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Putin’s Handpicked Successor Wins Amid Election Irregularities
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Swissinfo
March 2, 2008
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| In addition to election problems, legislation "prevented, for instance, the former Prime Minister [Mikhail Kasyanov] from being a candidate in order to be real competition for Putin’s choice and to give the people a choice," noted Andreas Gross, head of the Council of Europe’s monitoring mission. | |
As Dmitry Medvedev headed for victory in the Russian presidential election on Sunday, election observers noted a certain number of irregularities.
Swiss parliamentarian Andreas Gross, head of the Council of Europe’s monitoring mission, is due to present his report on Monday, and will not comment until then. He spent election day listening to people in the field and monitoring the voting.
However, one monitor told Reuters news agency that voters’ ballots had been visible to election officials in three polling stations he had visited.
An independent Russian organisation, Golos, told the agency it had seen evidence of fraud all over the country.
First exit polls on Sunday evening gave Medvedev, currently Russia’s first deputy prime minister, and the candidate favoured by outgoing president, Vladimir Putin, nearly 70 per cent of the vote.
Pre-election concern
The run-up to the election had already aroused concern.
Following a two-day pre-electoral trip to Moscow in February, the Council of Europe mission highlighted the limited number of candidates.
In addition to Medvedev, three other men were in the running to take over from Putin, who is stepping down at the end of two four-year terms. But Medvedev was always widely expected to win.
“It is much too difficult to be a candidate in Russia and the obstacles are too high. This was done on purpose by legislative reforms which limit access to political power,” Gross told swissinfo ahead of his current trip to Russia.
Coverage of Medvedev has also dominated prime time television – the key to reaching the population, added Gross.
The 25-member observer mission from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has been in Russia since Wednesday.
It is the only group of European election monitors in the country. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) decided against sending its observers last month, citing too many restrictions by Moscow. Russia has called the move “unacceptable”.
Gross said that the OSCE’s work normally formed the basis of his team’s short-term work.
“But in these elections the long term is so easy to understand that we will be able to fulfil our task even though the OSCE’s observers won’t be there,” he said.
Others will be present, explained Gross. “We are the only observers with a democratic standard because the other ones come from China or from former Soviet Union countries that are not so reliable when it comes to democracy,” he said
Gross, a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party, has carried out 45 election observations in the past 12 years, including the Russian parliamentary poll last December, which was declared unfair by European monitors.
Foregone conclusion?
Polls suggested that there would not be much doubt about the winner.
“[One] showed that 80 per cent of the Russian people were ready to accept the man Putin chooses as his successor. This is quite extraordinary because the logic of a term limit is that you have to reshuffle the political power redistribution,” said Gross.
On the other hand, Gross told swissinfo, credit had to be given to Putin for not changing the Russian constitution to allow him a third term as president. This would have been possible because he has a constitutional majority in parliament.
Putin also did not choose a hardliner, but the more moderate and “civilised” Medvedev, Gross said.
“But on the other hand the fact that the majority of people is ready to choose who Putin proposes shows the real problem of the development of democratic mentality in a society,” warned the Swiss parliamentarian.
“This problem was increased by the legislation which prevented, for instance, the former Prime Minister [Mikhail Kasyanov] from being a candidate in order to be real competition for Putin’s choice and to give the people a choice,” added Gross.
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March 3rd, 2008 at 4:24 am
Putin is the globalists’ ally. Expect the Russian media’s reaction to possible fraud to mimmick the US media’s this year. Democracy is an illusion nowadays in nearly all of the world; when you vote, you’re really only choosing between whoever prints your money’s candidates. Wake up people
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:45 am
Don’t we all live in a great world. Aren’t we human beings so wonderful? Let’s hope Putin’s plan for the future includes the destruction of the world.
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Lets hope not
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Could it be that the people of Russia just like Putin and therefore would choose to like his successor?
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Mr.Kasyanov’s popular nickname in Russia is “Misha 2%” for the kickbacks he used to receive while working in the government. Moreover, his campaign to collect 2.000.000 signatures required by the law to present himself as a presidential candidate was found to be full of irregularities: around 20% of the signatures were found to be completely false names. So he was excluded from running for the presidential office. He filed a complaint with the Constitutional court of the Russian Federation. The court, after considering the case, rejected his claims of “foul play” and confirmed the decision of the Electoral Commission. Now he is presented as a “nice guy” and a “real alternative” to Putin while his popularity in the country is somewhere near zero.
Don’t believe everything they write about politics in Russia. Most of the time it is half-truths presented as solid “facts”.
March 4th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Something that wasn’t mentioned is that Putin is just using a constitutional loophole.
He is having Medvedev (his puppy) elected for one term. They literally switch places in the government. Putin is incredibly popular and he doesn’t have to fear his own political stepson.
So after this one term Putin will again candidate for presidency which is fine with the russian constitution. This giving him the chance to de facto rule this country for 20 consecutive years.
Somehow reminds me of that Bush/Clinton bunch…
March 4th, 2008 at 9:18 am
First of all, these guys are all the same. No difference! Politicians arent going to change anything, they have to play by a handbook, and as long as that is true, don’t think for a minute that some president is going to change a damn thing. I watch it like its a game, the world is freaking funny, because people are so dumb nowadays that stories like this surprise them. Of course there was election fraud its Russia lol….do you really think that the democratic process works in that part of the world let alone America, please they hand picked that guy right in front of the world’s face. But what is going to happen nothing at all. Why? Because people are never going to fight the world government, they are just going to assume the position.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov could never pose as a threat because his COMPLETE activity is focused on the Foreign Media.
SUCH AS “HUGE Protests”:
taking for e.g. the unauthorized protest in St.Pete, where he paid dozens of Babushka’s(elderly women) to stew over Cameras and pester the Police, while a small fanatic group (trained by the British Council) swarmed together to appear as a huge rally in the eyes of the cameras of the PREASSEMBLED Foreign Media crews.
There are huge efforts to discredit the Russian Government with hopes to overthrow it by means of “Revolution” (such as in most CIS states neighbooring Russia)
Almost all Western-European & American media coverage toward Russia is being themed negatively! ESP. BBC & CNN