United Russia

United Russia's predecessor was the Unity bloc, which was created three months before the December 1999 Duma elections to counter the advance of the Fatherland – All Russia (OVR) party led by Yuri Luzhkov. The creation of the party was heavily supported by Kremlin insiders, who were wary of what looked like a certain OVR victory. They did not expect Unity to have much chance of success since President Boris Yeltsin was very unpopular and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ratings were still minuscule. The new party attempted to mimic OVR's formula of success, placing an emphasis on competence and pragmatism. Charismatic Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu was appointed as the party leader.[26]

In 1999, Prime Minister Putin's popularity soared to double-digit figures after he decisively sent troops to the rebellious Chechnya republic as a retaliation for bombings attributed to terrorists in Moscow and other cities and in response to the Chechen invasion of Dagestan. Putin's war effort was hugely popular and portrayed positively by the Boris Berezovsky-owned Channel One Russia as well as by state-controlled RTR.[27]

Contrary to its creators' expectations, Unity's election campaign was a huge success and the party received 23.3% of the votes, considerably more than OVR's 13.3% and within one percentage point of the Communist Party's 24.3%.[26][27] The popularity of the prime minister proved decisive for Unity's victory.[27] The election results also made clear that Putin was going to win the 2000 presidential election, which resulted in competitors Luzhkov and Yevgeni Primakov dropping out. Yeltsin also gave Putin a boost by resigning as President on 31 December 1999.[26]

While Unity had initially had only one narrow purpose, limited only to the 1999 Duma elections, after the victory state officials began to transform the party into a permanent one. A large number of independent deputies who had been elected to the Duma were invited to join the party's delegation. Many OVR deputies also joined, including its leader Luzhkov.[26] In April 2001, OVR and Unity leaders issued a joint declaration that they had started the process of unification. In July 2001, the unified party, called Union of Unity and Fatherland, held its founding congress and in December 2001 it became All-Russian Party of Unity and Fatherland, or more commonly, United Russia. In the second party congress in March 2003, Sergey Shoygu stood down and Boris Gryzlov was elected as the new party leader.[28]

Instead of the "communism versus capitalism" dichotomy that had dominated the political discourse in the 1990s, in the 1999–2000 electoral cycle Putin started to emphasize another reason to vote for his party: stability, which was yearned for by Russian citizens after a decade of chaotic revolutionary change. With the exception of the continued fighting in the Northern Caucasus, Putin was perceived to have delivered it.[27]

On 13 January 2003, United Russia had 257,000 members—behind Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (600,000) and the Communists (500,000).[28]

Throughout Putin's first years as president, the country's economy improved considerably, growing more each year than in all of the previous decade and Putin's approval ratings hovered well above 70%. Russia's economic recovery was helped by high prices for its primary exports such as oil, gas and raw materials.[27]

The passage rate of law proposals increased considerably after United Russia became the dominant party in the Duma. In 1996–1999, only 76% of the legislation that passed the third reading was signed by the President while in 1999–2003 the ratio was 93%. While Yeltsin had often relied on his decree powers to enact major decisions, Putin almost never had to. United Russia's dominance in the Duma enabled Putin to push through a wide range of fundamental reforms,[29] including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, an overhaul of the labour market, breakups of national monopolies and new land and legal codes.[29][30][31] United Russia characterised itself as wholly supportive of Putin's agenda, which proved a recipe for success and resulted in the party scoring a major victory in the 2003 Duma elections, receiving more than a third of the popular vote.[27]

Throughout its history, United Russia has been successful in using administrative resources to weaken its opponents. For example, state-controlled news media portrayed the Communist Party as hypocritical for accepting money from several "dollar millionaires" during the 2003 Duma election campaign.[26] United Russia also introduced tougher party, candidate and voter registration requirements and increased the election threshold from 5% to 7% for the 2007 elections.[27]

