Post by Jaga on Dec 2, 2007 23:50:13 GMT -7
Russians want to have a strong leader and stable country. Democracy is less important....
MOSCOW - Long foretold as a certainty, the mass electoral benediction bestowed on President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party paradoxically opens the door to an uncertain future for Russia, analysts said.
There has been little question for years about who controls the world’s largest nation and Sunday’s elections for the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, only loudly repeated what everyone already knew.
United Russia won more 63 percent of the vote, the Central Elections Commission said Monday with more than three-quarters of ballots counted.
But if the vote shouted the answer to one question it simultaneously raised with growing urgency a host of others about how this nuclear superpower will be governed 16 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“It is difficult enough even to analyse what has happened, let alone forecast what could happen next,” said Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director of the USA Canada Institute, a respected Russian political think tank.
“We all know that United Russia is the big winner. But so what? What does this solve? So they win and Putin remains the national leader. So what does this do? They don’t seem to have a clear idea of where to go,” he said.
It is this question — what on earth does Putin and the party constructed around him intend to do with its uncontested lock on all authority in Russia? -- that Sunday’s election results only begin to ask in a concrete way.
“Putin says it is a kind of vote of confidence in him,” said Yevgeny Volk, a well-known political analyst with the conservative Washington-based Heritage Foundation think tank.
“Naturally he would like to use this victory, that is convincing, as a kind of endorsement for his political future — whatever it is.”
It is that “whatever it is” that disturbs a handful of Russian campaigners and Western governments, as many ordinary Russians hope simply for the improvement in living standards they have seen under Putin to continue.
One thing Putin has made clear is that he does not plan to leave politics any time soon
www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2007/December/theworld_December77.xml§ion=theworld&col=
MOSCOW - Long foretold as a certainty, the mass electoral benediction bestowed on President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party paradoxically opens the door to an uncertain future for Russia, analysts said.
There has been little question for years about who controls the world’s largest nation and Sunday’s elections for the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, only loudly repeated what everyone already knew.
United Russia won more 63 percent of the vote, the Central Elections Commission said Monday with more than three-quarters of ballots counted.
But if the vote shouted the answer to one question it simultaneously raised with growing urgency a host of others about how this nuclear superpower will be governed 16 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“It is difficult enough even to analyse what has happened, let alone forecast what could happen next,” said Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director of the USA Canada Institute, a respected Russian political think tank.
“We all know that United Russia is the big winner. But so what? What does this solve? So they win and Putin remains the national leader. So what does this do? They don’t seem to have a clear idea of where to go,” he said.
It is this question — what on earth does Putin and the party constructed around him intend to do with its uncontested lock on all authority in Russia? -- that Sunday’s election results only begin to ask in a concrete way.
“Putin says it is a kind of vote of confidence in him,” said Yevgeny Volk, a well-known political analyst with the conservative Washington-based Heritage Foundation think tank.
“Naturally he would like to use this victory, that is convincing, as a kind of endorsement for his political future — whatever it is.”
It is that “whatever it is” that disturbs a handful of Russian campaigners and Western governments, as many ordinary Russians hope simply for the improvement in living standards they have seen under Putin to continue.
One thing Putin has made clear is that he does not plan to leave politics any time soon
www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2007/December/theworld_December77.xml§ion=theworld&col=
