Russian election campaign in final stretch
MOSCOW (AFP) — Campaigning in Russia's parliamentary elections went into a final day on Friday with President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party expected to sweep to victory.
Putin, the lead candidate for United Russia, signed into law Russia's suspension of a key European arms treaty and later promised to boost research funds during a meeting with academics.
Supporters from some of the 11 parties fielding candidates in Sunday's vote held small peaceful rallies in Moscow as a campaign blackout was set to come into force at midnight.
Former chess champion turned Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov dismissed the elections as a "farce" and said Russians had been denied a choice in the campaign that has been dominated by United Russia.
"At least a third, maybe more of the Russian electorate don't have any political force that they support and that already makes the elections a farce," said Kasparov, who spent five days in jail for taking part in an unauthorised protest against Putin at the weekend.
"The volume of falsification, violations and the volume of suppression of opponents already makes the current regime illegitimate," he told a news conference.
Sunday's elections are being closely watched for signs of Putin's intentions after his second term in office ends next year.
Under the constitution he cannot stand again in the presidential vote set for March 2.
But the ex-KGB officer who came to power in 2000 has said that a strong victory for United Russia on Sunday will give him the moral mandate to continue playing a role in politics after he steps down in March.
Putin and his Kremlin allies hope that a strong turnout at the polls and a convincing victory will give them a free hand to lay the groundwork for the presidential vote, analysts say.
The campaign for the presidency kicked off on Wednesday with no frontrunner in sight and the clock is ticking for Putin to tip his hand as presidential candidates have until December 23 to register.
In the run-up to the vote, Putin has accused his opponents of seeking to disrupt the elections and likened them to "jackals" seeking funds from Western governments.
Opposition parties and non-governmental organisations have reported that millions of campaign leaflets have been confiscated during the campaign and that television coverage has been biased in favour of United Russia.
The Kremlin has denied the accusations and Putin has pledged that the elections will meet democratic standards.
In his final pitch to voters aired on Thursday and shown again repeatedly on television Friday, Putin urged voters to turn out at the polls and not be lulled by the "dangerous illusion" that "everything was pre-determined."
He warned that a vote for United Russia's opponents would return Russia to what he called the "humiliation, dependency and disintegration" of the early post-Soviet years.
Russian authorities and businesses meanwhile mounted a massive effort to maximise the turnout, including through SMS messages from Russia's biggest operators encouraging mobile phone subscribers to vote.
Election watchdog organisations have voiced concern over allegations that voters have come under pressure from authorities to vote at their workplaces, under the watchful eye of their bosses.
Europe's main election monitoring body, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has decided to abandon its observer mission, citing restrictions from Moscow.
Putin accused the United States, an OSCE member, of being behind the boycott and said it aimed to discredit Russia's elections. Washington has rejected the accusation and challenged Russia to prove it.
Voting starts at 2000 GMT on Saturday in the far east region of Kamchatka and ends on Sunday at 1800 GMT in Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.