Opposition parties also made several strategic mistakes. For example, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces seemed to spend more effort attacking each other than Putin, which made it easier for United Russia to win over liberal voters on the strength of market reforms under Putin.[26] The opposition parties faltered in the 2003 elections, with the Communists gaining just 52 seats, a drop from 113 in 1999. Liberal opponents fared even worse, with Yabloko and Union of the Right Forces failing to cross the 5 percent threshold.[27]

United Russia campaigners in Saint Petersburg during the 2007 election

As the economy continued improving and Putin executed several popular moves, such as reining in the unpopular oligarchs, Putin's approval ratings stayed high and he won the 2004 presidential election with over 71% of the votes. The 2007 Duma elections proved a stunning victory for United Russia, which won 64.3% of the votes. The Communist Party became a distant second with 11.57% of the votes. Putin was the only name on United Russia's national list and his popularity helped the party to ensure victory.[27]

During the December 2007 election, the party was accused by voters and election monitoring group Golos of numerous election law violations banned in the Russian Constitution.[32]

The legislative agenda shifted somewhat after the 2007 elections. Anti-terrorism legislation, large increases in social spending and the creation of new state corporations became the dominant issues while less energy was devoted to economic reform.[29]

Then party leader Vladimir Putin with Yury Luzhkov, Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey Shoygu and Boris Gryzlov in 2009 at the 11th United Russia Party Congress

For the 2008 presidential election, United Russia nominated Dmitry Medvedev to succeed Putin. Medvedev received Putin's blessing and scored a clear victory, receiving 71% of the votes. As President, Medvedev nominated Putin as his Prime Minister. On 15 April of the same year, Putin accepted a nomination to become the party's leader, but declared that this did not mean he would become a member. Medvedev has also refused to become a member.[26]

During regional elections of 11 October 2009, United Russia won a majority of seats in almost every Russian municipality. Opposition candidates claim they were hindered from campaigning for the elections and some were denied places on the ballot.[33][34] There are also accusations of widespread ballot stuffing and voter intimidation as well as statistical analysis results supporting these accusations.[33]

Support for United Russia was 53% in a poll held in October 2009.[35] In 2010–2011 and following the economic crisis, support for United Russia went up and down, but declined overall. The share of the population ready to vote for the party reached its lowest point in January 2011 (35%) before recovering to 41% in March 2011.[36]

The Agrarian Party supported the candidacy of Dmitry Medvedev in the 2008 presidential election and it merged into United Russia.[37]

Medvedev and Putin in the XII Congress of the party in September 2011

At the party's XII Congress held on 24 September 2011, Medvedev supported the candidacy of Prime Minister Putin in the presidential election of 2012—a move that effectively assured Putin would return to the presidency, given the party's near-total dominance of Russian politics. Medvedev accepted the invitation of Prime Minister Putin to head the party in the State Duma elections and said that in his opinion Putin should run for President in 2012. Delegates applauded this statement standing and they unanimously supported his candidacy for President. Medvedev responded immediately, saying that applause is proof of Putin's popularity among the people. Ten thousand participants of the meeting listened to Medvedev's speech. In total, the congress was attended by about 12,000 participants, guests and journalists.[38]

At the same congress, it was also approved by the election list of candidates from the party in the December elections to the State Duma. The list includes 416 party members and 183 non-partisan, 363 of them for the first time participate in the elections. On 29 September, the list was handed over to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation. The party-list was led by President Medvedev. 582 delegates of the Congress voted in support of the list, against one.[39][40]

The official inauguration ceremony of the elected Head of the Sakha Republic, Aysen Nikolaev, on 27 September 2018

The Election program of United Russia was announced during speeches of Medvedev and Putin. Medvedev has identified seven strategic priorities of government policy and Putin offered to cancel the erroneous tax debts of 36 million Russians in the amount of 30 billion rubles and increase from 10 October salaries of public sector employees by 6.5%. Putin also said that taxes for the wealthy citizens should be higher than for the middle class and offered to raise utility tariffs only excess baggage. Among other priorities, Putin called a complete re army and navy in 5–10 years, doubling the pace of road construction for 10 years, the creation or update of 25 million jobs in 20 years in and out of Russia in the five largest economies in the world.[41]

