In Moscow, Putin allies lose election but cling to powe

MOSCOW: More than 10 weeks after losing a local council election in western Moscow, Vladimir Putin’s party is clinging to power there - by fair means or foul.
The standoff over control of Filyovsky Park Council came to a head when opposition councillor Vadim Korovin tried to sit in the chairman’s seat at a meeting on Tuesday. A councillor from the Russian president’s United Russia cut his microphone cable and then body-checked him as he tried to reach the seat.
"This is a violent occupation and seizure of power!" Korovin protested to the United Russia representative, Dmitry Prokhorov, who pushed him from his way as a policeman stepped in to prevent a fight.
All four United Russia members on the council then walked out. Soon afterwards the electricity in the building, and all the lights, went off. Using flashlights of mobile phones to see, the six opposition members of the 10-seat council continued the meeting.
They elected Korovin as deputy chairman and, in effect, caretaker leader, but the United Russia members later refused to recognise the vote. The battle to control the council, witnessed by a Reuters correspondent who attended Tuesday’s meeting, shows how difficult some of Putin’s allies find it to surrender power when confronted with the unfamiliar experience of an election defeat.
Moscow is not typical of Russia, as support for Putin and his allies across the country is high. Opinion polls suggest he will easily win next year’s presidential election if, as is widely expected, he runs.
But Putin, 65, is barred under the constitution from ruling for more than two consecutive terms so the question of who will succeed him, and how his allies will act when he leaves the political stage, will loom large in coming years.
United Russia representatives have refused to cede power in 10 districts of Moscow where they suffered defeats in local elections on Sept. 10, according to the organisers of the opposition campaign in the Russian capital.
Dmitry Gudkov, a former lawmaker who runs what is known as the United Democrats project, said the Moscow administration, which controls the building where Tuesday’s meeting was held, was in a position to play spoiling tactics.
"If they want to disrupt our work they will do it," he said. Alexander Semennikov, a United Russia deputy in the Moscow city parliament who heads a commission that deals with relations with local councils, said any decisions made by the six Kremlin opponents on the council would have "close to zero" legitimacy.