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#[[Sergey Shoigu]] (2001–2005)
#[[Sergey Shoigu]] (2001–2005)
#[[Boris Gryzlov]] (2005–2008)
#[[Boris Gryzlov]] (2005–2008)
#[[Vladimir Putin]] (2008–present)<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7347124.stm Europe | Putin to lead United Russia party]. BBC News (15 April 2008). Retrieved on 6 December 2011.</ref><ref>[http://themoscownews.com/news/20080417/55324516.html Putin Named Party Chairman | NEWS]. The Moscow News (17 April 2008). Retrieved on 6 December 2011.</ref>
#[[Vladimir Putin]] (2008–2012)<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7347124.stm Europe | Putin to lead United Russia party]. BBC News (15 April 2008). Retrieved on 6 December 2011.</ref><ref>[http://themoscownews.com/news/20080417/55324516.html Putin Named Party Chairman | NEWS]. The Moscow News (17 April 2008). Retrieved on 6 December 2011.</ref>


==Allegations of corruption==
==Allegations of corruption==

Revision as of 07:44, 26 April 2012

United Russia
LeaderVacant
Founded1 December 2001
Merger ofUnity
Fatherland – All Russia
HeadquartersMoscow
Youth wingYoung Guard of United Russia
Membership2.01 million[1]
IdeologyCentrism[2]
Statism[3]
Conservatism[4][third-party source needed]
Political positionCentre-right[5]
International affiliationNone
ColorsWhite, Blue, Red
Seats in the State Duma
238 / 450
Seats in the Regional Parliaments
2,840 / 3,787
Website
http://er.ru/

United Russia (Russian: Еди́ная Росси́я, Yedínaya Rossíya) is a centre-right[6] political party in Russia and the largest party in the country, currently holding 238 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. The party was founded in December 2001, through a merger of the Unity and Fatherland-All Russia parties. Ideologically, it self-identifies as a "Russian conservative" party, and it supports the policies of the presidential administration of Dmitry Medvedev. The party's association with former President and current Prime Minister and President Elect Vladimir Putin, who is currently the leader of United Russia, has been the key to its success, and there is also evidence that the electorate credits the party (in addition to Putin) for improvements in the economy. Although the party's popularity has declined from its peak of 64.4% in the 2007 Duma elections to 49.32% in the 2011 elections, it remains by far the most popular party in the country, ahead of the Communist Party (at 19.19%).

History

Origins

United Russia's predecessor was the Unity block, which was created three months before the December 1999 Duma elections to counter the advance of the Fatherland - All Russia (OVR) party led by Yuri Luzhkov. Its creation was heavily supported by Kremlin insiders, who were wary of what looked like a certain OVR victory. They did not expect Unity to have much chance of success, since President Boris Yeltsin was very unpopular and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ratings were still minuscule. The new party attempted to mimic OVR's formula of success, placing an emphasis on competence and pragmatism. Charismatic Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu was appointed as the party leader.[7]

In the autumn of 1999, Prime Minister Putin's popularity soared to double digit figures after he decisively sent troops to the rebellious Chechnya republic as a retaliation for terrorist bombings in Moscow and other cities and in response for the Chechen invasion of Dagestan. Putin's war effort was hugely popular and portrayed positively by the Boris Berezovsky-owned ORT television channel, as well as by state-controlled RTR.[8]

1999 Duma elections

Contrary to its creators' expectations, Unity's election campaign was a huge success, and the party received 23.3% of the votes, considerably more than OVR's 13.3% and within one percentage point of the Communist Party's 24.3%.[7][8] The blessing of the popular prime minister proved decisive for Unity's victory.[8] The election results also made clear that Putin was going to win the 2000 presidential election, which resulted in competitors Luzhkov and Yevgeni Primakov dropping out. Yeltsin also gave Putin a boost by resigning as a president on 31 December 1999.[7]

Creation of United Russia

While Unity had initially had only one narrow purpose, limited only to the 1999 Duma elections, after the victory state officials began to transform the party into a permanent one. A large number of independent deputies who had been elected to the Duma were invited to join the party's delegation. Many OVR deputies also joined, including its leader Luzhkov personally.[7] In April 2001, OVR and Unity leaders issued a joint declaration that they had started the process of unification. In July 2001, the unified party, called "Union of Unity and Fatherland" held its founding congress, and in December 2001, it became "All-Russian Party of Unity and Fatherland", or more briefly, United Russia. In the second party congress in March 2003, Sergei Shoigu stood down and Boris Gryzlov was elected as the new party leader.[6]

