The English-language version of Democracy.Ru is in no way a translation of everything that is published in Russian but still, you can obtain some information about our election system and find out what national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are doing to promote development of the civil society in Russia.
The Russian-language Democracy.Ru is an open forum for those who are interested in the workings of democracy and wish to exchange relevant information or publish their materials dedicated to the widest range of democracy-related issues.
We do carry most of the English-language translations done by IFES (International Foundation for Election Systems) in its years of work in Russia as we inherited all of www.ifes.ru contents.
Note: At this stage the English-language version of Democracy.Ru is designed for general information and reference purposes only and is not updated as regularly as the Russian part of Democracy.Ru.
POLITICAL VACUUM BOMB
Russian Voters Sign a Blank Check
Russian democracy continued its down-grade in spite of all the achievements in democratic procedures. The election campaign for president of the Russian Federation in February-March 2004 exceeded most expectations in its surrealism. A few candidates who volunteered to accompany the president in this venture basically campaigned for Putin with their own funds and their platforms copied each other; while the incumbent candidate had fired the prime-minister to announce that he needed a new government for the new turn. Few grown-up people had any illusions that if anything was part of a platform it could become reality only if Putin wanted it to be.
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FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA IN THE HANDS OF SILENT MAJORITY
Research of popular political participation shows that civil society in Russia is not formed yet and citizen’s social activities are too low. Two thirds of the country population belong to the silent majority that’s the people who never are involved in any form of collective political participation.
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VOTING “AGAINST EVERYONE”: THE LAST RESORT OF DEMOCRACY?
 Although the column “against everyone” appeared almost simultaneously with the conduct of the first fair elections in our country, voting “against everyone” has never been a decisive factor at the federal level. Usually only 3-4% of voters used this column in their ballots during the federal elections. However in 2003, if worst comes to worst, voting “against everyone” can even collect the second highest vote
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COMPREHENDING LEGISLATION
Election legislation does not stand still in its development. And despite the fact that there is less than half a year left before the cycle of federal elections begins, the law “On Basic Guarantees …” is still undergoing amendments.
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DIAGNOSIS: INSUFFICIENCY IN PARTIES
 It is nobody's secret that the present party system of the Russian Federation is in a crisis by now and the search for new political constructions for elections-2003 is becoming of more and more importance.
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REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS
First round of Presidential election in a Russian Federation Republic of Kalmykia took place on Sunday, October 20th, 2002. A team of international observers, representing the non-governmental organisation International Discussion Club - Moscow (IDC), was present during the course of the elections.
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KRASNOYARSK CRISIS: RANDOM OR NORMAL?
 The decision of Krasnoyarsk Krai Election Commission on declaring the gubernatorial elections invalid came as a real thunderbolt out of a clear sky for most of us. However, it wasn't anything like a great sensation from the judicial point of view. The elections have been called invalid before. Today applying to courts with their appeals and claiming the elections invalid has become a common practice for many candidates having lost the elections, just like a «finishing touch» of the campaign.
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