| It is hard to say now what the Kremlin was really aiming
to achieve when it sought absolute control over the Duma. Experts usually
list four factors as possible motives. Firstly, the desire to ease the
passage through parliament of some radical reforms allegedly planned for
Putin's second term in office. Secondly, the Kremlin's obsession with concentrating
all political power in Russia; an obsession where the means inevitably
becomes more important than the end. Thirdly, an eagerness of some state
officials to experiment. And fourthly, the desire to get the largest possible
slice of the pie (after all, there is a whole army of officials, political
consultants, and so on servicing the Kremlin and catering to its every
need). A more thorough analysis, however, makes the picture less simple.
United Russia is indeed forming a faction that is larger than the constitutional
majority (308 lawmakers are already in it). No, the Union of Right-Wing
Forces (SPS) and Yabloko haven't made it into the Duma:while the Communist
faction is only half the size it used to be. Essentially, however, it doesn’t
matter in politics whether you are on the right or on the left (or in the
centre for that matter). Interests come first - no, not the interests of
Duma members or party functionaries themselves, but of their patrons and
sponsors.Even in the previous Duma the outcome of voting on bills depended
mostly on the plans of factions within the regime, or corporations, not
on party policies. Compromises (if that is what they were) were never reached
during parliamentary debates. They were reached in consultations with the
Kremlin. Since 2000, the Duma has only been correcting decisions made by
others. It is true that the new Duma will be 100% controllable. However,
there is more to the truth than that. The so-called elite granted the Kremlin
the powers of supreme arbitre long ago. From this point of view, the outcome
of the parliamentary elections is just an illustration of the status quo.
In short, little if anything has changed for the majority of business groups.
Only YUKOS owners who sponsored the Yabloko party, the Communists, and
several dozen candidates from single-mandate districts are not represented
in the lower house to the extent they had wanted.This is just a corollary
of their more general defeat. Neither did Anatoly Chubais achieve his objectives:
the man who took it upon himself to get the Union of Right Forces into
the Duma, but failed. All the other corporations had their candidates elected
to the Duma via the lists of United Russia, the Communist Party, the LDPR
and Motherland. In short, at least 300 of the 450 lawmakersare either owners
of major or medium-sized companies, or have been delegated to the lower
house by corporations, or are professional lobbyists. Lobbying for business
interests is going to be less public now. Big business doesn't mind; money
doesn't like noise.
See also:
State Duma elections
2003
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Vedomosti, December 30, 2003
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