Instead of the "communism versus capitalism" dichotomy that had dominated the political discourse in the 1990s, in the 1999—2000 electoral cycle Putin started to emphasize another reason to vote for his party: stability, which was yearned for by Russian citizens after a decade of chaotic revolutionary change. With the exception of the continued fighting in the Northern Caucasus, Putin delivered it.[8]

In 2002, the Kremlin was still unwilling to provide the tools for the governors to overcome their coordination problem when it could not be sure that they would remain loyal. All of this began to change in early 2003. Alexandr Bespalov, United Russia’s chief organizer, who had churned up so much acrimony among regional leaders in his attempts to force United Russia into the regions, was dismissed as head of the party’s Central Executive Committee. Federal envoys began working to recruit candidates to run under the United Russia banner, encouraging pro-presidential forces to work through the United Russia organization, and channeling resources to party candidates.[9][full citation needed]

On 13 January 2003, United Russia had 257,000 members, behind Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (600,000) and the Communists (500,000).[6]

2003 Duma elections

Throughout Putin's first years as President, the country's economy improved considerably, growing more each year than in all of the previous decade, and Putin's approval ratings hovered well above 70%. Russia's economic recovery was helped by high prices for its primary exports such as oil, gas and raw materials.[8]

Although the actual results of the election gave United Russia a bare majority with 232 deputies, a further 78 deputies joined in the weeks after the elections, giving United Russia a constitutional majority of 310 seats. The party was quick to impose strict voting discipline, as voting cohesion among United Russia deputies was significantly higher than it was among Our Home is Russia deputies in the Second Duma.[10][full citation needed]

The passage rate of law proposals increased considerably after United Russia become the dominant party in the Duma: in 1996—1999, only 76% of the legislation that passed the third reading was signed by the President, while in 1999—2003 the ratio was 93%. While Yeltsin had often relied on his decree powers to enact major decisions, Putin almost never had to. United Russia's dominance in the Duma enabled Putin to push through a wide range of fundamental reforms,[11] including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, an overhaul of the labour market, breakups of national monopolies and new land and legal codes.[11][12][13] United Russia characterized itself as wholly supportive of Putin's agenda, which proved a recipe for success and resulted in the party scoring a major victory in the 2003 Duma elections, receiving more than a third of the popular vote.[8]

Throughout its history, United Russia has been successful in using administrative resources to weaken its opponents. For example, state-controlled news media portrayed the Communist Party as hypocritical for accepting money from several "dollar millionaries" during the 2003 Duma election campaign.[7] United Russia also introduced tougher party, candidate and voter registration requirements, and increased the election threshold from 5% to 7% for the 2007 elections.[8]

Opposition parties also made several strategic mistakes. For example, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces seemed to spend more effort attacking each other than Putin, which made it easier for United Russia to win over liberal voters on the strength of market reforms under Putin.[7] The opposition parties faltered in the 2003 elections, with the Communists gaining just 52 seats, a drop from 113 in 1999. Liberal opponents fared even worse, with Yabloko and Union of the Right Forces failing to cross the 5 percent threshold.[8]

2007 Duma elections

Campaigners in Saint Petersburg during the 2007 election

As the economy continued improving and Putin executed several popular moves, such as reining in the unpopular oligarchs, Putin's approval ratings stayed high and he won the 2004 presidential election with over 70% of the votes. The 2007 Duma elections proved a stunning victory for United Russia, which won 64.3% of the votes. The Communist Party became a distant second with 11.57% of the votes. Vladimir Putin was the only name on United Russia's national list, and his popularity helped the party to ensure victory.[8]

During the December 2007 election, the party was accused by voters and election monitoring group GOLOS of numerous election law violations banned in the Russian Constitution.[14]

The legislative agenda shifted somewhat after the 2007 elections. Anti-terrorism legislation, large increases in social spending and the creation of new state corporations became the dominant issues, while less energy was devoted to economic reform.[11]

Post-2007

For the 2008 presidential election, United Russia nominated Dmitry Medvedev to succeed Putin. Medvedev received Putin's blessing and scored a clear victory, receiving 71% of the votes. As President, Medvedev nominated Putin as his Prime Minister. On 15 April 2008, Putin accepted a nomination to become the party's leader, but declared that this did not mean he would become a member. Medvedev has also refused to become a member.[7]

During regional elections of 11 October 2009 United Russia won a majority of seats in almost every Russian municipality. Opposition candidates claim they were hindered from campaigning for the elections and some were denied places on the ballot.[15][16] There are also accusations of widespread ballot stuffing and voter intimidation, as well as statistical analysis results supporting these accusations.[15]

