Posted on January 27, 2008 - by Venik

Kasyanov barred from elections

Mikhail Kasyanov, Russia’s former Prime Minister and the leader of the PDU party, has been barred by the Central Election Commission (CEC) from participating in the presidential elections in March of 2008. According to Russian election legislation, an independent candidate like Kasyanov must collect two million signatures from supporters in order to participate in presidential election. The legislation allows up to 5% of the collected signatures to be invalid due to a variety of reasons. However, according to the CEC as many as 13% of the signatures collected by Kasyanov’s campaign workers were forged or unverifiable.

Naturally and as usual Kasyanov accused the Kremlin of trying to sabotage his chances in the election. According to the polls, Kasyanov’s candidacy enjoys support of almost 1% of eligible voters. Clearly, this makes Kasyanov the number one opponent of Kremlin-backed Medvedev with his expected 50-60% of vote.

Kasyanov’s lack of popularity stems from his past role under Boris Yeltsin as well as from his thee years as the Prime Minister. Additionally, Kasyanov is probably the most pompous of Russian politicians and this attitude doesn’t sit too well with most Russian voters. Kasyanov made a crucial mistake of aligning himself with Kasparov’s “Other Russia” and Limonov’s National Bolshevik Party. This alliance was formed out of desperation felt by all three parties.

Traditionally, the Russian opposition enjoys support from the intellectuals, while the National Bolshevik Party was a radical organization modeled after German neo-Nazi movements. Reconciling the views of Russian militant radicals and those of the intellectuals proved impossible. Limonov’s National Bolshevik party was outlawed by the decision of the Supreme Court, Kasparov’s “Other Russia” never managed to build sufficient support to become a legally-registered political party.

Kasyanov publicly ended his affiliation with Limonov and Kasparov. However, this move came too late to salvage whatever remained of Kasyanov’s reputation. Kasyanov and his party lost much of the popular support due to their affiliation with the radicals. Following the breakup with “Other Russia” and the National Bolsheviks, Kasyanov kept his election campaign going, but just barely. He knew his chances were non-existent and he made no attempt to inspire his supporters.

In the end, Kasyanov’s past as the Prime Minister and his close affiliation with the Yeltsin’s administration proved a liability for the Russian opposition. Seeking an alliance with National Bolsheviks was a tremendous blunder. Finally, failure on the part of “Other Russia” to legally become a political party and their choice of Kasparov as their candidate left Russian anti-Kremlin forces with no chance of creating any opposition to the Putin-backed candidate.

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