Moscow Times
March 4, 2009
Medvedev Bills Promise To Help Political Parties
By Natalya Krainova / Staff Writer
President Dmitry Medvedev is backing two bills that would benefit smaller political parties, a move some analysts say could signal his desire to inch away from the policies of his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and position himself as a liberal.
One of the bills would ultimately reduce the number of signatures required for a party to submit to register for parliamentary elections to 120,000, down from the current requirement of 200,000 signatures.
The other bill is ostensibly aimed at securing equal coverage on state television and radio for parties represented in the State Duma, though it does not specify the amount of coverage to be allocated.
Summaries of both initiatives, which are currently awaiting a first reading in the Duma, were published on the Kremlin web site Friday.
The bills address two issues that opposition groups and parties say are hindering the development of a vibrant polity. They complain that the signature requirements to register as parties and for elections are disproportionately strict and that state-controlled media provides excessive free advertisement thanks to fawning reports about ruling party United Russia and its leader, Putin.
The initiatives follow another bill proposed by Medvedev last month reducing the number of signatures that groups are required to submit to the Justice Ministry to be registered as political parties. The bill would lower the current 50,000-signature barrier to 40,000 by 2012.
Several smaller, opposition-minded political groups have been denied registration for failing to collect the required 50,000 valid signatures. Opposition politicians such as Mikhail Kasyanov have said authorities deliberately declared many of the signatures that they submitted invalid so that the Kremlin can maintain complete control over the political landscape.
Communist Duma Deputy Vadim Solovyov called Medvedev's initiatives "an attempt to camouflage the fact that ... only parties acceptable for the Kremlin are allowed in the parliament.
"If there is a political order, [election officials] would find the necessary amount of invalid signatures," Solovyov said.
The Communists have been among the most vocal critics of the wall-to-wall coverage given to United Russia in state-controlled media during elections. Solovyov, a lawyer who has handled the party's court complaints about unfair coverage, said even if enacted, the proposed law is unlikely to be enforced properly.
"The Central Elections Commission is a branch of United Russia, that's why I have no trust in it," he said.
Alexei Makarkin, an analyst with the Center of Political Technologies said Medvedev's proposals on party registration were "undoubtedly liberal," though slow-paced. "Because he was voted for as [Putin's] successor, he has to maintain a balance between continuity and his liberal initiatives," Makarkin said. "I am not sure that he would have had success as a pure liberal politician."
Alexei Mukhin, an analyst with the Center for Political Information, said that by making such small liberal concessions, Medvedev is trying to gain support among liberal-minded voters ahead of the 2012 presidential election.