Kremlin Sees Small Parties as Playing Several Useful Roles and Will Continue to Support Them, Markelov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 22 – The small parties in Russia, those not represented in the Duma, have almost no opportunity to rise to that level unless one of the parties there collapses; but despite that, Sergey Markelov says, the Kremlin views these small parties as extremely useful for itself and thus will continue to support them.

            The Moscow political consultant argues that the Kremlin sees them as useful also because they round out the political pyramid Putin has constructed, serve as farm teams for the existing parliamentary parties, and play important roles in municipal political life where personalities rather than parties are more important (club-rf.ru/detail/7461).

            Thus suggestions, all too often heard, that the Kremlin is about to shut them down is almost certainly wrong, Markelov concludes.He doesn't mention but his argument suggests that Putin has derived his understanding of why small parties are so important to the top leadership from his time as a KGB officer in East Germany.