Russian politics. A message from Moscow

The Kremlin's election view

The Moscow city council election confirms the Kremlin's tight grip

THE election to Moscow's city council on December 4th was widely seen as a dress rehearsal for Russia's parliamentary vote in 2007. If it was, the main spectacle promises to be both well choreographed and poorly attended.

The Moscow poll was a fine example of "managed democracy", in which the Kremlin's hand was visible in everything from the advertising to the final result. Both were heavily biased towards United Russia, the party backed by Vladimir Putin, Russia's president. Only 34% of Muscovites turned out to vote. "They will decide for us who to elect," said one cynical voter in the eastern part of the city. Officially, United Russia won 28 of the 35 seats. The Communists took 17% of the vote, which translated into four seats. The remaining three went to a coalition of liberal parties. The result was suspiciously similar to one in Chechnya a week earlier.

The only serious challenge to United Russia might have come from Rodina, a nationalist party that was scoring strongly in opinion polls before the vote. But it was banned from the election, on the ground that one of its television advertisements incited ethnic hatred. It showed a blonde Russian woman pushing a pram over watermelon rinds tossed on the ground by four men from the Caucasus. The men are approached by Dmitry Rogozin, Rodina's leader, plus a comrade. "Pick it up and clear up after yourself," says Mr Rogozin. "Do you understand Russian?" adds the comrade. The slogan was: "Let us clear our city of rubbish." After the riots in France, Rodina translated the ad into French and pretended it was set in Paris.

Nasty, to be sure. But why was Rodina banned (technically by the courts, though it is unlikely that the Kremlin was not involved)? The initial complaint was filed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of a rabidly nationalist party that has often acted in the interests of the Kremlin. No doubt the courts that banned Rodina acted likewise.

Rodina was launched three years ago with the help of Kremlin spin-doctors. Its aim was to chip away at Communist votes in the parliamentary election of 2003. It has since grown into an independent political force that propagates and feeds on Russian nationalism and xenophobia. "There are too many migrants in Moscow and they all want to impose their culture on us," says Nina Ivanova, a pensioner who supports Rodina. Several apparently racist attacks took place on the eve of the election, with one man from the mostly Muslim republic of Dagestan being knifed to death. In a Moscow by-election for a seat in the national parliament held on the same day, Vladimir Kvachkov, an anti-Semitic former military intelligence officer who is on trial for the attempted murder of Anatoly Chubais, a reformer of the 1990s, won almost 30% of the vote.

The ban on Rodina brought extra votes to the Communists, who did better than expected. The liberals' share of 11% was depressingly low - and it was won only after a pact between Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, the two main liberal parties, hitherto hamstrung by bickering. The liberals say the vote was rigged. There were reports of voters being bused between one polling station and another, plus other well-honed Russian subterfuges. One observer was thrown out of a polling station for moving furniture, apparently creating a "fire hazard".

United Russia would surely have won even a fair election. Its candidate list was headed by Yuri Luzhkov, the popular can-do mayor of Moscow, a former rival-turned-ally of Mr Putin's, even though he never intended to take up his seat. But why take the risk? In a country as centralised as Russia is these days, the capital sets the tone for the rest of the country. The message from Moscow this week will be transmitted and amplified across the country - and into the 2007 election.

Article says that the Moscow city council election confirms the Kremlin's tight grip.