Medvedev's Secret Weapon

There may not have been any campaigning worth speaking about before this election, but there was certainly a mammoth effort to persuade people to vote on Sunday for a new president.

From text messages to all mobile phone subscribers across the country, to presents being offered to first-time voters, every method of persuasion and seduction seems to have been employed.

In this far eastern port city, which gives Russia access to the Pacific Ocean, they were handing out baseball caps to students who made their first tentative steps inside a polling station.

In other parts of the region, it is reported that discount shopping vouchers were on offer.

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Russia coerced citizens to vote using, cheap incentives. This puts the accuracy of the elections into question. this shows some of the lengths the country is willing to go through to increase voter turnout. Is this an attempt to seem more democratic?

Russia Sets Sail For a "Three Hour Tour"

While the presidential election proved entirely predictable, the transfer of power from Vladimir Putin to Dmitry Medvedev looks likely to be anything but.

This will be the first time in the country's history that a popularly elected head of state hands over power to another popularly elected head of state.

The lack of precedent is raising some curious constitutional questions over exactly how the Kremlin's impending round of musical chairs is going to work.

"There is not really any previous experience for what happens between an election and the moment the new president assumes power," said Mikhail Krasnov, an author of the Constitution.

While Medvedev is now president-elect and first deputy prime minister, Putin by law will remain president until May 7, exactly four years after his inauguration. Putin has said he will then become prime minister.

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Russia's already controversial election has become even more controversial. People are beginning to question the constitutionality of the new transfer of power. This questioning could hurt the legitimacy of Russia.

Mikhail Gorbachev Worries About Russia’s Future After Putin

Mikhail Gorbachev

The only president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, wrote an article for The Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper about the recent presidential election in Russia. In the article Mr. Gorbachev expressed his opinion to alter the nation’s election system. He particularly offered to retrieve the direct gubernatorial elections and return to the mixed voting system during parliamentary elections.

“I took part in the election and urged my relatives, friends and all Russian citizens to go to the polls and use their voting right in spite of the fact that it was a predictable election. The result was predetermined with Vladimir Putin’s popularity. He supported Dmitry Medvedev and agreed to chair the cabinet of ministers in case of his victory. That was a peculiar feature of the recent election. Many treated such a situation rather critically,” Gorbachev wrote.

“It is more important what is going to happen next. To a certain extent the situation cleared by the end of the pre-election campaign. Electors had no opportunity to compare different projects of the candidates and variants of solving national problems. The list of presidential candidates left much to be desired too. However, people went to the polls and cast their votes, which, again, was a result of Putin’s phenomenon and people’s trust in him,” Gorbachev believes.

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Gorbachev goes on to say that he believes that Putin and Medvedev should continue to implement democratic structures into Russia’s government system. He thinks that the man Putin wanted to win won because it promises stability and security. The article gives some background information on Gorbachev and his political reign. Gorbachev is probably most famous for his attempts at reform - perestroika.

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Surprise! Medvedev Wins!

The West cast doubt on Russia's presidential election yesterday after Dmitry Medvedev won a landslide victory and vowed to follow the course set by outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Near-complete results gave Medvedev 70.2 percent of Sunday's vote, crushing his nearest rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who won 17.8 percent, the central elections commission said.

But allegations that the landslide was stage-managed by the Kremlin raised widespread criticism of the election's legitimacy.

The sole Western observer mission present for the poll, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said the poll failed to reflect Russia's "democratic potential."

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Russia's long awaited election is over. Medvedev won. Everyone is now looking to him to improve Russia's diplomatic relations with the rest of the world. Although the elections weren't too free we get to see a very important part of Russia's political system.

Medvedev Reaches Out to Future U.S. Leader

Medvedev, who is predicted to be Russia's next president, "reached out, sort of, to Washington on Tuesday, saying he was willing to work with any future American president who isn't stuck in the past and doesn't have "semi-senile views." "Although of course it's easier to work with people who have modern positions, and not with those who have glints of the past in their eyes, who frequently profess such semi-senile views," he added.

