https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/russias-electoral-results-no-surprises
Russia’s electoral results: no surprises but several take-aways
Published by gilbertdoctorow
Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write. Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975). After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility. From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels. View all posts by gilbertdoctorow
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I disagree on a few aspects. I think the election was fascinating in its own way and important. The turnout was the big suspense point and its important for the message it sends because unlike the Ukraine, Russia is having elections. Just under 60% turnout is very decent.
Resounding victories for the incumbent in the Governors elections which for the border regions that are under Ukrainian attack ,carry significance.
What many people dont realise is the dearth of opinions of Putin on many topics, gives the Duma a blank canvas to put through most of their own laws, that a Putin and Presidential administration deeply immersed in the SMO has little interest in ( outside of the security-based) , other than signing the bills into law . The president gives out his executive orders, but it’s more important to me how many federal laws originate from government proposals against those from the State Duma.
How many times does Putin use his veto? Very rarely. I would argue he steps in more against a proposal from his own cabinet of ministers than he does against the Duma
The Prime Minister,Mishustin , I don’t know a single political opinion he has on anything whatsoever. I don’t think that’s a good thing BTW, coming up to 5 years of being the second most powerful man in Russia and not doing an interview, but there you go. So in the absence of political opinions of Putin and Mishustin – the United Russia party has the power, has its own agenda and the Duma as a whole does it job, constructively , with the President and governmentagencies- but I would still claim independently.
This is unlike the circus in Ukraine, or even the American legislative bodies . So I wouldn’t classify there as being a joint assessment to do of Putin and United Russia , as I think they should be separated, and the Russian voters are sophisticated enough to do so, and that explains the difference in voting percentage between presidential and parliamentary.
It would be better if there wasn’t a supermajority – but messers Zelensky, the rest of the rancid Nazi regime and NATO leader clowns deserve a bottle of fine wine each from United Russia for making this possible. Slutsky is uninspiring and it is ridiculous that Zyuganov is running things still for KPRF- but I don’t think that’s enough for the russophobes to claim the elections as a stageshow.
The President can initiate, with money to release straight away, very populist policies, such as giving 800000 Roubles to first time mothers, that the Duma would be crazy to reject and People rally around the flag and the head of state during a war that most of the population feels is just, so the positive rating for that is always going to go to the head of state more than the Parliament because of the war factor and the populist policies . The key is that Putin isn’t prolifigate in his populism, and that gives the Duma the scope to do plenty of their own work
Sure, as with the unconstitutional slowing down of the Internet ( which by the way seems to be a less complained issue now) the President and security are secretly enacting powers that the Duma are getting the same amount of blame for, unfairly, but in this time of war other than security stuff , the Duma does more laws passed that were originally proposed by them in every other sector.
As you have noticed from your stays in Russia, the country is doing ok and wealthier now and GDP grown compared to where it was before the Special Military Operation. Traditionally poor, traditionally ancient Russian places like Pskov and Kostroma are booming with money flowing in since the war and domestic tourism. With it have come a fair few problems and irritations across Russian that I am sure you will eruditely explain in observations from your current stay in Russia, but as a whole, its as simple as saying that the continued massive victories of Putin and United Russia are explainable by the Russian public being satisfied that the cascade of sanctions imposed by the entire west, haven’t collapsed the country at all, and even shown growth – which is quite an impressive feat.
The only thing that could undermine this level of public support would be if the western and Ukrainian claims of military losses for Russia were found to be in any way close to the truth, or even at a ratio of 1 Ukrainian to 1 Russian – but the true numbers won’t be known until after the war, and the body exchange counts are encouraging
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