PUTIN'S UNITED RUSSIA PARTY SAID TO BE USING STATE POWER TO BLOCK OUT RIVALS
EUROPE'S TOP ELECTION MONITORING BODY HAS REFUSED TO OBSERVE SUNDAY'S ELECTIONS SAYING PROCESS HAS BEEN UNFAIR
1 December 2007

Reports from across Russia indicate that by various means, state authorities are pressuring organizations and institutions of all kinds to force mass voter turnout for Pres. Putin's United Russia party. The Kremlin denies the allegations, but at least one high ranking election official has said he was given orders to ensure that United Russia receive 'double' the number of votes forecast by current opinion polling.

That same official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the press that there was no way such a broad margin could be achieved without massive fraud or intimidation. Observers from NGOs, election-monitoring groups, free-press advocates and editorial circles, have expressed dismay at the tactics being used by Pres. Putin's government, to close out any substantive opposition campaign against his policies or his government.

With repeated round-ups of opposition leaders and activists, efforts to thwart challenges to Pres. Putin's power appear to have run the gamut from arbitrary detention to back-channel intimidation. Leaders of state institutions, local offices, municipal governments, and private businesses, have reportedly participated in an effort to pressure employees to cast written, signed absentee ballots for Mr. Putin's party, under the supervision of their bosses.

It is expected United Russia will have a comfortable margin of victory and that Pres. Putin will use the margin of victory as evidence that fraud was not necessary to win the vote and as a platform for stepping into the post of Prime Minister when he leaves the Kremlin next year. [s]