Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sharply criticized Russia's electoral system in remarks published on Monday and called for extensive reforms to a system that has secured power for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin's inner circle.
"Something is wrong with our elections, and our electoral system needs a major adjustment," Gorbachev said.
The remarks, made in a telephone interview on Sunday but held for a day by the Interfax news service, followed the Russian government's rejection of the only serious opposition candidate in the March 2 presidential election.
PHOTO: AP
The timing was pointed, and the remarks were the most vocal criticism to date by a prominent Russian political figure of the state of the country's politics as Putin prepares to pass power to a chosen successor. They were ignored by Russian TV news broadcasts, which are controlled by the Kremlin.
The opposition candidate, former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, was denied a place on the ballot Sunday by the Central Election Commission, which said 13 percent of the more than 2 million signatures submitted with his registration documents were invalid.
Kasyanov has said that the signatures are valid and that the Kremlin ordered the commission to block his candidacy as a means of ensuring the election of First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, the candidate selected by Putin.
Gorbachev's remarks did not address Kasyanov directly, although Gorbachev's aide Pavel Palazhchenko said they had been in response to a journalist's question about the end of the Kasyanov candidacy.
Gorbachev said the election's result was "predictable from the outset" and "predetermined by the enormous role that Vladimir Putin played."
Gorbachev has often been publicly supportive of Putin, and credited him with undoing much of the disorder of the 1990s under former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, a bitter rival of Gorbachev's. But he has also taken independent positions, including supporting Novaya Gazeta, an independent newspaper that fiercely criticizes Russian officials.
Among the changes Gorbachev recommended was the end of exclusively party-list elections for parliament, which prevent individual candidates from running and keep the assignment of seats in the hands of party leaders. United Russia, the largest party, is controlled by Putin.
Meanwhile, Medvedev has refused to meet his rivals for the presidency in live TV debates ahead of the election.
His opponents denounced his decision yesterday as unfair and said it would make it even harder for opposition candidates to gain airtime to get across their views.
"Dmitry Medvedev has informed the Central Election Commission about his decision not to take part in joint events," a member of his campaign staff said.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
NOTORIOUS JAIL: Even from a distance, prisoners maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger, could be distinguished Armed men broke the bolts on the cell and the prisoners crept out: haggard, bewildered and scarcely believing that their years of torment in Syria’s most brutal jail were over. “What has happened?” asked one prisoner after another. “You are free, come out. It is over,” cried the voice of a man filming them on his telephone. “Bashar has gone. We have crushed him.” The dramatic liberation of Saydnaya prison came hours after rebels took the nearby capital, Damascus, having sent former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fleeing after more than 13 years of civil war. In the video, dozens of
ROYAL TARGET: After Prince Andrew lost much of his income due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he became vulnerable to foreign agents, an author said British lawmakers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Britain’s Prince Andrew, a former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a former lawmaker who chaired the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalize foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws exist in the US and Australia. “We remain without an important weapon in our armory,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” — which accused the government
RSS