The All-Russian Political Party "United Russia" is the ruling political party of Russia since 2001. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 349 (or 78%) of the 450 seats in the State Duma , having constituted the majority in the chamber since 2007. Its nationalist and Eurosceptic ideology is inconsistent and embraces specific officials, all of whom support Vladimir Putin. Although in 2009 it proclaimed Russian conservatism as its official ideology, it appeals mainly to pro-Putin and non-ideological voters, and is often classified by political scientists as a "big-tent party", or as a "party of power", rather than an organisation that is primarily based upon a political ideology.Compare:
The party was formed on 1 December 2001 through a merger of Unity and the parties of the Fatherland – All Russia bloc, with Our Home – Russia joining later. Following the 2003 and 2011 election results, United Russia held a parliamentary majority in the State Duma and a constitutional majority in 2007, 2016, and 2021. In the Duma elections of 2011, for the first time, the United Russia electoral list was formed based on the results of the preliminary (primary) elections held jointly with the All-Russia People's Front. According to the decisions of the XII Congress of United Russia, adopted on 24 September 2011, in the Duma elections, the party's pre-election list was headed by the President of the Russian Federation at the time, Dmitry Medvedev, and in the 2012 elections, Putin became the presidential candidate. The structure of the party is made up of regional, local, and primary branches. Regional branches of United Russia have been created in all subjects of the Russian Federation. In Russia, there are 82,631 primary and 2,595 local branches of the party.
United Russia supports the policies of Putin, who is the incumbent Russian president and served as party leader during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev; despite not currently holding formal positions in the party ranks, Putin operates as its de facto leader. United Russia's votes peaked in the 2007 Russian legislative election with 64.3% of the vote, while in recent years, it has seen its popularity decline.
History Origins
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) bloc led by Yuri Luzhkov and Yevgeny Primakov. 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.
Tatyana Yumasheva, Yeltsin's daughter, wrote on her LiveJournal blog that Boris Berezovsky was a founder of United Russia: "Now United Russia does not like to remember that Berezovsky had something to do with the idea of the emergence of Unity. But history is history. We must not forget those who stood at its origins. Otherwise, it resembles the history of the VKP(b), which was carefully rewritten every time when its next founder turned out to be an enemy of the people."
In 1999, Prime Minister Putin's support increased to double-digit figures after he sent troops into Chechnya in retaliation for bombings in Moscow and other cities attributed to Chechen terrorists and in response to the Chechen invasion of Dagestan. The war effort was hugely popular and portrayed positively by the Boris Berezovsky-owned Public Russian Television (ORT) as well as by state-controlled RTR.
Contrary to its founders' expectations, Unity's election campaign in the 1999 election was a success with the party receiving 23.3% of the votes, considerably more than OVR's 13.3% and within one percentage point of the Communist Party's 24.3%. The popularity of the prime minister proved decisive for Unity's victory. 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.
Creation While Unity initially possessed one narrow purpose, limited only to the 1999 Duma elections, state officials began transforming the party into a permanent one after the results. A large number of independent deputies who had been elected to the Duma were invited to join the party's delegation. Many OVR deputies joined, including its leader Luzhkov. In April 2001, OVR and Unity leaders declared they had started the unification process. In July 2001, the unified party, the Union of Unity and Fatherland, held its founding congress. In December 2001, it became the All-Russian Party "Unity and Fatherland"—United Russia, a merger of Unity, the Fatherland movement, and the All Russia movement that joined them later, led by Mintimer Shaimiev.
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 change. With the exception of the continued fighting in the Northern Caucasus, Putin was perceived to have delivered it.
2001–2003
After the merger of the parties at the founding congress, the leaders of the merged parties (Sergei Shoigu, Yuri Luzhkov, and Mintimer Shaimiev) were elected co-chairs of the Supreme Council of the party. Alexander Bespalov became the chairman of the party's general council, which carried out practical leadership, and the party's central executive committee. The council included the secretary of the Fatherland – All Russia political council, Alexander Vladislavlev, Frants Klintsevich, and a member of the Federation Council, Sergey Popov.
On 20 November 2002, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov became chairman of the Supreme Council. Bespalov's powers as chairman of the General Council were curtailed, and on 27 February 2003, he left his post. Valery Bogomolov became the chairman of the party's general council, and Yury Volkov became the head of the central executive committee. On 13 January 2003, United Russia had 257,000 members, placing it behind only the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (600,000) and the Communists (500,000). On 31 January 2003, the party was registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
On 29 March 2003, the Second Party Congress took place. The Congress approved the report presented by Boris Gryzlov and approved the manifesto "The Path of National Success". At the congress, it was decided to develop an election program for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Sergei Shoigu stood down, and Boris Gryzlov was elected as the new party leader.
On 20 September 2003, the Third Party Congress adopted the election program and approved the list of candidates for the elections. The congress was welcomed by Vladimir Putin, who wished the party success in the elections. On 7 December, the party "Unity and Fatherland - United Russia" won the elections, receiving 37.57% of the vote, and with single-mandate members, a constitutional majority in the State Duma. Gryzlov became speaker of the State Duma.
On 24 December 2003, the Fourth Congress took place, at which Gryzlov made a report. The congress approved the main provisions and conclusions of the report, as well as the party's activities during the election campaign. The congress adopted a unanimous decision to support the candidacy of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections. In addition, it was decided to rename the party from Unity and Fatherland - United Russia into United Russia.
2003 State Duma elections 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. 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, 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. United Russia characterised itself as wholly supportive of Putin's agenda, which proved a recipe for success and resulted in the party gaining a victory in the 2003 Duma elections, receiving more than a third of the popular vote.
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. 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. 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.
2004–2007 On 27 November 2004, at the Fifth Congress, a management reform was carried out: the central political council was liquidated and the post of party chairman was introduced. Boris Gryzlov was elected chairman of United Russia. On 22 April 2005, Vyacheslav Volodin, Vice Speaker of the State Duma, was elected the new Secretary of the United Russia General Council, replacing Valery Bogomolov. On 23 April 2005, 35-year-old State Duma deputy Andrey Vorobyov, head of the United Russia Foundation, took over as head of the central executive committee.
The new leadership of "United Russia" has set the goal of "partization of power". In the spring of 2005, a law was adopted on elections to the State Duma exclusively on party lists. Then the State Duma adopted amendments to federal legislation allowing the party that won the elections to the regional parliament to propose to the President of Russia their candidacy for the governor's post. In the overwhelming majority of regions, this right belonged to United Russia. The vast majority of governors are members of United Russia. In April 2006, Boris Gryzlov announced that 66 out of 88 leaders of Russian regions were already members of the party. Since 2005, the leaders of the large industrial corporations Rot Front, Babaevsky, Mechel, and AvtoVAZ have joined the party.
On 26 November 2005, the 6th Party Congress was held in Krasnoyarsk, which approved a new charter version. According to one of the amendments, in case of failure to comply with the decisions of the central and regional party bodies, the activities of a regional political association that does not comply with these decisions may be terminated. No changes were made to the party program at the congress. On the eve of the 7th Congress of the Party, the leadership of the political party "Russian United Industrial Party" (ROPP) applied for a merger with the political party "United Russia". The formal merger took place on 1 December 2006.