According to the results of last Duma election on the 4th of December, Putin's United Russia party got 238 seats out of 450. Compared to previous election, United Russia has suffered significant loss in number of votes. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the results of the Sunday's vote in Russia's parliamentary elections were 'optimal' and 'really reflect the situation in the country'.
Putin reached his popularity after first rising to power in 2000, restoring order and stability in Russia after the mess of the post-Soviet period.
This election can be called a turning point in history when the dominant political party has dramatically lost popularity, and opposition is ready to join efforts to provide a counterweight to the regime. Actually, the real numerical counterweight belongs only to the Communist Party, which scored 19% of votes. I know many people who dislike the party of Putin and Medvedev voted for the Communist Party in order to simply counterbalance. Other results A Just Russia 13%, LDPR 11% - these parties cannot be called a real opposition. Of course, the positions of these several parties became much stronger recently. They try to oppose the ruling regime, but in fact none of these movements has a leader who could bring something entirely new to Russian political system.
I would also like to note the increased activity of Russian society. Russian people have always characterized as long-suffering and capable to adapt without requiring a changes. But now people express clear dissatisfaction of the ruling party and accuse its leaders of making decisions among themselves without letting others in process.
Quite popular figure in the confrontation with Putin and United Russia is a blogger Alexei Navalny who gave United Russia a firmly stuck name of the "party of crooks and thieves". Last days of the campaign most of his followers and associates became much more active than ever before. Recent rallies drew many people with hope that protests will reach a goal by bringing more Russians who are unhappy with Putin and his party together.
Although confidence to the ruling regime is obviously broken, I don't think that situation in the country will be changed soon . At least as long as Russia does not have a real democratic political power which will upgrade Russian political system to make everyone happy . Russian democracy is young and obviously not perfect. And it will stay such for a long time, of course developing through trial and errors.
Expression of their protest - that's fine. But what would happen if it was possible to drive out Putin from Kremlin? Who would come to his place? Would not there be something instead of chaos and massacre for the next few years? Yes, people who rules Russia have a great tendency for authoritarianism and "managed democracy." But do people understand that the rebellion for the sake of rebellion, without a strong leader and an understanding of where to go next cannot lead to anything good?
