The Russian Elections, a Prelude to them and their Aftermath
As usual when Russia nears its elections the life in Moscow accelerates. Political intrigue becomes the order of the day and alliances are made and broken in a matter of minutes.
Going into the elections the Communists held close to 30% of the Parliament with the rest split aproximatley 40% to 30% in favor of the "liberals." Headed by such charismatic leaders as Yavlinsky, Putin, Khodorkovsky the liberals expected to win a majority making gains from the aging Communist Party and from the apparantly divided conservative side of the spectrum.
The Conservative Prime Minister tried again and again to rally his party behind him but he could do little. The Right was split beyond all possible fixing and only a miracle would save it. And the miracle did come, as a surprise to many - the liberal attack on the UIS war. While the liberals called for peace and for withdrawal of troops the conservatives watched as the public oppinion turned in their favor. The Russian nationalistic pride overwhelmed all other feelings and with WWII patriotic music playing and flags waving everywhere the Conservatives marched to victory in the elections.
The Communists lost about 5% of their usual votes due to the decaying of the old party and ended up with 108 seats.
United Russia, headed by Putin himself, failed to make a choice between the liberals and the conservatives. While not supporting the war they also did not condemn it and attempted to run as an "independant" party. The idea backfired as the party secured a mere 49 seats.
The moderates in Fatherland - All Russia cast their lot with the liberals and payed for it, although they were probably the liberal party that suffered least - 9 seats.
Yabloko, the liberal free market democrats lost much of their electorate to the more conservative URF and were left with 27 seats.
Our Home is Russia, the party of the Conservative Prime Minister almost doubled its power ending up with 112 seats.
Union of Right Forces under the Conservative free market platform secured 45 seats.
The ultranationalistic LDPR doubled its count and ended up with 72 seats.
And the Fascist Rodina secured 28.
As a result the Communists have 108 seats, the Liberals 36, Putin's Independant party 49 and the Conservatives 257. The hard line Chernomyrdin was easily confirmned for another term as Prime Minister.
Presidential Elections
The elections looked much more boring than the Duma elections at first. The usual Communist candidate - Zyuganov, Luzhkov from the moderates backed by Putin and a few right wing candidates. Everyone knew Luzhkov was going to win and Putin would retain his influence over the political life in Russia.
All of that changed when General Lebed declared his candidacy.
General Lebed joined the Russian army in 1955 and was a leutenant by the time the nuclear exhange took place. He survived and quickly rose to the rank of Colonel. His first battle asignment took place in Australia where he was a secondary commander of the invasion forces. After a brilliant success there he was promoted to General and led the Southern Front during the American campaign. He returned home to serve as the Security Adviser to the President until the 1969 Costa Rican Campaign where he led the Russian troops.
He then served in a number of small deployments, such as Indonesia, Chechnya and Ukraine. He was responsible for putting down an attempted Communist Coup in 1978 and was granted command of the African Forces following the Russian-AF agreements. Three months ago he was recalled to Russia to take over command of the Russian Forces on the UIS front.
One by one the right wing candidates withdrew their names from the list of candidates and backed General Lebed for the position of President. His popularity was unmached and however hard they tried his opponents could not find anything to attack him with. He appeared to be a perfect military General with strong nationalistic feelings and an overwhelming love for his country.
On election day a military march played in the evening as the news reached the country that the most popular Russian General has been elected the new President of Russia.