The Kremlin’s control over the electoral process in Russia rests on many factors, but the most important one seems to be ballot access. “The main mechanism for the government’s electoral ‘victories’ is not fraud, but the disqualification of [opposition] candidates,” notes anticorruption campaigner Alexei Navalny. “When everyone can participate in the elections, ‘Putin’s majority’ falls apart.” His own mayoral campaign in Moscow in 2013 was a case in point: after the authorities allowed him on the ballot to demonstrate the supposed lack of support for the opposition, Navalny scored a stunning upset, receiving nearly 30 percent of the vote. That same year, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov actually won an election in the Yaroslavl Region, becoming the first “non-systemic” politician in Russia to secure a seat in the legislature.
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Vladimir Kara-Murza: Russia’s opposition gets a foothold in Moscow elections
A woman votes at a polling station during the municipal election in Moscow on Sept. 10.
