Pro-Kremlin parties lead elections

MOSCOW -- Russian voters went to the polls yesterday in regional elections dominated by two pro-Kremlin parties, a result that critics said presented the appearance of democracy without its substance.

Several sporadic episodes of violence were reported, and protesters in the Moscow region who called the elections fraudulent were arrested.

United Russia, the main party backing popular President Vladimir V. Putin, appeared set to achieve the strongest showing. But a new party called Just Russia, headed by Sergei Mironov, a Putin ally who heads the upper house of Parliament, also did well, according to early returns.

With 17 percent of the vote counted in St. Petersburg, the country's second-largest city, United Russia had 38 percent support, Just Russia 21 percent, the Communist Party 16 percent, and the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party 11 percent. Partial results from other regions also typically showed those four parties finishing in that order.

The Union of Right Forces, a party advocating Western-style democracy, had 5 percent in St. Petersburg, short of the 7 percent needed to win seats in the city's Legislature. Another prominent liberal party, Yabloko, had been kept off the ballot in that city.

Strong showings by the two big pro-Kremlin parties would set the stage for them to be the main contenders in December's parliamentary elections. Those two parties could then throw their support behind the same candidate to succeed Putin in the 2008 presidential election, making that figure virtually unbeatable, or they could conceivably support competing pro-Kremlin presidential candidates.

The final results might also make clear whether Russia's beleaguered liberal opposition parties, which advocate Western-style democracy, can hang on to some influence in national politics. The voting was for legislatures in 14 of Russia's 86 regions. About 31 million people, or one-third of the country's electorate, were eligible to participate. Although those in the Moscow region voted, those in the capital itself did not.

Skeptics say the two pro-Kremlin parties are virtually indistinguishable, composed primarily of politicians and bureaucrats who unreservedly support whatever decisions come out of Putin's closest circle.

"The main goal of this process is to create for the West a semblance of free and democratic electoral struggle in Russia," said Leonid Radzikhovsky, an independent political analyst. "Ninety-nine percent of what is happening with the election now is the imitation of real political life.

"On the other hand, I wouldn't rule out that eventually this false two-party system may grow into something closer to real political competition."

Incidents involving activists from the National Bolshevik Party, a small but radical anti-Kremlin group that often stages flamboyant protests, were reported in the Moscow region and in the Samara region, on the Volga River about 550 miles southeast of Moscow.

Sergei Mitrokhin, a Yabloko deputy chairman, charged that the Kremlin "is building a false model of democracy" by creating tame political parties that it controls. "It is all hollow and fake," he said.

In some of the regional contests, candidates for the two pro-Kremlin parties have not hesitated to heap criticism on one another.

The battle was particularly fierce in Samara, where Governor Konstantin Titov led United Russia and Samara Mayor Viktor Tarkhov led Just Russia.

Just Russia placed billboards in Samara with slogans such as "The party of justice against a gang of embezzlers of public funds" and "Bureaucrats stop stealing!"

Mitrokhin said such signs did not mean that there was real competition in national politics. "Bureaucrats are allowed on the local level to challenge one another from time to time, but no one challenges the Kremlin."