Unfortunately, I do not speak Russian. I did study the language for two years at school, but my ‘B’ grade O Level does not give me the skills with which to decipher very much on the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation website. Therefore, when reporting on Sunday’s local and regional elections, I am reliant on what seem to be very partial and flimsy reports in English.

Anyway, I can tell you that local elections were held in 76 of Russia’s 83 regions spread right across the geographical range of the country. In addition, eight regions elected their regional legislatures. (Remember that regional presidents are now appointed by the President rather than being directly elected as previously). RIA Novosti reports the Central Election Commission as saying that the average turnout was 42.6%.

Obviously, given Russia is not an electoral democracy, the United Russia party did well. The highly majoritarian electoral system helps considerably in this regard too. However, its support did fall considerably. Moreover, opposition parties seem more satisfied with these elections than with the elections last year. Apparently, the four main opposition parties represented in the Duma will win representation in the regional legislatures too.

RIA Novosti quotes the following about United Russia’s performance: “Ahead of the elections, United Russia leaders expressed confidence that the party would gain more than 50% in each of the eight elections to regional legislatures, but the predominant power in the federal parliament appears to have fallen short of those expectations.

According to preliminary data, the party was supported by more than a half of those eligible for voting only in four of the eight regions, gaining around 62% in the southwestern Voronezh and about 53% and 50% in the Kaluga and Ryazan regions around Moscow. In the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area in northwest Siberia, where all ballots have been already counted, the party did better with 64% of the vote.

In the Khabarovsk Territory in the Far East, the Altai Republic and Kurgan Region in southern Siberia, and in the Sverdlovsk Region in the Urals, the party managed only about 48%, 44%, 41% and 40%, respectively.”

In the local elections, RIA Novosti reports the result in Irkutsk (Siberia) where the Communist party gained 62% of the voted compared with only 27% for United Russia.

There is an interesting, though somewhat cynical, commentary on the results at RFE/RL here. The bottom line is that in practice United Russia will retain almost complete control (executive and legislature) of almost all regional legislatures, major cities and towns. So, even though democracy did seem to be at work, it will have little impact on the governance of the system as a whole.