video on demand. and read the palm of your. questions. about the main stories we're covering for you today a moscow rally in reaction to russia's parliamentary elections descends into. place . on the road to ruin your credit ratings are on the blog as leaders make a beeline to brussels for a last ditch attempt to salvage the. ties with qatar. envoys beaten by security forces apparently after credit criticism of its stance on

the spring revolutions. but next a look at what's over the economic horizon with russia representative. hello and welcome to spotlight the interview show on arts aren't elderly already today we'll be discussing the results of the parliamentary election and rush. by sunday millions of people in russia as well as russians all around the world voted for the four hundred fifty seats in the state duma the lower chapter of the russian

parliament almost all the roads being talented and though the final figures have yet to be announced the result is clear the ruling united russia remains the strongest body in the parliament though it has lost its coast use the majority so from now on it may have to seek support among the opposition. is that going to be easy for the party used to total control and what can we expect from the newly elected parliament our guest to discuss these and other questions will be of interest law becomes a leading political analyst for. the last four years so the russian state duma pos a record breaking fifteen hundred bills then you elected them these will be able to be that as their term in office is going to be a year longer but before they can take their seats in the duma and stop working

they'll have to wait a wrong twenty days for the final election results to be announced meanwhile the preliminary results overages show the same four parties make it into the duma these time what's new is the distribution not. the united russia party which had enjoyed a two thirds majority in the previous duma has this time gained a little less than half of the votes the second largest political force in russia the call meanies have almost doubled their representation in the poem and the fair russia party has done my job better than four years ago when i've barely crossed the seventy percent for a sure sign of the liberal democrats have also managed to get more votes than they did last time all of the three outsiders of the election race fell far sure of the seven percent of votes needed to get into the lower house of the russian parliament the votes these parties received moving surely be distributed between the winning parties so the united russia party formally headed by vladimir putin will most

probably keep its parliament religion already however they reduced support the program and party has seen this time is cited by and i was says one of the most important outcomes of the state do my own action. how are you going to be sure oh well thank you very much for being with us well first of all congratulations because because you are a member of the united russia party and you are going to become an m.p. said the true not not a member but i was on the party list party list yes i'm sorry you're an m.p. took a. well as as part of this party though not a member do you consider as a political analyst and a member of the former future do you consider the result a success or a major drawback for here in russia well i think. definitely in

law glorious victory but it is not a defeat either. this is the third election for for the united russia party their first one was in the year just. thousand and three and that's when the united russia got thirty seven percent of the vote then came the election of the triumph that was before the economic crisis when the economy was on the rise when the mood of the nation was high sixty five six zero was well sixty four percent of the vote which gave constitutional majority but that was extraordinary. six duma's in post communist russian history and only one where a party had a constitutional majority so that is not there anymore on the other hand look what happens in other countries. united russia was in power during the terms of crisis

the russian economy was going down when mood of the nation changed drastically. and many ruling party is in europe lost the elections and lost their power so for the united russia to get a little bit less than half of the vote and that means a little bit more than half of the seats in the duma that means keeping its absolute majority of the seats is quite a good result. there is no need for russia or for the united russia at this point in the next duma to. compromise with other factions and opposition parties to pass regular federal laws. that may be required to pass a constitutional or which needs two thirds of the votes and then the united russia will have to cooperate with the so what you're saying that even after losing

a significant number of seats the united part russia still is still considers itself and still should be considered by everybody else as the ruling party in the . countries that are true well absolutely status is at least till the next presidential election since president invidious was leading the list of the united russia party in the parliamentary election and now it's get it got more than fifty percent of the seats which makes it not just the strongest political force but the force with a law making capability now let's hear what the meat the middle of who lead lead united russia through this election said last night. the party has i thought fairly well the party represents almost fifty percent of the population base is the result of the democratic process but taken into account i'm not fine thanks to make amends for how to form a coalition with other parties of the various issues and this is what power me and

democracy is all about and the leaders of other parties said that they're ready for that but since the war. that we hear that. medvedev is also tell talking about this this possible need for a compromise a coalition within the party well what is this explain to us what is this constitutional majority and what are those circumstances under which the ruling party will have to compromise and both first of all you need two thirds to amend the constitution which is the most important but there are also certain constitutional laws concerning the major pieces of legislation which for example deals with issues of the federal executive branch of the judicial system something which touches the constitution and that's where you need two thirds but for most of the laws you need just a simple majority. are are any of these laws i mean constitutional laws

