President Putin's Party Ahead in the Polls
Putin's United Russia Party enjoys more than 50 percent of expected voters.
MOSCOW, Nov. 30, 2007— -- This Sunday Russians head to the polls for the Russian parliamentary election. The ballot shows 11 boxes to choose from, but only one box is expected to get a lot of ticks.
United Russia enjoys massive public support, in no small part because it is endorsed by the most popular man in Russia, President Vladimir Putin. Even the most conservative estimates show United Russia soaring ahead of the opposition, with well over 50 percent of the vote.
Times are tough for Russia's small opposition. Gary Kasparov, leader of the opposition group Other Russia, spent five days in a Moscow jail this week. He was arrested, along with more than a hundred others, for participating in rallies against Putin across the country.
It is the latest of many such crackdowns on Putin's political opponents. The opposition complains it can't get funding and has no access to national media. It claims its campaign literature is confiscated, and that its followers have been beaten up.
Vladimir Ryzhkov, an Independent member of parliament and opposition member, spoke to ABC News and painted a bleak picture of the situation.
"We can't speak, and we can't participate in the TV debates. We can't find money and people are in fear."
The Kremlin denies that the opposition is being suppressed, and it gives a very different version of the events leading up to last weekend's arrests. Constantin Kosachev is a prominent member of parliament who supports Other Russia. He told ABC News that the protestors were arrested because their permit allowed them to stand in one place, and they tried to march.
"Either you obey the rules and try to change the rules if you don't like the rules, in a democratic way. Or you break the rules and then you have a problem with the police."
Kasparov sees things differently, as he said upon his release from jail, "Now I hope people in the world can see what is happening with opposition activists in Russia when the regime pays no attention, no attention whatsoever to the legal procedures."
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