I would like to make some remarks on the issue from the point of view of Russian democratic party YABLOKO.

Those of you who remember Soviet Union may also remember the CPSU – the only political party existed in USSR until late 80th. This party was the part of the totalitarian state machinery, and its leading and governing role was established by the Constitution.

In the late 80th perestoyka period a lot of political clubs, movements, people’s fronts and other non-formal organisation emerged, and some of them transformed into political parties.

But the first alternative party which has been officialy recognised by soviet authorities was so called Liberal Demorcatic Party of Russia headed by well-known extremist Mr. Zhirinovsky. Certainly this party had nothig in common with liberalism. They say it was the project sponsored by soviet secret service KGB.

After the collapse of SU in 1991 the process of emerging of political parties in Russia has been intencified and there were hundreds of political NGOs to be called as political parties covering all colours of political landscape from extremely left to extremely right.

But there was no specific legal framework for their activities, there was the only law on civic organisations and political parties did not enjoy any privilegies or responsibilities in comparison with other types of NGOs.

Although the election system in Russia since 1993 demands 50% of the seats in the State Duma to be distributed following the result of the party list voting, the structure of party list was very unstable and changed a lot from one campaign to another.

Political parties historically have been organizationally weak. And there is a wide spread scepticism around people concerning the participation in party activities. I suppose partly it is a natural reaction after 70 year ruling of single CP.

In July 2001 the Law on Political Parties was passed. This law significantly enlarge the role played by political parties in the electoral system by simplifying candidate nomination by parties at all levels of government and by requiring that half of the seats in regional legislatures be determined by party-list voting, as in the State Duma.

These laws, in conjunction with the December 2002 Law on Elections of State Duma Deputies, expand campaign spending limits and public financing of political parties, shorten the official campaign period, limited the conditions under which candidates could be removed from the ballot, and impose restrictions on media coverage.

An additional effect of the laws was the expansion of the Central Elections Commission’s authority over subordinate regional elections commissions.

The law on political parties requires parties to have 10,000 members in order to be registered and function legally, with no fewer than 100 members in a majority of the country’s 89 regions. The law grants political parties a partial monopoly on running candidates for legislative office, creates serious obstacles for the registration of new political parties, and gives the executive branch and Procuracy broad powers to regulate, investigate, and close down parties. Those parties who participated in general election and win more than 2% votes are granted with some funds from the federal budget but this amount is quit small and non-sufficient for real activity.

At the moment there are about 40 political patries officialy registered by the ministry of Justice.

The number of political parties and electoral blocks participated in parliamentary election is decreasing with each campaign and there were 23 party lists in 2003 parliamentary election (compare with more than 40 in 1993).  Only 4 of them had crossed 5% limit essential to get seats in the Duma.

These are:

– “United Russia” – 37,57%;

– Communist Party – 12,61%;

– LDPR (Zhirinovsky) – 11,45%;

– “Homeland” – 9,02%.

The only one of them can be consider I suppose as real political party with its particular ideology, programm, permanent group of supporters etc. – that is Communist Party.

“United Russia”, the party at the centre of the Kremlin-engineered majority coalition in parliament, is not a political party in the true sense of the word. Rather than existing to follow a particular set of values, it was established as an instrument for carrying out the Kremlin’s orders.

The other newcomer “Homeland” is a newly created and unstable coalition speculating on nationalist and anti-olygarchy moods. Soon after the election there were series of scandals in the coalition leadership and finally the split.

The main outcome of the last election was the defeat of democratic Yabloko – 4,30% and Union of Right Forces – 3,97%.

Parliamentary elections, held on December 7, were observed by the OSCE, which offered a positive evaluation of the technical conduct of the balloting but concluded that the overall election process, accompanied by widespread misuse of administrative resources, systematically biased campaign media coverage, and inequitable treatment of political parties, failed to meet OSCE standards. This was the most critical assessment of an election issued by the OSCE since the Russian Federation became an independent country.

The most serious shortcomings involved the pre-electoral campaign. Although the legal requirements for TV political debates and free time for party candidates to present their views were observed, the Government used its increasing influence over the media, particularly the electronic media, to promote favored candidates in newscasts and other programming, resulting in coverage that was heavily biased in favor of the main government party, United Russia, and other favored parties, and against opposition parties.

The pro-Government forces drew heavily on “administrative” resources, using the power and influence of regional and local officials to maximize media coverage and campaign financing.

Insufficient transparency in the post-election period was also a serious concern. The OSCE reported that 14 percent of the polling stations observed failed to provide certified copies of the results to domestic observers representing different political parties.

In Decemder 2003 Yabloko got less than 5% votes and lost the parliamentary election. We got 4 MP elected in the constituencies, 1 of them joined United Russia faction so now we have only 3 MPs. Another party considered as democratic – Union of Right Forces also has lost and in fact its future as a democratic party is up in the air now because of the split in party leadership.

This is a serious challenge for us and for future of democracy in Russia. Especialy because in 2007 the limit to come to Duma will be raised by 7%.

We had the party Congress in December, and the meeting of the party Bureau in February and our strong will is to keep the party alive, to develop it and particularly to cooperate with all democratic forces and to prepare for the next general election in 2007. Next party national congress is scheduled on summer.

