| 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
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Komsomolskaya Pravda, December 30, 2003
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