ok this is almost all the votes counted in russia's parliamentary election but the united russia party would still suffering a loss of the support meanwhile people are unhappy with the outcome of prozac to the capital center with police intervening when the march moved beyond your fries venue would bore downtown moscow to a standstill. the year a faces its biggest threat yet is the entire eurozone faces a ratings downgrade an announcement that said global markets reeling passes e.u.

leaders prepared. ditches had to save the troubled currency had a meeting in brussels thursday. and already strained u.s. papa stone relations afresh as american senators push for a review of toys and a reduction in aid to its kenyan middle east ally because the natives recent deadly airstrike on the pakistan border to do is to shut down a vital supply route. next a look at what's over the economic horizon russia's representative to the i.m.f. .

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 to vote in for the four hundred fifteen seats in the state dubai the lower chander of the russian parliament almost all the roads being counted 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 to still 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 just lovely become a leading political analyst in. 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 over a dish show the same four parties make it into the duma these time what's new is the distribution. united russia party which had enjoyed it two thirds majority in the previous duma as 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 short of the the seven percent of votes needed to get into the lower house of the russian parliament the votes these parties receive moving surely be distributed between the winning parties so the united russia party headed by vladimir putin will most probably keep its parliamentary majority however the 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 to mile action. we're going to show low 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 on the party list yes

a sense of you're an m.p. took over. well well as as part of this party though not a member do you consider as a political analyst as a member of the former if you should be do you consider the result a success or a major drawback for here if you wish 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 two. 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 c. all was well sixty four percent of the vote which gave constitutional majority but

that was extraordinary. six dumas 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. countries that are true well absolutely status is at least till the next presidential election since president invidious was leading the list all the united russia party in the parliamentary election and now it's get it got more than fifty percent of the seats which makes not just the strongest political force but the

force with a law making capability now let's hear what the meat the middle who led the united russia through this election said last night. the party has the full belly well the party represents almost fifty percent of the population base is the result of the democratic process but taken into account or not thanks to make amends you have to form a coalition with other parties of the various issues and this is what power money and democracy is all about and the leaders of other parties so that they're ready for that which in store. so we hear that. medvedev is also tell talking about 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 we touch is 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 if you work but but nothing really critical or dramatic. 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 and the whole liberal party is in the duma and the liberal electorate did not show up at this election to not materialize so what three percent three quarters of the we obligated and lesser than the one percent for that for the right cause and. what we've got in this election is enormous shift like fifty percent shift to

the left which is this is what you lost these exact oh it was only around fifteen percent which went to the porteous which are more left wing. you know in russia as putin explained that they cannot mix that europe was only a 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 in this. about the soviet past so that was not a liberal revolt against authoritarianism it was a socialist communist reward 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 betake who owns to 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 for clean government so said so this was the message that you think the ruling party should get for the elections as 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 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 or more into that we're talking to. political scientists because just last week the spotlight will be back shortly. palter break will continue this interview stay with .

me well into the future of science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. wealthy british style . that's not on. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our. and welcome back to spotlight al green of in just a reminder my guest on the show today is political scientist the just laugh. this

leak of a you just mentioned a couple of minutes ago that the liberal electorate didn't really show up at the recent elections. this is right they did the liberal democratic parties the yabloko the right cause they 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 it 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 and that 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 a 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 shall need a liberal not democratic. very nationalist there front of their party. sure enough he is also anti communist. is coming together was you gonna fall for him is extremely difficult at the same time if you ask 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 the 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. raima legislation if united russia party is disciplined disciplined and use said you personally as a political scientist as that i can do that to the to the duma you don't consider the results of the outcome of the election as major 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 parties if you take the communist is a gun of the leader of the communist is less popular the only come of this war is 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

larry the party's major problem irrelevant in the year 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 electorates 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 the. 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 then 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 there 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. i've been observing elections for many years in many countries monitored by the euro or post money. i think this was a very good election occurred that the point of. irregularities that 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 barry. authoritarians but this doesn't. have any problem with the with about.

your approach your real specialist. so. many. votes what percentage do you think theoretically could you give the so-called technology and technology technology the people who who count to who are who are ready to. try to help the ruling party using the so-called administrative tools. how much good in the world and five percent ten percent of what do you mean by administrative tool will be in being a president of the party helps. you to talk 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 or 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 what do you think a whirl 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 and 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 a which will be on the ballot and that we can also tell a lot it 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 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 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 very 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 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 weekend and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your son for like drop me a line but life will be back with with more than comments on what's going on in and outside until then stay on our team and take it it as .

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