Since December more than 7 000 people joined Yabloko and now we have about 80 000 members. We faced the lack of funds, we have to decrease our staff but we definitely will continue our job. We consider recent appointment our party vice-leader Mr.Lukin as Human Rights Commissioner in Russian Federation to be a very positive step, and we are going to use different job possibilities for our professionals to increase party influence.

The main question Yabloko discussed after december election was our position at presidential campaign. I suppose this is the main question for every real political party. But as Russia goes more and more back to single-party state some parties have very exotic position. For example so called Party of Life nominated its own candidate Mr.Mironov, Chairman of Federation Council of Russian Federation, who declared that he supports the candidacy of acting President and he participates in campaign not to win but to be next to President and to help him.

Today we have the 4th presidential campaign in Russia and I suppose this is the first time when we have such low public interest in the capaign. Nobody doubtes President Putin to be reelected, the only formal question remains – what will be the turnout.

And again everybody knows that there will be more than 50%  turnout because local bureaucracy does all its best to achieve this. Sometimes it looks funny, for instance in St.Petersburg the chief of district administration sent a letter to the heads of local condominiums (responsible by the way for housing not for voting) asking for at least 70% turnout of enhabitans hinting that he will fulfil their future needs depending of the turnout.

But the low public interest and expected turnout I suppose does not mean that people are happy with their lifes and with president’s policy. It is rather the sign of tiredness and indifference. People do not believe that their votes and this particular election may change their lifes. And many of them understand that this is not a fair election.

Two weeks ago we had a meeting of the Bureau of the Federal Council of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO discussing our position before voting day and we have confirmed the forecast provided in december by the party Congress: the elections have been transformed into political farce.

YABLOKO considers it to be impossible to participate in another imitation of democratic procedures. We proceed from the premise that people see the growing lack of freedom in the country, lack of equality of participants in pseudo-democratic elections, the bankruptcy and even comic nature of the candidates. We believe that in these circumstances non-participation in the elections of the President represents a natural form of protest for people with democratic values.

YABLOKO will continue the work of the party on creating a broad democratic coalition, and participation in regional and local elections. The creation of cells of political influence in the regional and local legislative and executive authorities is a priority in the movement towards a really free and democratic society.

What were the reasons for us to make such a decision – not to participate (which is definitely unusuas for the political party)?

To have democratic elections, at least three preconditions must be met: a relatively independent judicial system, in other words an independent referee for the elections. There have to be independent national media which will transmit your point of view to the public. And there have to be the possibility of independent financing. Otherwise one cannot speak about free and fair elections at all.

Today a presidential candidate cannot obtain either financing or appearance on TV or win a legal suit without the permission of the Presidential Administration.

We do not support the candidacy of Vladimir Putin for President. We believe that no steps were taken over the past four years to guide the country from the deadlock of oligarchic quasi-capitalism or resolve the key problems of the society like education, security and the armed forces. The arbitrary rule of the authorities and police has even intensified.

President Putin at the recent meeting with his supporters in Moscow University presented his view of his first 4 years term and his plans for the next 4 years. As a liberal I agree with almost all he said. There was even particular chapter in his speech devoted to liberal values. In fact President cited word by word the statements of Yabloko issued 3 years earlier when we said at our party congress that in 21st century there is no way to prosperity for the country which does not provide its citizens with human rights, with freedom of information and media. And we said that people who are manipulated who are not free cannot create modern and competitive economy.

Now we hear exactly the same words from President Putin and we are grateful for this. But the problem is that his own policy is destroing the freedom of information, the independent media, the fair election, the political competition.

We have a system where a single centre of power controls everything – the media, the secret services, business, the courts, parliament, the elections.

There was a remarcable case in January – The President has appointed the prime minister to chair the Anti-Corruption Commission. That sums up the essence of our system. It is like to appoint a fox to watch over the hen house. And it is not a question that this particular fox is good or bad – just because the fox like to eat chicken.

We may say we in Russia are going back to soviet times, to a single-party authoritarian state. Unfortunately.

So what are the prospects, is there still a chance for Russia to become a real democratic succesfull and predictable country?

The times have changed, and the world is different now. Some processes that used to take decades now happen within years or months. I think there will be some major changes over the next five years. Even now, if somebody is seriously talking of Russia being stable – I cannot agree. We are rather stably unpredictable. And the last appointment of new Prime Minister is another proof.

The environment for our liberal job is not friendly.

Russia has neither an independent parliament nor independent national mass media. Electoral procedures and results are heavily influenced by the government machine. The secret services and law enforcement agencies are exempt from public control. The judicial system is not really independent and serves as an administrative instrument using selective arbitrary application of the law.

But I still do believe that we can become a real democracy. And I think it depends not on the results of the presidential election but on the development of the emerging civil society in Russia. It depends on those people who understand that democracy and human rights are essential for their own security and prosperity. It depends on our children who are going to schools and universities – and this is by the way one of the reasons for Yabloko party and me personally to consider education as one of priorities in our activities.

And certainly the role of liberal political party which may aggregate, articulate and represent the interests of those who share liberal values becomes even more important.