Although Dmitry Medevedev is most likely to become the next president, there are many who critizice and some are even going to boycott the coming elections. "Garry Kasparov called out to Western nations to snub President Vladimir Putin's hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, and called for a boycott of Sunday's election and protests the following day." Also, a leading Russian human rights advocate and watchdog Amnesty International joined in the criticism of a presidential campaign that has been heavily tilted in Medvedev's favor.

"Kasparov's political movement plans protests on Monday in St. Petersburg and Moscow, despite a ban by Moscow authorities. Police have violently broken up such demonstrations in the past, and he predicted more riot police than demonstrators.Meanwhile, Sergei Kovalyov, a leading human rights advocate and Soviet-era political prisoner, sent an open letter to Putin and other officials calling the electoral process a "tasteless farce." He said the current situation in Russia is "a dead end from which not one path leads to democracy.""

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Now, when Russia had a chance to demonstrate a few qualities od democracy, they cannot even achieve that. All the while, Medvedev's existent, even though it is vague, offers hope for improved international relationships and better dealings specifically with Western nations like the US.

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Russia Accuses Election Monitors of Holding Bias

"Russia's chief election manager has accused foreign observers of bias ahead of Sunday's presidential election. "Some international observers come to Russia with ready-made conclusions and opinions which have nothing in common with reality," Vladimir Churov said." They will be the only Western observers to monitor the Russian polls.

"Earlier this month, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe - the continent's main election watchdog - said it would boycott the polls because of Moscow-imposed restrictions." Lately, the OSCE and Russia have been having disputes the "size and scope of the observers' mission." In turn, "Russia's foreign ministry has called the monitors' decision "unacceptable"."

To read the full story, click here.

Although Medvedev is an almost gaurunteed to be the succesor of Putin, claims that the elections were influenced by forces to make the results untrue could result in violent civil strife and protests. This could also lead to international powers to challalenge Medvedev's right to rule.

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Orthodox Church Unholy Alliance with Putin

"Russia's Orthodox Church, despite decades of brutal repression under Soviet rule, is putting its trust in the KGB to ensure that a remarkable religious revival does not fade with the departure of President Vladimir Putin." The Church even "endorsed deputy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev ahead of next week's presidential election." This is a very strong move seeing that Alexei II, the Church's patriarch, holds sway over 100 million voters.

"The relationship might seem odd. It was the KGB, after all, that led persecution of the Church in Soviet times, when priests were regularly jailed, tortured and executed. Neither this nor accusations that Mr Putin is restoring many of the attributes of Soviet rule seem to bother Alexei.Although he has never confirmed it, the patriarch, like the president, is a former KGB agent codenamed Drozdov, according to Soviet archives opened to experts in the 1990s."

"The number of Russians who identify themselves as Orthodox has doubled in the past decade, with two-thirds of the 140 million population proclaiming the faith - quite a feat after seven decades of official atheism.Yet most Russians say they follow Orthodoxy for national rather than moral reasons. Deeply patriotic and with a declared intention of making Russia great again, the Church has milked the sentiment.Priests are regularly seen on television sprinkling holy water on bombers and even nuclear missiles, a blessing that reinforces Mr Putin's own militaristic philosophy."

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Since this story comes from a British news source, there is a slightly degrading tone against Russia which tells a news story but also illustrates the national ill-will between the two countries. On the subject of the story itself, the act of the Church endorsing a political candidate shows just how tied the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government are.

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Film on Putin's Life

"A new film purported to be based on President Vladimir Putin's normally very private life is soon to be released in Russia." Although it does not mirror the Putin's private life, it bears a strong resemblance. "Its fictional hero is a German-speaking St Petersburg Russian with a secretive job who marries a stewardess, has two daughters and rises to the presidency. The film was completed five years ago, but there has been speculation that the Kremlin delayed its release until now, weeks before President Putin leaves office."

"Very little is known of President Putin's private life. His wife Ludmila rarely appears in public, and there are very few pictures of his grown-up daughters Maria and Katerina. Some of the film's key scenes appear to recreate Vladimir Putin's first meeting with Ludmila, their marriage in 1983 and their move to Dresden in Germany where he worked for the KGB, reports say."

