Barents Russia turns against Putin
Arkhangelsk, Karelia, Murmansk and Nenets are among the Federal Districts in Russia where United Russia got fewest votes in Sunday’s parliamentary election. Protests triggered by election fraud in the streets of Moscow last night have not spread to the north.
Anger over what many claims were widespread violations of election rules broke into mass-protests in the streets of the Russian capital yesterday evening. Hundreds of opposition supporters were arrested by Moscow riot police Monday evening. The protests have spread to St. Petersburg where about 100 were arrested as they tried to rally along the central Nevsky Prospect.
There are no reports about protests in the larger cities in Barents Russia like Petrozavodsk, Arkhangelsk or Murmansk.
International observers from OSCE says the voting was well organized overall on the election day, but the quality of the process deteriorated considerably during the count, which was characterized by frequent procedural violations and instances of apparent manipulations, including serious indications of ballot box stuffing.
Despite many obstacles, voters took advantage of election freedom by expressing their will. Vladimir Putin’s party has suffered steep losses around the country. The setback for United Russia is especially high in Russia’s north-western districts. Russian Central Election Commission says the final results will be announced before December 10, but the preliminary results shows a clear trend.
Read also: United Russia losing support in Murmansk
In Arkhangelsk Oblast the party got 31.9%, down from 56.7% in the 2007 parliamentary election. In Murmansk Oblast, United Russia got 32%, down from 55% four years ago. In the Republic of Karelia, the party got 32.3%, down from 57,3% and in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the results show 36%, down from 48,8%. The only Federal Districts in the Barents Region with just a slight decrees in the support to United Russia is the Republic of Komi where United Russia got 58,8%, down from 62% in 2007.
United Russia got even lower support in the larger Barents cities than generally in the regions. In Severodvinsk the party got 26.8%, reports Echo Severa. The results in the other cities are Murmansk 29,6%, Arkhangelsk 27,3%, Petrozavodsk 27,7%, Naryan-Mar 32% and Syktyvkar 61,3% reports B-port.
In Barents Russia, the Communist Party did second best, followed by A Just Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party. Other parties got some few percent, with the exception of the Yabloko party that got far more voters in Barents Russia than in average in Russia. In Petrozavodsk, Yabloko got 10,5% of all votes.
