Paul Goble
Staunton, July 22 – Especially in the period since Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine, few have paid much attention to the role of minority parliamentary parties in advancing their own agenda given that they too have rallied round the flag and generally supported the ruling United Russia Party’s program.
But a new report by Pavel Skryuanchuk, founder of the Club of the Regions, says that the minority parties are still able to get many of their ideas adopted either by securing the passage of bills they have proposed or modifying government measures in ways that reflect their parties’ agendas (club-rf.ru/detail/7947).
At the very least, that makes their presence in the Duma more important than many now suspect and at the same time means that any change in their share as may very well occur after the September elections important, this new report, entitled “The Power of the Small,” in fact suggests.
Dmitry Nechayev, one of Skyanchuk’s colleagues, acknowledges that “in recent years, the subject of small parties in the academic agenda has almost disappeared,” a trend that makes the appearance of this report “an important reminder that these parties are quite involved in legislative work.”
Dmitry Elovsky, another colleague, goes further. He says that what the new report shows is that “the opposition is learning how to win,” both by security the passage of bills its members produce and modifying legislation offered by the government and United Russia.
These experts add that the minority parties express their opposition to government measures less by voting against them but by not voting at all. Thus, the share of non-participation in a vote is a far more important indicator of opposition than many suppose. The LDPR leads in using this tactic, with its members not voting in 36 percent of the cases.
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