremlin Mironov for president
The center-left A Just Russia party decided to nominate its leader Sergei Mironov as a candidate for the presidency, the party’s Duma faction leader Nikolay Levichev said on Saturday. “We will fight for access to the second round [of the presidential elections] and we hope to win in the second round,” Levichev said. The second [...]
December 11, 2011
Communists slam Duma vote
The Russian Communist party (KPRF) called Sunday’s parliamentary election illegitimate and pledged to challenge its results in courts, the party said on its official website on Saturday. “KPRF states that the passed State Duma elections were unfair and non-free. We consider them illegitimate from a moral and political point of view,” the statement, signed by [...]
December 9, 2011
Moscow government authorizes 30,000-strong opposition rally
Opposition activists have been allowed to hold a 30,000-strong rally in downtown Moscow on Saturday to protest the results of the December 4 parliamentary elections, a deputy mayor of the Russian capital said. “The rally organizers agreed to hold the rally on Bolotnaya Square offered to them by Moscow authorities in order to ensure that [...]
December 8, 2011
Mayors Resign After Poor Poll Results For United Russia
ULYANOVSK/AKHTUBINSK — The mayors of two Russian cities where the number of votes for the ruling United Russia party in parliamentary elections on December 4 was relatively low have tendered their resignations, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports. Aleksandr Pinkov, mayor of the south-central Russian city of Ulyanovsk, resigned on December 8 after two years in office. [...]
December 8, 2011
Sociologists: Opposition more popular in cyberspace
Most Russians do not trust the non-parliamentary opposition which is now leading an active campaign against alleged falsifications of the State Duma elections, a sociological study has revealed. The survey was conducted by the independent analytical Levada Center a week before the parliamentary election. It showed that 58% of respondents have no trust in the [...]
December 7, 2011
PM Putin pledges cabinet changes after March elections
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged a major reshuffle of federal government and regional governors after presidential elections in March. Putin, who is expected to return to the Kremlin next year, said the first step, a reshuffle of the lower house, had been achieved after Sunday’s parliamentary elections. The elections saw the ruling [...]
December 7, 2011
‘US pins labels:’ Russia slams Clinton over election criticism
The Russian Foreign Ministry shot back at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her criticism that Russia’s elections were neither free nor fair. But as the US attempts to take the moral high ground, their political games seem as dirty as ever. In a strongly-worded statement, Moscow expressed its regret that “Washington is sticking [...]
December 7, 2011
Clinton Tells OSCE That Ex-Soviet Republics Need Democratic Reforms
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pushed for greater democratic reforms and respect for human rights in former Soviet republics — criticizing Russia for a parliamentary election she says was rigged. Speaking in Vilnius at the start of a two-day ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Clinton said [...]
December 7, 2011
Election Observer In Tatarstan Reports Vote Rigging
KAZAN, Russia — An election observer in the Russian republic of Tatarstan says she witnessed several cases of vote rigging at a local polling station in the State Duma elections on December 4, RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service reports. Golnaz Badretdin, who represents the opposition Other Russia party, monitored elections in polling station No. 341 in the [...]