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Komsomolskaya Pravda, December 30, 2003

Will Putin Run for Presdiency Against Unknowns?

By Sergei Yuriev

Last week clarified that Vladimir Putin is unlikely to have any serious rivals in the presidential election. The congresses of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and the Communist Party (CPRF), two leading political parties, resolved that their party leaders would not run for president. Instead of Gennadi Zyuganov, the Communists nominated Agrarian leader Nikolai Kharitonov. The LDPR nominated Oleg Malyshkin, an obscure politician known only within the LDPR. The leaders of Yabloko and the Union of Right-Wing Forces will not run for president either. In other words, the campaign has just begun - but Putin is already the unquestionable favorite. Needless to say, this situation devalues his inevitable victory. Some specialists do not rule out the possibility that this is what prominent politicians were seeking to achieve. It is common knowledge that Zyuganov, Grigory Yavlinsky, and Boris Nemtsov are aggrieved, and describe the recent parliamentary elections as unfair. Until now, participation in the presidential race provided a barometer of support for every political party (except the CPRF), but this time it is already clear that their ratings are meagre. In the circumstances, had Vladimir Zhirinovsky decided to run for president, he would have been forced to challenge and criticize the regime. And we all know that this is what he dislikes doing. As a result, Putin will apparently run for president against nobodies like Viktor Anpilov and Herman Sterligov, and Putin's own supporter Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov. This means that the Kremlin may initiate extensive consultations in the near future, in a bid to drag at least one political heavyweight into the race.

 

See also:

Presidential elections 2004

Komsomolskaya Pravda, December 30, 2003

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