Putin gives sign that he'll retain power
Updated: 2007-11-14 10:16
Krasnoyarsk voters gave him and United Russia below-average support in the last national election.
With the regional governor and city mayor now United Russia members, a major push is under way to ensure high support in this election. Across the city, United Russia billboards reading "Putin's Plan is Russia's Victory" far outnumber other parties' ads, and smaller United Russia signs are affixed to lamppost after lamppost along the main avenue downtown.
Maria Nikitina, 18, an economics student walking downtown, said that Putin's rule has brought improvements and she plans to vote for United Russia in the hope that the trend will continue.
"Russia is rising, the country is moving forward," she said.
With Putin at the helm and the election process tightly controlled, the party should have little trouble maintaining its two-thirds majority in the Duma.
Under new election rules, voters will choose only among parties, not individual candidates. Seats are allocated proportionally to parties that receive at least 7 percent of the vote -- and only one party other than United Russia, the Communist Party, appears certain to clear the barrier.
Russia under Putin has enjoyed economic growth and a restoration of its global clout. The president said Tuesday that United Russia was far from perfect, but he suggested that no other party could guarantee stability and continuity.
Yana Grinko, a 21-year-old university student who met with Putin, said she hopes he will not stay out of the Kremlin for good.
"I hope he returns to us in 2012," she said.
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