On 18 December 2003 Dr. Sergei Markov and Iosif Diskin gave a talk on "Russia After the Parliamentary Elections."
Dr. Sergei Markov is Director of the Institute of Political Studies, one of the Russia's leading political analysts and the head of association of political consulting centers in Russia. He is also the Head of Russia’s influential Public Forum on International Affairs and a Professor at Moscow State University.
Russian Parliamentary Elections have been very significant for determining the direction of President Putin’s policy until 2008. On one hand, the President secured an unprecedented large majority of seats in the State Duma (Russia’s Lower Chamber of the Parliament) for his Unity Party, thus paving the way for a strong presidential power. This could be important if he is determined to continue and accelerate unpopular domestic reforms. At the same time, a number of worrying signs have emerged. Neither of Russia’s two democratic liberal parties have managed to overcome the 5% threshold which means that, for the first time, the Russian legislature will not include a strong democratic opposition. Also liberal parties will be replaced by two nationalist parties (LDPR and Motherland) which hold more then 20% of seats and this could signify changes not only in domestic but also in Russia’s foreign and security policy. In his talk Dr. Markov will offer his view on these developments.
The meeting was introduced by Oksana Antonenko, IISS Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia.
