The liberalization of Russian politics did not live up to the hopes of the Kremlin, which was counting on the emergence of new leaders and ideas. Political scientist Oleg Matveychev stated this on Neuromir-TV.
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“One of the demands of Bolotnaya Square in 2011 was the liberalization of the party process. They were told, please, from now on 500 people can register the party. More than 70 parties were immediately registered. Nobody controlled them.
The authorities hoped that these parties would have interesting leaders who could be taken over in the future, and secondly, interesting ideas would appear that could also be stolen. But after a couple of years of this noisy party building, no serious leaders or mega-ideas emerged.
All parties had a chance to become a factor in mass consciousness, but the majority remained on paper. Now their registrations will be gradually canceled because they do not comply with statutory requirements,” said Matveychev.
According to the law “On the Election of State Duma Deputies,” the party must collect more than 200 signatures, of which no more than 000 for each region of the Russian Federation. But the legislator has slightly simplified the process of participation in elections for parties that entered the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the last elections, received more than 7% of the votes in the last elections and have their own faction in at least one of the regions of the Russian Federation.
74 parties were allowed to participate in the elections. Lists of candidates were nominated by 21 parties, of which 14 had the right not to collect signatures. Three parties nominated only majority candidates.
To get into the Duma under the proportional system, parties need to overcome a 5% barrier; in the last elections, the barrier to entry was 7%. Elections to the State Duma will take place on September 18.