At the party's XIII Congress, held on 26 May 2012, Medvedev was elected chairman of United Russia.[42] United Russia decided not use portraits of President Medvedev and President Putin during the fall election campaign.[43]

In March 2013, about 50 members of the United Russia from Abansky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai announced their withdrawal from the party. They sent an open letter (said to have been signed by 60 people) to the party chairman Medvedev, which criticized the activities of the party which according to them has ceased to fulfil its political function.[44]

Vyacheslav Volodin with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the State Duma on 21 June 2018

United Russia currently holds 340 of the 450 seats in the State Duma.[27] It heads all five[46] of the Duma's commissions and holds 14[46] of the 26 committee chairmanships and 10[47] of the 16 seats in the Council of Duma, the Duma's steering committee. The speaker of the Duma is United Russia's Vyacheslav Volodin.[48][49]

The party has only informal influence in the upper house, the Federation Council, as the Council has rejected the use of political factions in decision making.[29]

In 2013, United Russia claimed it had 2 million members.[3] According to a study conducted by Timothy J. Colton, Henry E. Hale and Michael McFaul after the March 2008 presidential elections, 30% of the Russian population are loyalists of the party.[26]

According to studies, United Russia voters in 2006 were younger and more market-oriented than the average voter. The party's electorate includes a substantial share of state employees, pensioners and military personnel who are dependent on the state for their livelihood.[51] Sixty-four percent of United Russia supporters are female. In the run-up to the 2011 Duma elections, it was reported that support for United Russia was growing among young people.[60]

Foreign media and observers describe United Russia as a pure "presidential party", with the main goal of securing the power of the Russian President in the Russian parliament. The vast majority of officeholders in Russia are members of the party, hence it is sometimes described as a "public official party" or "administration party". Due to this, it is also often labelled the "Party of Power".[61][62]

United Russia has signed cooperation agreements with the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria,[63] Serbian Progressive Party,[64] the Cambodian People's Party,[65] the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party,[66] and the League of Italy.[67] Its youth wing, the Young Guard of United Russia, has an alliance with the youth wing of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany, Young Alternative for Germany.[68] The party has also signed cooperation agreements with the Serb nationalist Alliance of Independent Social Democrats of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Estonian Centre Party (though party leader Jüri Ratas recently claimed that the agreement has not been active for ten years and that there is no current cooperation between the parties).[69] The party has proposed a cooperation agreement to the populist Five Star Movement (M5S). The Five Star Movement never gave a proper answer to the proposal and it is currently unknown whether it actually accepted the proposal or not.[68]

United Russia has also signed cooperation agreements with Kazakhstan's Nur Otan party,[70] the Mongolian People's Party,[71] the Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party,[72] the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan,[73] the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova,[74] the Lao People's Revolutionary Party,[75] the Communist Party of Vietnam,[76] South Africa's African National Congress,[77] the New Azerbaijan Party,[78] the Prosperous Armenia party,[79] the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region,[80] the Workers' Party of Korea,[81] the Communist Party of Cuba,[82] and the Philippines' PDP–Laban party.[83]

The party used to have an agreement with the Latvian Social Democratic Party "Harmony", but the agreement lapsed in 2016 and was not renewed.[69]

United Russia is a large and diverse party and has several internal subdivisions. The party has 4 internal groupings, organized around common policy interests. In addition, the party makes use of four internal political clubs to debate policy: liberal conservative 4 November Club, social conservative Centre for Social Conservative Politics, conservative liberal State Patriotic Club and liberal Liberal Club.[29] Based on this division, the party considered entering the 2007 Duma elections as three separate "columns" (liberal, conservative and social), but the idea was subsequently abandoned.