Recent Elections Showed Pro-Putin Majority Far From Monolithic, Belokonyev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 18 – The recent elections in the regions showed two trends that are likely to become even more important as Russia moves toward presidential elections next year: United Russia and the LDPR are gaining support while the KPRF and Just Russia are losing it, and the social “divide” between Moscow and the regions is “intensifying, Sergey Belokonyev says.

            The director of the Moscow Institute of Global Studies at Russia’s Financial University draws those conclusions but warns that the central authorities have not yet taken them sufficiently into account and aren’t taking the steps necessary to make the pro-Putin majority monolithic (club-rf.ru/opinions/2878).

            Unless that happens in the next few months or if conditions deteriorate in the Ukrainian war , he suggests, it is entirely possible that one or another opposition figure could peel away from Vladimir Putin some of the support he suggests, especially in regions and republics like Khakassia. That could deepen the divide between Moscow and the federal subjects and even provoke a political crisis.