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Moscow Times
August 9, 2004
Bill Lets Bureaucrats Lead Political Parties
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer

With the Kremlin's blessing, United Russia deputies have drawn up legislation allowing senior government officials to hold top posts in political parties -- a move that some analysts called a step back to the Soviet party system.

The proposed changes would bring Russia closer to the Western model, where presidents and prime ministers double as leaders of political parties. But, analysts said, there would be a substantial difference: In the West, people first become party leaders and then ministers or presidents, while in Russia it is the other way around.

The pro-Kremlin United Russia party submitted the amendments to the Law on Government to the State Duma last week. It is expected to come up for a vote this fall.

United Russia Deputy Oleg Kovalyov, who heads the Duma Management Committee, said the initiative was launched by United Russia but only submitted to the Duma after consultations with the presidential administration, Izvestia reported.

Alexei Arbatov, a former deputy with the liberal Yabloko party and an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the government could end up looking Soviet if the bill is passed.

"This is a situation similar to that in the Soviet Union, when it was impossible to have a leadership job without being a member of the Communist Party. In the same way, from now on it would be impossible to get a leadership job if you are not a member of United Russia," Arbatov said Friday.

"This is another step away from democracy, a step toward the past," he said.

Sergei Mikheyev, analyst at the Center for Political Technologies, said that while Russia wants to use the West's political experience, "the [bill's] aim is more to unite United Russia with the government than to create a united machine."

Arbatov agreed, saying: "In Russia, people at the beginning get a senior government post and then become leaders of a party that is usually created to serve the interests of the bureaucratic system. Bureaucrats who hold a good post will guarantee the party's good performance in any election -- federal or regional."

The Law on Government was passed in 1997 in an attempt by the government of then-President Boris Yeltsin to completely destroy any association between his government and the governments of the Soviet past, when only party leaders could hold senior government positions.

The 1997 law does not explicitly bar government officials from joining parties but does ban them from holding senior party positions.

But the law is easily circumvented. United Russia, for example, has formed the higher council, which de jure serves as a consultative body but de facto leads the party. Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov served as one of its four co-chairmen when he was interior minister.

Current higher council members include Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Tatar President Mintimer Shaimiyev and Saratov Governor Dmitry Ayatskov.

Rodina Deputy Oleg Shein said the bill allows government officials to do what they are already doing. "The bill allows everyone to understand that United Russia is a party of bureaucrats," he said. "It puts an end to this ambiguous situation."