Russia’s Putin Loses Majority, Resurgence of Communists

Russia’s Vladmir Putin’s leadership appears on the edges.

From Reuters,

Russian voters have dealt Vladimir Putin's ruling party a heavy blow by cutting its parliamentary majority in an election that showed growing unease with his domination of the country as he prepares to reclaim the presidency.

Incomplete results showed Putin's United Russia was struggling even to win 50 percent of the votes in Sunday's election, compared with more than 64 percent four years ago. Opposition parties said even that outcome was inflated by fraud.

Although Putin is still likely to win a presidential election in March, Sunday's result could dent the authority of the man who has ruled for almost 12 years with a mixture of hardline security policies, political acumen and showmanship but was booed and jeered after a martial arts bout last month.

United Russia had 49.94 percent of the votes after results were counted in 70 percent of voting districts for the election to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. Exit polls had also put United Russia below 50 percent.

And desperation against Putin’s autocratic crony capitalism has fueled the resurgence of communists.

From another Reuters article,

The Communist Party (CPRF) for most Russians evokes images of bemedaled war veterans and the elderly poor deprived of pensions and left behind in a "New Russia" of glitzy indulgence. Large swathes of society have appeared beyond the reach of the red flag and hammer and sickle.

Not that the Communist Party's doubling of its vote to about 20 percent presages any imminent assault on power. The memories of repression in the old communist Soviet Union, the labor camps and the "Red Terror" are still too fresh for many. But vote they did, if perhaps with gritted teeth.

"With sadness I remember how I passionately vowed to my grandfather I would never vote for the Communists," Yulia Serpikova, 27, a freelance location manager in the film industry, told Reuters. "It's sad that with the ballot in hand I had to tick the box for them to vote against it all."

For many Russians disillusioned by rampant corruption and a widening gap between rich and poor, the communists represented the only credible opposition to Putin's United Russia.

For some, desperation means jumping from the frying pan to the fire. The communist resurgence, who seem to base their preference by nostalgia, never seem to realize that Putin has been a product communism who used his position to snare power and to shape the current system.

They should rather realize that economic freedom and free trade will give them more chances of attaining prosperity than to depend on politicians, who will use all sorts of power grabs to enhance their status and privileges at the people’s expense.

Tradeoffs are a fact of life. The choice of politics over markets means greater risks of gaming of the system, corruption, wealth and power inequality, cronyism and poverty. It's a lesson that most people have yet to learn and digest.