under consideration you know they're required but but nothing really critical or dramatic there. there is no must for the united russia now to compromise with with some other parties and actually of course the president is right saying that russia should be prepared to compromise but i don't think that it should compromise all the time with the minor parties because being myself a conservative outlook i am not really in favor of compromising with the party as we very much to the left of the united russia i mean the communist with communist ideology the fair russia which is part of socialist international and the liberal democrats which is a mixture of populism and nationalism so there's nobody for you to make a coalition with oh for of course different situations there should be

a coalition of course for me it would be easier to have a coalition with the liberal parties for example but the there on the whole liberal party as you are in the duma and the liberal electorate did not show up at this election to not materialize so what three percent or three quarters that we are obligated to lesser than the one percent for that for the right cause and. what we've got in this election is enormous shift like fifteen percent shift to the left which is this is what you want these exact well certainly around fifteen percent which went to the porteous which are more left wing billionaire in russia as putin explained that they cannot mix that you reach laws of the crisis because of the economic situation and because russia is a very paternalistic state russia's want more socialist absolutely russian

political mainstream is very socialist people want to government to take care of them people want more government regulation. and many especially the older generation are. about the soviet past so that was not a liberal revolt against authoritarianism it was a socialist communist rule walt against the more liberal government which is. also supportive of big businesses so the message of the people we don't like we just don't trust fully the united russia though we trust it a lot but we don't trust many of the policies including that giving freeride to be taken to less government regulation and so on and so forth and of course there was also an anti corruption. vote because there were many corruption

scandals in the recent years and of course they are associated with the ruling parties elsewhere and most of the opposition rhetoric during the election campaign was about honesty in the government so there is a strong request for fairness for justice and for clean government so said so this was the message that you think the ruling party should get for the election well maybe that's the message we've got there is the kind of parties which received luxury presentation in the duma and of course that's what you know that russia will have to deal with in the presidential election where they already nominated their candidate prime minister puton so. this means what you just said that probably the ruling party will have to change something in a span the seas in the coming in the coming period especially if we if we. keep in

mind that we still have presidential elections to come let's bring just a more into that we're talking to. political scientists. nicholas floodlight will be back shortly. halter break will continue this interview stay with. the boat. wealthy british style sign. that's not on the tires. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report. on . morning news today violence is once again flared up the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are all over the day. and welcome back to the spotlight i'm going of in just a reminder my guest on the show today is political scientist the just last week a mystical or a you just mentioned

a couple of minutes ago that the liberal electorate didn't really show up the reason to actions. this is right they did the liberal democratic party's yabloko the right cause the actually got about four percent although why did this happen and what do you think is the real number of the people who would who would vote for a liberal before all the liberal electorate is around ten percent so if there is one strong liberal liberal party that has a chance of getting over seven percent threshold and getting into the duma unfortunately that did not happen there was a right course party headed by. i think you could pretty good chances of uniting this electorate but there was a split in the huge scandal. and that was it and the liberals are also divided divided between the two big groups which are going to

stick one part of the liberals are winners in the reform of the rich and wealthy. another group of liberals are losers of the reform that is the former soviet middle class soviet intellectuals and these two groups they just hated each other the liberals do not come together too well and that is one of the major reasons why they are not represented the reason is russia doomed does that mean that that that russia will not become a liberal country in the at least in this generation well. i don't know a single country in europe except maybe the u.k. where liberals are strong political parties in most of european countries you have christian democrats conservatives there is something which is pretty close to the. of united russia and socialist social democratic there is the european dichotomy between conservatism and socialism and liberalism is not there so in this

sense russia logical terms is sort of european country let's talk about the opposition which made it the three parties that got into the parliament except the ruling party do you think they theoretically may form sort of a coalition against the well theoretically in practice. it's hard to imagine also divided they're also divided first of all the liberal democrats are sure enough skew we should leave the liberal not democrat that. very nationalist on their front of their one. is also anti communist. is coming together was you gonna fall for him is extremely difficult at the same time if you asked which party would be more eager to cooperate with the united russia then probably asking liberal democrats who number one for them it is easier to cooperate

with the government so other is to do they have a sort of history of cooperation for four years sometimes getting some material even benefits from from from this corporation and that increases their lobbying potential. so. this coalition is possible but even in this duma if they come together then they will not have the majority they can stop constitutional laws they cannot stop the. i'm a legislation if united russia party is disciplined disciplined enough use said you personally as a political scientist as i can do that to the to the duma you don't consider the results of the outcome of the election as may you said but i want to ask you about vladimir putin he most likely will be the next president of the country and he has