Support for United Russia was 53% in a poll held in October 2009.[17] In 2010 and 2011, following the economic crisis, support for United Russia went up and down, but declined overall. The share of the population ready to vote for the party reached its lowest point in January 2011 (35%), before recovering to 41% in March 2011.[18]

Election results

Current status

Federal Assembly

United Russia currently holds 238 of the 450 seats in the State Duma.[8] It holds 15 of the 29 committee chairmanships and 10 of the 16 seats in the Council of Duma, the Duma's steering committee. The speaker of the Duma is United Russia's Sergey Naryshkin.[20]


The party has only informal influence in the upper house, the Federation Council, as the Council has rejected the use of political factions in decision making.[11]

Party membership

In April 2008, United Russia was claiming 1.98 million members.[21] According to a study conducted by Timothy J. Colton, Henry E. Hale and Michael McFaul after the March 2008 Presidential elections, 30% of the Russian population are loyalists of the party.[7]

Party platform

According to the party's 2003 political manifesto, The Path of National Success, the party's goal is to unite the responsible political forces of the country, aiming to minimize the differences between rich and poor, young and old, state, business and society. The economy should combine state regulation and market freedoms, with the benefits of further growth distributed for the most part to the less fortunate. The party rejects left-wing and right-wing ideologies in favour of "political centrism" that could unite all sections of society.[6] In addition, the official party platform emphasizes pragmatism and anti-radicalism. The party regards itself to be one of the heirs to Russia's tradition of statehood, both tsarist and communist.[22] United Russia's long-time moniker is "the party of real deeds."[23]

United Russia has always characterised itself as wholly supportive of the agenda of the popular former President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and this has proved key to its success. A survey, whose results were presented by Henry E. Hale in 2008 at the Annual Meeting of American Political Science Association, indicates that the Russian population associates the party with a market economic orientation, opposition to communism, a moderately pro-Western foreign policy and a tough stance on rebellious minority regions like Chechnya. Voters who support such values are significantly more likely to vote for United Russia. Survey results also provide clear evidence that Russians tend to credit United Russia (as well as Putin) for improvements in the economy.[7]

Since 2006, when Vladislav Surkov introduced the term Sovereign democracy, many figureheads of the party have taken usage of the term. President Dmitry Medvedev has criticised the term.

Electorate

According to studies, United Russia voters in 2007 were younger and more market-oriented than the average voter. The party's electorate includes a substantial share of state employees, pensioners and military personnel, who are dependent on the state for their livelihood.[23] 64% of United Russia supporters are female. According to researchers[who?], this could be because women place a great value on stability. In the run-up to the 2011 Duma elections, it was reported that support for United Russia was growing among young people.[24]

Foreign opinions

Foreign media and observers describe United Russia as a pure "presidential party" with the main goal of securing the power of the Russian President in the Russian parliament. The vast majority of officeholders in Russia are members of the party, hence it is sometimes described as a "public official party" or "administration party." Because of this, it is also often labelled the 'party of power'.[25][26]

Structure

Vladimir Putin (at the time President of Russia) at the 9th United Russia Party Congress on 15 April 2008.

In April 2008 United Russia amended Section 7 of its charter, changing its heading from “Party Chairman” to “Chairman of the Party and Chairman of the Party’s Supreme Council.” Under the amendments, United Russia may introduce a supreme elective post in the party, the post of the party’s chairman, at the suggestion of Supreme Council and its chairman.

The Supreme Council, led by the Supreme Council chairman, defines the strategy for the development of the party.

The General Council has 152 members, is the foremost party platform in between party congresses and issues statements on important social or political questions. The Praesidium of the General Council is led by a secretary, consists of 23 members and leads the political activity of the party, for instance election campaigns or other programmatic publications.

United Russia runs local and regional offices in all parts of the Russian Federation, and also operates a foreign liaison office in Israel[27] through a deal with the Kadima party.

As of 20 September 2005, the party has a total of 2,600 local and 29,856 primary offices.

Internal groupings

United Russia is a large and diverse party, and has several internal subdivisions. The party has 4 internal groupings, organized around common policy interests. In addition, the party makes use of four internal political clubs to debate policy: liberal conservative 4 November Club, social conservative Centre for Social Conservative Politics, and conservative liberal Liberal Club, and State Patriotic Club.[11] Based on this division, the party considered entering the 2007 Duma elections as three separate "columns" (liberal, conservative and social), but the idea was subsequently abandoned.

