Russia’s ruling party showed the worst results since 2006 during regional elections on Sept. 10 as its popularity plummeted as a result of an increase in the retirement age and an economic downturn.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and its candidates won in most of the 22 elections for governors, 16 elections for regional legislatures and 12 elections for city legislatures.
In the Moscow mayoral election, incumbent Mayor Sergei Sobyanin won with 70 percent of the votes.
However, United Russia lost the first place to the Communist Party in the republic of Khakasia and Irkutsk and Ulyanovsk oblasts. The Communist Party and United Russia got 34 percent and 27.8 percent in Irkutsk Oblast, 31 percent and 25.5 percent in Khakasia and 36.3 percent and 34 percent in Ulyanovsk Oblast, respectively.
There will also be run-offs for the governors of Khakasia, Primorsky Krai, Vladimir Oblast and Khabarovsk Krai, where United Russia candidates will compete with candidates from the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, a nationalist group.
Russian-born election expert Alexander Kireev and Arkady Lyubarev from Russia’s Golos election watchdog said that these were United Russia’s worst results since 2006 to 2007.
Russian political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin told the Kyiv Post that the results were due to Putin’s pension reform plan and worsening economic conditions amid Western sanctions.
The pension reform plan envisages gradually increasing the retirement age to 65 by 2028 from 60 currently for men and to 60 by 2034 from 55 currently for women. After the bill on the pension reform was submitted to Russia’s parliament in June, Putin’s approval rating fell from a peak of 74 percent in 2015 to 45 percent on Aug. 5 – the lowest point since 2013, according to Russia’s FOM polling agency.
Thousands protested against the pension reform on Sept. 9 at rallies in 80 Russian cities organized by opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
A total of 1,018 protesters were arrested nationwide, according to the OVD-Info detention monitoring site. Photos and video footage from St. Petersburg show the police violently beating protesters.
Oreshkin said, however, that there is so far little danger to Putin’s power despite the unpopularity of the pension reform. He argued that Putin’s government is entrenched enough, and it can easily buy the loyalty of national and regional elites.