conditioned the candidacy of medvedev for the position of prime minister with a successful united russia result at the duma election so do you think that putin may consider a loss of sixteen percent as a major drop. maybe maybe not. really estimates the whole situation. putin is stronger than the party his rating is definitely than that of the united russia which is not typical for other porteous if you take the communists is a gun of the leader of the communists is less popular the only come of the stories of the party itself sure enough ski is as popular as the party and mironov who is leading the fair russia is probably also less popular. than his party at least in memory the party's major problem irrelevant you know here it may be a major problem but at the same time his party is

a major success or this election campaign in one month time they increase their electorate three fault there is enormous progress which was i think could be explained by a very good election campaign based on principle of justice and honesty and very critical of the united russia so these parties are not united enough to to to be united opposition to united russia ok now about the international observers these. complained about i quote the lack of a level playing field the lack of independence of the election administration the partially the partiality of most media and interference of state authorities at different levels how fair is that assessment how well would you read first i would say it's a standard assessment more or less the same for any russian election except

one actually in one thousand nine hundred six than boris yeltsin defeated you know he's a goner who was really not the most welcome candidate from the point of view of everyone including the western observers and of course the election which was not fair. actually. it's i wouldn't dare to say that the whole electoral process in russia is to real at the same time i wouldn't say it is absolutely corrupt and that it does not reflect the structure of electoral preferences actually the result the actual result of the election their actual voting for the united russia was. a little bit smaller than predicted by the public opinion polls including where the public opinion polls of the opposition so that means that in general the structure of the electoral preferences was more disturbed

now let's hear a couple of words from those foreign observers. had been observing election for many years in many countries in. europe or polls monita i think this was a very good election occurred adequately of magna irregularities. but i met none whatsoever i didn't see any. special this. question. you must. improve is that sometimes the chairman of the of the committee other comedy are very. authoritarian but this doesn't. have any problem with the shoulder with the ball. well you're a pro you're

a real specialist. so. many. votes what percentage do you think theoretically could you give the so-called technology and technology technology did the people who who count to who are who are ready to to try to help the ruling party using the so-called administrative tools. how much can it be five percent ten percent any what do you mean by administrative tool will be being a president of the party helps a bit of tool and that means the hue will get more attention of the media that means he will have more you know different events happening. there of course the ruling party is always has this advantage but there is also a disadvantage because in this case you're take all the responsibility was going on in the country so having administrative resource is

a good thing probably one hand it's not a good thing from the other. so what i mean is people people. these days will be protesting in different cities of this country saying that saying that there were miscalculations that that the people stole their votes of what percent of the votes can we be talking about one percent two percent five percent why do you think a well i don't think there are there was any stolen vote in this election first place as. the public opinion polls were quite accurate in predicting the outcome except the united russia got less fear russia got more than the public opinion polls showed so i think it's morally. accurate picture what we've got blast minus one percent two percent i don't know ok. he mentioned the election that we'll be having in spring and the presidential

election can we judging from what the ruling party got today can we somehow speak about the number of votes that putin as the candidate from the ruling party will get into very hard to say at this point it looks like around sixty but the campaign can change a lot as the campaign. to the duma change many things in the process we don't know the exact list of all of the candidates with still do not have the many of which will be on the ballot and that we can also tell a lot doesn't look like there will be united opposition candidate mr miron of who is chairing the fair russia party has already you know his candidacy the communist party has not yet nominated anybody and i think you've got of at this point maybe the weakest of the communist candidates because he has been there for years and

a fresh calm in his face could be very much more successful in the presidential election of the communists will be it will be quite dangerous the liberals they may come with with a candidate who who is not the there but again i cannot think of how the liberals can come out with one candidate who would be supported by everyone else the jury and all ski he's running he's running all the time in almost all presidential elections he will probably be running in this election again but i wouldn't look at the. election as the pattern for the presidential some people some more popular some day parties more popular and you know where the voice of versus so it is and it can pain matters but for me it's also clear that it will not be an easy free ride for putin in the presidential election there will be a fight thank you thank you very much in just a reminder that my guest today was just last week and that's it for now from all of

us here if you want to have your son for life drop me a line but life will be back with with more than comments on what's going on in and outside russia until then they are to take it. rushes would be soon which brighter if you knew all about sun from finest impressions. friend starts on t. dot com.

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