Ex-Soviet leader Gorbachev criticizes Russian elections

Calls Putin's role in vote 'enormous' Says system needs extensive reforms

Mikhail Gorbachev met yesterday with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing St. in London. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press)

MOSCOW - Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union, sharply criticized the state of Russia's electoral system in remarks published yesterday and called for extensive reforms to a system that has secured power for President Vladimir V. Putin and the Kremlin's inner circle.

"Something is wrong with our elections, and our electoral system needs a major adjustment," the former Soviet leader said.

The remarks, made in a telephone interview with the Interfax news agency on Sunday but held for a day by the agency, followed the rejection by the Russian government of the only serious opposition candidate in the March 2 presidential elections.

The timing was pointed and provocative, and the remarks were the most vocal criticism to date by a prominent Russian political figure of the state of the country's politics as Putin prepares to pass power to a chosen successor. They were ignored by Russian television news broadcasts, which are controlled by the Kremlin.

The opposition candidate, former prime minister Mikhail M. Kasyanov, was denied a place on the ballot on Sunday by the Central Election Commission, which said 13 percent of the more than 2 million signatures submitted with his registration documents were invalid.

Kasyanov has said that the signatures were valid and that the Kremlin ordered the commission to block his candidacy as a means of ensuring the election of Dmitri A. Medvedev, a first deputy prime minister and the candidate selected by Putin.

Kasyanov's campaign, now idled, had previously said that his supporters had been harassed and bullied by Russian authorities, who threatened them with incarceration or with dismissal from their jobs.

Gorbachev's remarks did not address Kasyanov directly, although Gorbachev 's aide, Pavel Palazhchenko, said they were in response to a journalist's question about the end of the Kasyanov candidacy.

In a telephone interview from London, Palazhchenko also said that Interfax had called the former Soviet leader to confirm the accuracy of his quotations before publishing them.

The former Soviet leader, in the published statements, said the election's result was "predictable from the outset" and "predetermined by the enormous role that Vladimir Putin played."

Putin, who under Russian law cannot serve a third term, has said he will serve as prime minister under Medvedev, a decision that means the current president will be moving to a new office in the spring, but not necessarily relinquishing any power.

Gorbachev has often been publicly supportive of Putin, and credited him with undoing much of the disorder of the 1990s under the presidency of Boris N. Yeltsin, a bitter rival of Gorbachev.

But he has also taken independent positions, including supporting Novaya Gazeta, an independent paper that fiercely criticizes Russian officials and has not spared Putin.

Bucking the public acquiescence that has accompanied Putin's rise, Gorbachev has said that investigative journalism and criticism of officials are essential to the health of the country.

Gorbachev has also previously denounced the state of elections here. His latest remarks put him squarely on record opposing the administrative and electoral means by which Putin has assured that his circle remain in power, and calling for more strict civilian control over Russia's elections.

Among the changes Gorbachev recommended was the end of exclusively party-list elections for Parliament, which prevent individual candidates from running for the legislature and keep the assignment of seats in the hands of party leaders. United Russia, the country's largest political party, is controlled by Putin.

Gorbachev also suggested a return to direct public elections for governors; the selection of governors now rests with the president, which gives citizens no vote.

"The issue concerning governors' elections should also be raised," he said, "so that people are able to take a more active part in social and political life."