To see the article in its entirety, click here.

This article will provide a more personal look at Putin and it has the capacity to carry Russian pride and feeling of familiarity to bring an increased desire to see him become Prime Minister after the March elections. Although the Kremlin was not consulted about the film, it is apparently kind in its opinion to Putin, his family, and his politics.

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OSCE to Sabotage Russia's Presidential Election

A top Russian diplomat stated that OSCE sabotaged Moscow’s suggestions on the norms to monitor presidential elections in Russia. The official added that the Russian administration was not going to change the format of the international monitoring of March 2 elections in the Russian Federation, Interfax reports.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe asked Russia’s Central Election Committee to revise the number of observers and the time of their arrival in Moscow. The official invitation from the committee said that observers were allowed to come to Russia from February 28. The OSCE believes that it would be too late.

“The OSCE continues to openly sabotage our suggestion on collective norms of election monitoring,” the director of the European Department for Cooperation of the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Sergei Ryabkov stated Friday. “We fulfill our obligations, but we are not going to over-fulfill them,” he added.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry believes that the mission of OSCE’s observers will arrive on February 28 to observe the presidential elections in Russia.

“The OSCE tries to excite doubts regarding Russia’s readiness to fulfill its obligations in the field of democratic and transparent elections,” Ryabkov said.

Ryabkov said the OSCE "must chose: whether to join a constructive and clear movement to single election monitoring standards, or continue its political games, which we do not accept."

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This is important because it concerns the upcoming elections that are on everyone's mind. The OSCE could have an impact on this years elections. The OSCE is the world's largest regional security organization whose 56 participating States span the geographical area from Vancover to Vladivostok. 

The Pseudoelection

As the Russian elections get closer and closer, the true integrity has been greatly reduced. From the banning of Kasyanov, to the reduction of to the opposition being made up of radical or unknown figures, the election can hardly be called "fair."

The excuse of the Central Election Commission for not registering Mr Kasyanov is that 13% of the 2m signatures supporting his candidacy were invalid. Gathering so many signatures in a few weeks, as the rules demand of an independent candidate, is nearly impossible. But the joke is that the commission still registered Andrei Bogdanov, whose unknown Democratic Party took only 90,000 votes in December's parliamentary election.

Now, "Mr. Medvedev talk[s] of the importance of pluralism, freedom and justice. Property rights and free media were essential to building democracy. And Russia must follow the rule of law."

Mr Medvedev will become Russia's president after March 2nd, but may well not be
in charge. Indeed, a paradox is that despite its pre-determined result, the
election will not do its main job: the transfer of power from one person to
another. In this, as in other ways, it can hardly be called an election at all.

To read the story in its entirety, click here.

This article demostrates just how Putin has "arranged" for things to go as he planned. Starting with Medvedev having the highest percentage of support simply because of his willingness to hand over power. Although the author of this article had a bent against Putin and the coming elections, they porduced very good points that makes one question the validity of the process in Russia.

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Kasyanov Facing Forgery Investigation

"The Russian prosecutor-general's office on Tuesday announced a forgery investigation has been opened against the campaign of an opposition candidate for the presidential election. " If more than five percent of the signatures are found to be forgeries, Mikhail Kasyanov will not be permitted to run in the election planned to take place March 2nd.

On Saturday, he was quoted complaining of alleged official harassment. This harassment and "political pressure" is not being taken lightly by Kasyanov. He has told the public that "in numerous Russian regions, crude intimidation has been deployed against people officially registered as campaign workers ... people have been threatened, intimidated and forced to admit to committing illegal acts."

Whether or not Kasyanov will be permitted to run as a presidential candidate will be made known when the final candidate list for the election is to be announced on Sunday.

To read the story in its entirety, click here.

This forgery investigation holds great importance since Kasyanov is seemingly the only candidate running against Putin-endorsed First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. If he is barred from the election, there will be little to no opposition, leaving Russia with Medvedev as the president and Putin as the new Prime Minister.

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