Leaders

Chairmen of United Russia

  1. Sergey Shoigu (2001–2005)
  2. Boris Gryzlov (2005–2008)
  3. Vladimir Putin (2008–2012)[28][29]

Allegations of corruption

United Russia has come in for criticism that it is "the party of crooks and thieves" ("партия жуликов и воров", a term coined by activist Alexey Navalny[30]), due to the continuing prevalence of corruption in Russia.[31] In October 2011, Novaya Gazeta even published an article describing how members of the public were writing the slogan on banknotes in protest.[32] In December 2011, Vladimir Putin rejected the accusation of corruption, saying that it was a general problem that was not restricted to one particular party: "They say that the ruling party is associated with theft, with corruption, but it’s a cliché related not to a certain political force, it’s a cliché related to power [...] What’s important, however, is how the ruling government is fighting these negative things".[31]

A poll made in November 2011 found that more than one-third of Russians agreed with the characterization of United Russia as "the party of crooks and thieves." [33]

After the 2011 legislative elections a few leaders within United Russia called for investigations of fraud and reform of the party.[34]

See also

References

  1. ^ Минюст :: Всероссийская политическая партия «ЕДИНАЯ РОССИЯ». minjust.ru
  2. ^ http://www.parties-and-elections.de/russia.html
  3. ^ http://www.parties-and-elections.de/russia.html
  4. ^ Программный документ партии «Единая Россия». Er.ru (21 November 2009). Retrieved on 6 December 2011.
  5. ^ http://www.euronews.net/2011/11/30/seven-parties-are-competing-in-the-duma-election/
  6. ^ a b c d White, Stephen (2005). "The Political Parties". In White, Gitelman, Sakwa (ed.). Developments in Russian Politics. Vol. 6. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822335220.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hale, Henry E. (2010). "Russia's political parties and their substitutes". In White, Stephen (ed.). Developments in Russian Politics 7. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230224490.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j McFaul, Michael; Stoner-Weiss, Kathryn (2010). "Elections and Voters". In White, Stephen (ed.). Developments in Russian Politics 7. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230224490.
  9. ^ (Hale, 2006, p. 231
  10. ^ Kunicova & Remington, 2008
  11. ^ a b c d e Remington, Thomas F. (2010). "Parliamentary Politics in Russia". In White, Stephen (ed.). Developments in Russian Politics 7. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230224490.
  12. ^ "The Putin Paradox". Americanprogress.org. 24 June 2004. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
  13. ^ Sharlet, Robert (2005). "In Search of the Rule of Law". In White, Gitelman, Sakwa (ed.). Developments in Russian Politics. Vol. 6. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822335220.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  14. ^ "Russians complain of being pressured to vote". International Herald Tribune. 29 March 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  15. ^ a b Medvedev hails, opponents decry Kremlin party win, Reuters (12 October 2009)
  16. ^ Pro-Kremlin party sweeps Moscow elections, Associated Press (12 October 2009)
  17. ^ Poll ratings of Russia's Putin, Medvedev tumble, Kyiv Post (2 November 2009)
  18. ^ Voting Behaviour – Duma Levada Center
  19. ^ http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/290916.html United Russia to have 238 seats at new State Duma
  20. ^ [1] Official site of Russian Duma
  21. ^ United Russia Website.
  22. ^ [2][dead link]
  23. ^ a b "Russia Analytical Digest" (PDF) (102). University of Basel, Center for Security Studies Zürich, Forschungsstelle Osteuropa Bremen. 26 November 2011: 2–6. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  24. ^ Seven parties, one virtually certain outcome Russia Beyond the Headlines. 23 November 2011}}
  25. ^ Putin's 'Party of Power' and the Declining Power of Parties in Russia. The Foreign Policy Centre. April 2005
  26. ^ What is Russian party of power?. RIA Novosti. 14 June 2005
  27. ^ "''Russian PM Putin to open official party branch in Israel''". Haaretz. Israel. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
  28. ^ Europe | Putin to lead United Russia party. BBC News (15 April 2008). Retrieved on 6 December 2011.
  29. ^ Putin Named Party Chairman | NEWS. The Moscow News (17 April 2008). Retrieved on 6 December 2011.
  30. ^ Medvedev 'tweet' sends the Russian blogosphere into a frenzy, Guardian
  31. ^ a b Police and protesters clash in Moscow after election protests, Telegraph, retrieved 6/12/2011
  32. ^ «Жулики и воры» пошли по рукам, Novaya Gazeta, retrieved 6/12/2011
  33. ^ "Putin Faces Push to Regain Support After Election". The Wall Street Journal. 6 December 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  34. ^ Michael Schwirtz (28 December 2011). "An Insider Takes a Public Stand Against Putin's Party". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
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