Elections to the Duma still involve participation of the Armed Forces and other security agencies. Firstly, propaganda works is organized in the troops: soldiers and officers study federal laws which regulate the procedure of Duma elections in 1999. Propaganda in the territory of military units is prohibited, but the legislation obliges commanders to enable soldiers and sergeants to get acquainted with ideas of various election blocs and candidates. In reality this often means that subordinates vote like their commanders because the officers themselves do all explanatory work.
Secondly, in some garrisons and military units the so-called closed polling stations are organized where only servicemen and members of their families will vote. In accordance with paragraph 5 of clause 14 of the federal law “On election of deputies of the Duma of the Federal Assembly” servicemen vote at common polling stations. As an exception formation of polling stations in territories of military units located in separated areas remote from populated spots, as well as abroad is permitted. In these cases the polling stations are organized by commanders of such military units. They also elect the local election commission proceeding from resolution of the voters meeting, inform the servicemen and so on. According to independent experts, writes Nezavisimaya Gazeta, this circumstance might result in infringement on the voters’ rights, because we cannot rule out that using his commanding powers an officer could exert moral pressure on the subordinate and persuade to vote for the “necessary” candidate. It will be very difficult to check the facts of such pressure due to remote location of “closed” polling stations.
Thirdly, a part of servicemen use their election rights and are registered as candidates for the Duma. Some mass media (see Nezavisimaya Gazeta, No. 201, October 27, 1999) report than in the elections would take part at least 80 professional servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces. Of course, this is less than for example at the parliamentary elections in 1995 when in the propaganda campaign of parties and movements participated 42 military candidates. Over 120 servicemen were registered as independent candidates. More than 300 servicemen were also liberated from fulfillment of their functional duties and were proxies of the candidates.
Almost one half of them were commanders or deputy commanders of military units and formations.
The current social and professional situation among the candidates is different. Among the candidates for the Duma there are very many professors of higher military educational institutions. The number of candidates from the troops is less. Among the military candidates there are practically no “celebrities” and charismatic figures. During the elections the elections of 1995 in the federal lists of candidates for the Duma such people were included as Colonel General Georgy Kondratyev, one of the Defense Minister deputies; Admiral Eduard Baltin, Navy Commander; Colonel General Yevgeny Podkolzin, Airborne Forces Commander; Lieutenant General Lev Rokhlin, commander of an army and so on. At present the most influential blocs and movements practically do not have any generals and officers of the Armed Forces. They have been replaced by representatives of the other security agencies, first of all, the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service (General of the Army Sergei Stepashin occupies the second place in the list of Yabloko), Customs Service (Colonel General Sergei Bekov occupies the fifth place in the North-Western federal list of the Fatherland – All Russia movement), Tax Service (Colonel Alexander Karelin, the famous wrestler, is the second in the list of Unity movement). Emergency Situations Ministry (Sergei Shoigu is the first in the list of Unity).
Overall, according to the Central Election Commission, representation of security agencies among the candidates for the Duma looks like follows:
From the Defense Ministry:
According to the general federal district – 32 (plus 7 workers of the Armed Forces),
According to single-mandate districts – 6;
From the Interior Ministry:
According to the general federal district – 19,
According to single-mandate districts – 6;
From the Federal Security Service:
According to the general federal district – 3,
According to single-mandate districts – 2;
From the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office:
According to the general federal district – 1,
According to single-mandate districts – 0;
From the FAGLI:
According to the general federal district – 1,
According to single-mandate districts – 0;
From the military courts:
According to the general federal district – 1,
According to single-mandate districts – 0;
From the Ministry of Justice:
According to the general federal district – 1,
According to single-mandate districts – 0;
From the Federal Border Guards Service:
According to the general federal district – 1,
According to single-mandate districts – 0.
ACCORDING TO THE GENERAL FEDERAL LIST:
CPRF:
Laukhin A., Colonel General, commander of Interior Forces division (Novosibirsk). (The CPRF lists also include former Defense Minister Igor Rodionov).
Fatherland – All Russia:
Gromov B., Colonel General, Duma deputy;
Stolyarov N., Major General of aviation, Duma deputy;
Vasyagin A., Lieutenant General of justice, Chairperson of the Supreme Court of the Strategic Missile Forces;
Piskunov A., Defense Ministry, deputy director of the government staff;
(Besides them the lists of the movement also include recently retired Admiral Igor Kasatonov, former Deputy Navy Commander; Marshal Victor Kulikov, advisor of the Defense Ministry; Valery Draganov, retired General of the State Customs Committee, and so on).
Party of Peace and Unity:
Panin A., Defense Ministry, serviceman, military unit 62632, Lipetsk;
Martynov V., Defense Ministry, Colonel, professor of the Military Engineers University;
Boyarkin N., Interior Ministry, Colonel, deputy director of the Command Academy of the Interior Ministry;
Galiev M., Interior Ministry, Colonel of internal anti-fire service (Interior Ministry of Tatarstan);
Belosludtsev V., Interior Ministry, Colonel of the internal service, senior lecturer of the Command Academy of the Interior Ministry;
Nigmatullin R., Interior Ministry, Lieutenant Colonel of the interior service (Interior Ministry of Tatarstan).
