Category Archives: United Russia

As the Power Vertical’s Robert Coalson explains, this is the way the game is played.  Anyone familiar with Russian politics over the last 20 years, if not the last century, will not be surprised United Russia hatchet-men hired “spin doctors” to spread black PR against opponents of UR power broker and Saratov deputy Vyacheslav Volodin.  I’m impressed that their smear arsenal included such creative tactics such as hiring a student to throw animal shit at journalists and paying homeless to stage rallies in support of opposing candidates.  I’m sure if someone digs deep enough they will probably find a few Nashists on the payroll.

The revelations come from Sergei Pochechuyev and Igor Osovin, who have detailed their service as political hit-men in their soon to be published book, The Black PR Practitioners Of The White Bear (Chernye piarshchiki belogo medvedia).  ..read more

Here’s a murder you probably won’t hear about in the Western press.  Grigory Nosikov, 48, was found dead on Wednesday of stab wounds outside the gates of his house, which is located in the Naro-Fominsk district some 60 miles west of Moscow.  Nosikov was not a journalist, oppositionist, or a human rights activist.  If he was you would probably know his name and his life by heart by now.  But no.  Nosikov was a member of United Russia and deputy of the town council in Kubinka.  Nosikov was also the owner of the Zalesye transportation company, and according to police, it was this, not his politics, which most likely led to his doom.

Nosikov is one of several deputies who have been murdered over the years.  According to Argumenty i fakty, being a Russian deputy is a risky job.  Not counting those in Ingushetia and Chechnya (which would make the list ..read more

Joachim Crima was surely mistaken if he thought he would coast into Russian history as the first Afro-Russian to run for public office.  Enter Fillip Kondratev, 34, technical director at the Volgograd construction company “Pyramid,” Afro-Russian, and newly declared candidate for mayor of the Srednaya Akhbuta.  But being black in Russia is pretty much were the similarities between Kondratev and Crima end.  Unlike the latter, Kondratev was born in Moscow province, Russia.  His father was a high level diplomat from Ghana (who he’s never met) and his mother Russian.  Moreover, while Crima may have been dubbed the “Volgograd Obama,” the title might be better suited for Kondratev.  As Trud explains, “Fillip looks very much like Barack Obama: He’s tall, 6’3″ and fairly light skin.”  Besides that, not much more is known about Kondratev.

Kondratev’s entry into the race certainly raises more suspicion as to the political veracity of the two Afro-Russian ..read more

My post about Joachim Crima, the so-called “Volgograd Obama,” has received a lot of traffic thanks to Joshua Keating’s link to it at Foreign Policy. So given the interest in this Russian political novelty, I figured I’d do an update on the first Afro-Russian to run for public office.

The first articles I read about Crima suggested that his candidacy was a scheme of local politicians to potentially suck votes from United Russia.  I still can’t figure out how this would be possible, and so far there has been no evidence to prove that Crima’s candidacy is merely a political gimmick.  Russian political commentators seem baffled, viewing Crima’s campaign as something that would appeal to voters “for the sake of a joke” or as “an act of protest against Russia’s moribund political life.” Indeed, Crima’s being an outside is part of his appeal.   As Rossiiskaya razeta found out, all the people ..read more

The results of the mayoral election in Sochi were as expected.  United Russia’s candidate Anatoly Pakhomov won.  No repeat of  the Murmansk mayoral contest allowed. The losers, Solidarity’s Boris Nemtsov and the Communist Party candidate Yuri Dzaganiya, have already charged massive fraud, dirty campaign tricks, and use of a variety “administrative resources” to hoist Pakhomov to victory.  Both candidates were systematically barred from local television, their billboards removed, and campaign literature confiscated.  Local Sochi tv even smeared poor Nemtsov with a 20 minute film claiming he was a South Korean spy. And what dastardly plot was he hatching for the east Asian nation? Conspiring to move the Olympics to Seoul.  As if.

Early voting served as the perfect opportunity for stuffing the box in favor of Pakhmonov. And if that wasn’t enough to tip the balance, then mobile poll buses were dispatched to the Abkhaz border.  Last week, Sochi’s ..read more

Delegates at United Russia’s 9th Congress voted unanimously to make Putin its party chairman. Putin accepted. Surprise, surprise. This possibility has been buzzing around the Russian media for a few weeks now. And in one fail swoop, what was thought to merely be a shell of a political party, has gained importance. Clearly Putin’s “election” to Party leader shows that United Russia is nothing without him.

That of course raises the issue of whether a nothing party like United Russia will actually give Putin something. As Konstantin Sonin noted in the Moscow Times, leading United Russia wouldn’t necessarily give Putin any guarantee over controlling the government. “The party has nothing to offer Putin in his struggle for power,” says Sonin. Indeed, political parties mean little real political power in Russia, even well connected behemoths like United Russia. Sonin continues:

In reality, United Russia’s 300-plus State Duma deputies are ..read more