The 1999 Russian Duma elections

Problems of Post-Communism

Volumn 47, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 3-14

  Oates, Sarah ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0034178974     PISSN: 10758216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2000.11655881     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. Much of the information in this article, particularly regarding the Russian media, was gathered as part of a media monitoring report for the European Institute for the Media. For a copy of its report on the Russian elections as well as information about the Institute, see www.eim.de.
2. From information from the Russian Central Electoral Commission, gathered by scholars at Strathclyde University and the University of Glasgow in a comprehensive Web site about Russian elections: www.russiavotes.org. For other useful sources of information about the Russian elections, see Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (www.rferl.org), the Russian CEC (www.fci.ru), and Moscow Carnegie Center (www.carnegie.ru).
3. From information from the Russian Central Electoral Commission, gathered by scholars at Strathclyde University and the University of Glasgow in a comprehensive Web site about Russian elections: www.russiavotes.org. For other useful sources of information about the Russian elections, see Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (www.rferl.org), the Russian CEC (www.fci.ru), and Moscow Carnegie Center (www.carnegie.ru).
4. From information from the Russian Central Electoral Commission, gathered by scholars at Strathclyde University and the University of Glasgow in a comprehensive Web site about Russian elections: www.russiavotes.org. For other useful sources of information about the Russian elections, see Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (www.rferl.org), the Russian CEC (www.fci.ru), and Moscow Carnegie Center (www.carnegie.ru).
5. Russians split their votes in the 1995 elections, failing to pick a single-member candidate from the same party for which they voted in the national contest 60 percent of the time, according to Stephen White, Richard Rose, and Ian McAllister, How Russia Votes (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1997).
6. For an in-depth discussion of Russian parties and parliamentary elections, see William A. Clark, "The Russian State Duma: 1993, 1995, and 1999," in Problems of Post-Communism 46, no. 6 (November/December 1999): 3-11.
7. The CEC approved thirty parties to run, but four were dropped from the ballot.
8. Mikhail Dmitriev, "Parliamentary Elections in Russia: Economic Platforms of Leading Political Parties and Blocks," Moscow Carnegie Center Briefing Paper (November 1999), available at pubs.carnegie.ru/english/ briefings.
9. See www.carnegie.ru.
10. As in Germany, this 5 percent barrier is designed to keep extremist parties out of the parliament and promote cohesion.
11. Observed by the author in Moscow during the election campaign.
12. There is much evidence to support this claim, particularly in the 1996 elections, when the European Institute for the Media found a marked media bias in favor of Yeltsin over Ziuganov. In addition, the communists received relatively scant media attention in 1995, when they emerged as the most popular party. Yet many media editors interviewed by the author in December 1999 as part of the EIM monitoring project said that the Communist Party often rejected invitations to appear on programs.
13. See www.rferl.org/elections/russia99report.
14. Author interview with TV-Center legal director Igor Ivanov, Moscow, December 1999.
15. Author interview with NTV deputy editor-in-chief Vladimir Kulistikov, Moscow, December 1999.
16. See Stephen White, Matthew Wyman, and Sarah Oates, "Parties and Voters in the 1995 Russian Duma Elections," Europe-Asia Studies 49, no. 5 (1997): 767-98.
17. See the Public Opinion Foundation Web site at www.fom.ru (in Russia) or www.english.fom.ru (in English). The Web sites have a wealth of public-opinion survey results on elections and other important facets of Russian politics.
18. See Sarah Oates, "Party Platforms: Toward a Definition of the Russian Political Spectrum," in Party Politics in the Post-Communist Russia, ed. John Löwenhardt (Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1998).
19. See pubs.carnegie.ru/english/briefings.
20. The report is available at www.eim.de.
21. Author interview with RTR senior editor, Moscow, 1999.
22. Kulistikov interview.
23. See Ellen Mickiewicz, Changing Channels: Television and the Struggle for Power in Russia, rev. ed. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999).
24. Aired on December 17, 1999, on Channel 1 (ORT) and recorded by the author.
25. These statements are from interviews by the author in Moscow in December 1999.