First of all, the election will be held in 19 th November with the aim of electing deputies to the State Duma. There won’t be voting in entire Russia, yet only in some particular districts. According to the news, the current rulling party “United Russia” will acquire at least the two third of the sits of the Duma, which is an expected result, even though the partie’s popularity decreases after the downswing caused by the pandemic. For last two years it was believed that the opposition has grown, after what happened to the Alexy Navaly whose “Smart Vote” campain is currently working against the United Russia. After he got poisined, marches were orginized at the streets of Moscow, St.Petersburg and other major cities with the participation of considerable crowds. Yet, no one actually believe that this would work to get rid of the United Russia, because the Putin Effect is so powerfull that Navalny would not cope with it, despite his victimization. Most of Russians have still believed that Putin’s era brought prosperity and sustainability to the corrupt State which was at the state of chaos controlled by the bunch of Oligarchs. Putin with his bare hands and his cruel nature changed the way Russia’s fate goes, at least it is how the most people believes. Whether it is an illusion or not, the United Russia, that Putin constructed, will still benefit from his existence.
Besides, this year in particular the party put its top figures on the front in order to deal with the so called “Smart Vote” strategy, which frankly I do not see it as a sufficient tool to beat the giant. To beat the gaint, you have to take out your solid artillery. In addition, one guy with no party back up can not destroy the well equiped ruling party. It is not a fair race. He sees that and therefore he chooses the favor any party , whose votes are higher than other opposition parties, against the United Russia in a local level. For instance, if in St.Petersburg the Communist Party is stronger than other opposition parties, then his smart vote strategy says that people should vote for the Communists, even though he does not believe the communist party, either. So, basically he chooses the stick with a less shit on it. He wants to damage the United Russia in anyway possible. On the other hand, the opposition parties themselves seem desperate. The main opposition party of Russia is Communists with %13 votes. Can you see how miserable the opposition in Russia is? I am quite sure that the followers of Communist Party consist of the people whose age above the 70. I am not trying to undermine the party, but for God sake who wants the Communism back in Russia. Please, explain me. There is also a structural opposinal party called “Yablaka” and it means apple. I do not say one more word. So, after having some talks on these not assertive parties, there can be an only candidate for a real opposition, which is the Zhirinovsky’s Liberal party, whose votes are between %10-%13. That is the current condition about the opposition.
Experts believe that the United Russia harmed itself, when they proposed a bill about pensions and when the economic condition got worsened during the pandemic. Even though the general economic condition worsened and the prices went up, it can not be compared with the 1993 and 1998’s crisis, which undeniably have an huge impact on the people’s mind. Russia is still growing and the image of Putin was not seriously damaged after the considerable effort of Navalny who was endorsed by European and American media. In conclusion, it seems that people of Russia will vote for the contiunity of the rulling party due to the choicelessness, even though for the first time the United Russia severely threatened by the one young figure with foreign support. It is hard to predict a fundamental change in upcoming election, unless something really cricual happened.
