Russian elections

Where’s Putin? President’s party pulls election disappearing act

Voters in Moscow go to the polls in a local election on Sunday, but when they examine their ballot papers, they won’t find a single candidate running on the ticket of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.

Instead, more observant voters will discover United Russia members posing as “independent candidates” in an apparent bid to distance themselves from Putin’s increasingly unpopular party.

This is the first time since it was formed in 2001 that United Russia has failed to nominate — officially — candidates for the City Duma polls. Its logo, a bear, once ubiquitous in the run-up to elections, is conspicuously absent from campaign billboards. Opposition activists have defaced election posters for “independent” candidates affiliated to Putin’s party with stickers reading: “Caution! United Russia candidate.”

“It’s like a black mark against a candidate if they publicly acknowledge that they are a United Russia party member,” said Konstantin Gaaze, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank. “This party is pretty dead.”