Elections in Russia

Perhaps the most important requirement in an election is that voters have a choice. It sounds trivial, but that is something that has been lacking in most Russian elections ... ~ Vladimir Kara-Murza

On the federal level, Russia elects a president as head of state and a legislature, one of the two chambers of the Federal Assembly. The president is elected for, at most, two consecutive six-year terms (raised from four years from December 2008).

Quotes

• Perhaps the most important requirement in an election is that voters have a choice. It sounds trivial, but that is something that has been lacking in most Russian elections held under Vladimir Putin’s rule.
  • Vladimir Kara-Murza, "As the Kremlin Tightens the Screws, It Invites Popular Revolt" (20 July 2017), Spotlight on Russia, World Affairs Journal

• We will never know if Putin could win a free and fair election again, because there will never be such an election while he remains in power. Successful revolution against Putin’s dictatorship seems unlikely.
  • Michael McFaul, "Russia’s Road to Autocracy" (October 2021), Journal of Democracy, Vol. 32, Issue 4, pp. 11–26

• Democracy never took hold in Russia, in the sense that power never changed hands after freely contested elections.
  • Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom, p. 43

• The Russian Federation has created limitations that are not conducive to undertaking election observation.
  • Christian Strohal, as quoted in "European Group Cancels Mission to Observe Russian Election, Citing Restrictions" (2008), by C.J. Chivers, The New York Times

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Elections in Russia on Wikipedia