Zatulin: State Duma elections failed to resolve question of power in Russia
Kyiv, December 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State Duma deputy and Director of the Institute of CIS Countries Konstantin Zatulin has said that the parliamentary elections in Russia have not resolved the question of power in Russia.
He said this at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Tuesday.
He noted that as expected, United Russia received a smaller percentage of the vote compared to the previous elections in 2007, but experts and politicians had believed that the party would have done rather better.
Zatulin said that the vote for the ruling party suggested that the election results "are more or less objective, or the authorities had the sense not to go beyond the limits," and estimated both potential outcomes as positive.
He said that there were serious grounds for the fall in the vote for United Russia in the parliamentary elections, as the Russian State Duma has in recent years been extremely subordinate to the interests of the executive government, the activities of lawmakers had stopped being creative, and parliament had lost its initiative.
"A monopoly in parliament never benefits the monopoly itself," he said.
Zatulin also said that the elections were not "primaries" for the presidential campaign of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, as the United Russia's election list is led by President Dmitry Medvedev. Zatulin said that the latter was responsible for the poor result of United Russia and had brought it about through the unnecessary protraction of the speculation over the question of which of the Russian ruling tandem would run for president.
He noted that relations with Ukraine had not been at the center of this campaign.
"Moreover, I believe we are close to an inter-party consensus in terms of foreign policy," he added.
Zatulin drew attention to the fact that United Russia lost votes in regions in which there are more Russians. In this connection, the Russian government, in his opinion, will have to return the national issue to the agenda and pay more attention to it, and this could also concern the countries that are home to many Russians.
The founder of Research & Branding Group, sociologist Yevhen Kopatko, in turn, noted that the current State Duma elections were more competitive than previous ones and that they were conducted quite properly. He said that the level of tension was lower than during the campaign of 2007.
However, he said that "Russia is facing changes that will have a direct impact on events in Ukraine," and this could concern the question of choosing a course of drawing closer to either the EU or the Eurasian Union.
The director of the Ukrainian branch of the Institute of CIS Countries, Volodymyr Kornilov, said that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's result in the upcoming presidential elections would be higher than that of United Russia in the parliamentary elections.
"Everyone understands that if he [Putin] headed the list of United Russia, its result would have been better," he said.
He said that the results of the elections to the State Duma could not influence relations with Ukraine, but now the Russian authorities will have more time to sign important agreements with Ukraine.
Kornilov also said that Ukraine and other countries were demonstrating an unhealthy excitement about the elections in Russia and the opposition rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg.