The elections on Sunday in Russia, in which parties loyal to President Vladimir Putin swept the election and the liberal opposition crumbled, may lead to economic chaos. The result of the election may improve some things in the short run whereby the government can close tax loopholes and deliver policies that do not overly favor the oligarchs, but in the long run, the 'manufactured election' will do more harm than good. First, in an article in the St. Petersburg (Russia) Times, they note that the Homeland party, a nationalist party loyal to Putin, may control the direction of the new parliament because the main Kremin-backed party, United Russia, has little or no stance on any issues except for the blind support of the Kremlin. The Homeland party, it is feared, with its populist message of returning the country's wealth to the people might aid the siloviki, the politically powerful Kremlin group associated with the security services in shifting momentum towards state control of 'strategic' sectors of the economy. They also have proposed reversing the privatizations of the 1990s, supposedly to resell them to raise government revenue and give them to more 'deserving' owners. However, this renationalization may frighten investors out of Russia, out of fear that their assets could be seized as well. This would be a tremendous blow to the economic future of Russia.

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©2003 Richard B. Goud, Jr.
Updated on 8 December 2003 at 20:37 PST