Yabloko:
Stepashin S., Interior Ministry, Colonel General of interior service;
Kilekhanov Kh., Interior Ministry, Lieutenant Colonel of militia, Dagestan.
Russia is our home:
Popkovich R., Defense Ministry, retired Lieutenant General, Duma deputy;
Galkin A., Defense Ministry, retired Colonel General, Duma deputy.
Workers of Russia for the Soviet Union:
Zhivoderov V., Defense Ministry, senior lecturer of the St. Petersburg Naval University;
Chertov I., Interior Ministry, inspector of the interior affairs department, Rostov-na-Donu;
Shumikhin, Defense Ministry, commander of the guards group, military unit 16728, Izhevsk;
Ivany V., Interior Ministry, driver of the interior affairs department, Omsk.
Union of Right-Wing Forces:
Chernykh A., Lieutenant Colonel of militia, PR center of the Interior Ministry.
Movement in Support of the Armed Forces, Defense Industry, and Military Science;
Kozhevnikov M., Interior Ministry, Lieutenant General, Deputy Interior Forces Commander for Personnel;
Kandybovich S., Military University of the Nuclear, Chemical and Bacterial Defense;
Dolgikh A., Lieutenant Colonel, senior researcher of the Military University;
Shovkoplyas N., senior assistant to the military commissar of the Eastern Administrative District of Belgorod;
Lipatov M., Defense Minister, commissar of the military registration and enlistment office, Ryazan;
Sobolev A., senior assistant to the military commissar, Ryazan.
Spiritual Heritage
Shuster G., Colonel of justice, Deputy Military Prosecutor of the Moscow Military District;
Balashov A., FAGLI, director of a department;
Zaitsev V., Defense Ministry, senior lecturer of the Military University of the Air Defense, Smolensk;
Vostrikov S., Defense Ministry, deputy director of a department of the Military University of the Air Defense, Smolensk;
Vasilevsky V., Interior Ministry, senior plenipotentiary of the interior affairs department of the North-Western Administrative District of Moscow;
Gavrilov A., Defense Ministry, senior consultant of military unit 36391, Moscow;
Khokholkov Ye., Federal Security Service, director of a department (Moscow);
Bolshov A., Federal Security Service, deputy director of a department (Moscow);
Alekseev Ye., Interior Ministry, professor of the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of the Interior Ministry;
Klimenok A., Defense Ministry, reserve of the pacific Fleet commander.
Party of Pensioners:
Popov V., Interior Ministry, Major General of militia, director of the Kaliningrad Legal Institute.
Socialist Party of the Russian Federation:
Gladkov A., Federal Security Service, commander of a special unit, Rostov-na-Donu.
Front of National Salvation:
Parshev A., Interior Ministry, serviceman, military unit 2571, Moscow.
Stalinist Bloc-for the USSR:
Sidorov V., Defense Ministry, serviceman, Ryazan;
Larichev M., military unit M-222-2 (Komi republic, Yeva).
Women of Russia:
Mironkina S., employee of the Armed Forces, Moscow;
Mironova L., Defense Ministry, employee of the Armed Forces, military unit 30874, Severomorsk.
Conservative Party:
Kravtsov A., Defense Ministry, serviceman, Moscow;
Aseev S., Defense Ministry, serviceman, Moscow;
Baranov A., Defense Ministry, Moscow;
Petrovsky D., Defense Ministry, serviceman, Moscow;
Ageev V., Defense Ministry, serviceman, Khanty-Mansiysk.
Russian Socialist party:
Gorelov A., Deputy Director of the Institute of Physical Culture for Science, St. Petersburg;
Vasyutin V., Lieutenant General, Deputy Director of the Military Air Academy of Gagarin, Zvezdny, Moscow Region;
Kuraev A., Federal Border Guards service, Lieutenant Colonel, Pushkino, Moscow Region;
Semenchenko A., Defense Ministry, military commissar, Stary Oskol.
Russian National Union;
Ivanov G., student of the Naval Academy;
Khramov V., Defense Ministry, professor of the Rostov Military Institute of the Strategic Missile Forces (Rostov-na-Donu).
Congress of Russian Communities and Movement of Yury Boldyrev:
Samsonov V., Defense Ministry, General of the Army;
Nefedov S., Defense Ministry, Director of the Krasnoyarsk House of Officers, Krasnoyarsk;
Vorontsov V., Interior Ministry, Deputy Director of the Main Department of the Interior Ministry, Moscow;
Myasnikov V., Interior Ministry, military unit 5128, Moscow.
Thus in the lists of the candidates submitted by November 1 80 representatives of security agencies are registered, 66 of them running according to the general federal list. Spiritual Heritage movement is the leader according to the number of servicemen in its lists (10 representatives). Movement in Support of the Armed Forces, the Party of Peace and Unity, CPRF, Workers of Russia-for the Soviet Union are represented by 6 representatives each. Fatherland – All Russia, and Conservative Party are represented by 5 servicemen each. We also need to stress that the present statistics reflects the data of only according to the acting officers and generals, as well as employees of the Armed Forces. Besides these people the other 40 servicemen proposed their candidacies in the single-mandate districts.
