VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin’s ruling party could see its vast parliamentary majority cut back in elections that began today in the icy tundra and sparsely-populated swathes of Russia’s far east.
At polling stations from the Arctic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, the election will indicate the scope of fatigue with Putin’s 12-year rule just three months before he asks voters to endorse his return to the Kremlin as president.
Russians interviewed by Reuters across the world’s biggest country gave a mixed picture. Some expressed disgust with a parliamentary election they said was likely to be rigged while others said they supported Putin and his United Russia party.
“I support United Russia. I like Putin. He is the strong leader we need in our country,” said Nikolai, a 33-year-old customs officer in Vladivostok, a port city of 600,000 people on the Pacific and the biggest city in Russia’s Far East.
Some voters said they would vote for Just Russia or the Communists because they were disillusioned with Putin and his party, a trend that could cost United Russia dearly. Polls show Putin’s party is likely to win a majority but less than the 315 seats it currently has in the 450-seat lower house of parliament, known as the Duma.
If it gets less than two-thirds of seats, Putin’s party would be stripped of its so called constitutional majority which allows it to change the constitution and even approve the impeachment of the president.
Opposition parties say the election is unfair because the authorities support United Russia with cash and television air time while they say vote rigging will be employed to boost United Russia’s result.
Supporters say the former-KGB spy saved Russia during his 2000-08 presidency from the chaos of the immediate post-Soviet era and supplied the longest and steepest economic boom in a generation. He also crushed a rebellion in the southern region of Chechnya that tested the fabric of a federation spanning 9,000 Km (5,600 miles) from the Baltic to the Pacific.
Russian customs officers held the director of an independent election watchdog for 12 hours at a Moscow airport on Saturday. The United States said it was concerned by “a pattern of harassment” against the watchdog.
