The Political And Economic Results Of September 2013

In September 2013, voters cast their ballots on Russia’ single voting day. The results of voting differed greatly from one region to another: in some regions, where the voting procedure had become a mere formality, United Russia managed to win from 40 to 80% of the votes cast, while in the regions where voting had been more or less competitive, this party bagged between 40 and 55% of the vote. The CPRF came in second, having gained more than 10% of the vote practically in every region, including Moscow. By contrast, the LDPR and, especially, Fair Russia suffered a decline in their electoral fortunes. Thus, Fair Russia failed to gain any seats in almost half of Russia’s regional parliaments. In the Moscow mayoral election, Sergey Sobyanin narrowly won over his main contender, Aleksey Navalny, by bagging 51% of the vote. The Opposition’s relative success was very relative indeed – on the one hand, 27% of the vote gained by Navalny is a good result that can be treated with measured optimism; while on the other hand, it nevertheless represents a defeat suffered by a large margin. The RF Government adopted a new three-year budget marked by a number of spending cuts. Some of these measures, designed to trim the state budget, were long overdue, including the Government’s decision to freeze the salaries of public servants and the military (which have been growing at a breakneck pace in recent years), the belt-tightening with regard to the rearmament program, and a partial tariff freeze on natural monopolies (tariffs paid by enterprises will be completely frozen, while those paid by individuals will grow at a rate below the inflation rate). On the other hand, the Government’s attitude to the pension system causes concern – by reducing the funded part of labor pension and simultaneously speculating on the possibilities of altogether abolishing the pension system introduced only ten years previously, the Government undermines public confidence in its policies and renders the payment of reported wages entirely senseless.