RUSSIA: Russian Muslim regions routinely give Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party the highest percentage of the vote in the country, with the March 4 presidential poll unlikely to be an exception

Record ID: 327692

  • Title: RUSSIA: Russian Muslim regions routinely give Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party the highest percentage of the vote in the country, with the March 4 presidential poll unlikely to be an exception
  • Date: 28th February 2012
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT ANALYST MASHA LIPMAN WORKING IN HER OFFICE STACK OF NEWSPAPERS AND REPORTS ON MASHA LIPMAN'S DESK (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT ANALYST MASHA LIPMAN, SAYING: "Those territories (Russian Muslim republics) are more like some separate states where Islam is a predominant religion. That's exactly what I mean when I say they are very much unlike the rest of Russia." FOLDED NEWSPAPERS ON MASHA LIPMAN'S DESK (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT ANALYST MASHA LIPMAN, SAYING: "(Muslim) regions are left to their leaders so they can enrich themselves. In return, it is required from them to contain violence, terrorist attacks, kidnappings and killings as much as possible within the borders of their regions so it doesn't spill over to the rest of Russia. And one more demand in return is to provide the required election results. It is their obligation, and they oblige." NAZRAN, INGUSHETIA, RUSSIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) CHURCH, TENT, BLACK LIMOUSINE OF INGUSHETIA PRESIDENT YUNUS-BEK YEVKUROV ON DIRT TRACK SECURITY GUARD WALKING IN SNOWY FIELD INGUSHETIA PRESIDENT YUNUS-BEK YEVKUROV MEETING INGUSH MUSLIM ELDERS IN TENT INGUSH MUSLIM ELDERS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) MEETING PARTICIPANT, SAYING (AUDIO AS INCOMING): "The only choice that the Ingush people can make is to elect Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin the President. He took part in creating Ingushetia, he will take part in its development. Therefore, we should not have any opposition, nothing. The Ingush people has been first, and it should be first in this matter too." MEETING PARTICIPANT COMBING HIS BEARD INGUSHETIA PRESIDENT YUNUS-BEK YEVKUROV AND OTHER PEOPLE COMING OUT OF TENT (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) INGUSHETIA PRESIDENT YUNUS-BEK YEVKUROV, SAYING: "Everything that has been done in Ingushetia over the past 10 years was done under the leadership of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Therefore, they, these people, understand that to elect Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will mean the continuation with this whole direction further forward. This is a perspective, this is positive for the future, this is a real chance to live better than today." ARMED PEOPLE CARRIER DRIVING ON ROAD NEAR MEETING PLACE SOLDIER WITH AUTOMATIC RIFLE AT ROAD CHECK-POINT NEAR MEETING PLACE MILITARY TRUCK CARRYING TANK ON ROAD NEAR MEETING PLACE BILLBOARD FOR VLADIMIR PUTIN READING IN RUSSIAN "TOGETHER TOWARDS GREAT RUSSIA" ON ROAD NEAR MEETING PLACE
  • Embargoed: 14th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5N9PLQP1630DDLFZLLLNPF1IR
  • Story Text: Muslim regions in Russia are expected to give current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin one of the biggest margins of victory across Russia when the results of the March 4 presidential poll are announced.
    The Levada Centre, Russia's largest public research firm, predicted last week that Putin will win the presidency in the first round with a result between 63 and 66 percent of the vote, but it's Muslim republics like Chechnya and Ingushetia in the North Caucausus, or Tatarstan and Bashkortostan some 1,000 km (620 miles) east of Moscow, that routinely give the candidates supported by the state the highest percentage of the vote.
    In the Dec. 4 parliamentary election, Putin's United Russia received 49 percent of the vote across Russia, but the party's results in the Muslim regions were markedly different.
    The Russian ruler's party received 99.5 percent in Chechnya, where federal troops fought two wars since the fall of the Soviet Union, with voter turnout at 99.4 percent. At several polling stations the number of votes exceeded the number of registered votes.
    United Russia showed 92 percent support in Dagestan and 91 percent support in Ingushetia. It won more than 80 percent of the votes in other Muslim regions like Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and Kabardino-Balkaria.
    Nationwide, the party won just under half the votes, securing a slim majority in the State Duma. Even that outcome, critics said, was bolstered by irregularities such as ballot box stuffing and fraud. Many ethnic Russian regions gave United Russia less than 40 percent, while, for instance, the Yaroslavl region just 200 km (125 miles) from Moscow showed only 29 percent support for Vladimir Putin's party.
    Analysts predict the same to happen at the presidential poll, with Muslim regions giving Vladimir Putin a wider support than the rest of Russia. Many believe his support stems from a combination of large amounts of money directed to those regions from Moscow and a tighter grip on power by the regional leaders.
    Tatarstan's regional capital Kazan, a city of 1.1 million residents, has been transformed almost beyond recognition over the 12 years of Putin's rule. New residential highrises, office centres, shopping malls and cinema multiplexes that have been built. There are minarets of new big mosques too.
    The most important of them, Kul-Sharif Mosque, was built in the city's heart, within the walls of the ancient Kazan Kremlin. It is meant to replicate the original mosque demolished in 1552 by Ivan The Terrible, who stormed Kazan to incorporate it in Russia for centuries to come.
    It took more than 450 years for it to rise from the ashes, but it all happened very swiftly as soon as Vladimir Putin became Russia's president. The mosque was opened in 2005.
    The mosque's imam is very grateful for the support from the state.
    "If we ask, they give us land to construct religious buildings. We feel it. With God's help, this attitude and this understanding will prevail in the future too. Obviously, on our side we try not to do anything directed against the law or against stability of the state," imam Ramil Yunusov told Reuters.
    He also believes mosques should be very active in public life, and in elections too, actively urging people to go and vote.
    "We should be active in this matter too when it comes to voting in elections. We should certainly make our choice. Of course, we will not be calling to support somebody, but we are telling people that they should realise how we lived before and how we live now," Ramil Yunusov said.
    In Soviet times, the only mosque in Kazan was Marjani mosque built in the 18th century. It has been carefully and lavishly restored in 2004, with a new madrassah, the Kazan Islamic College, constructed in just a year time.
    It offers Islamic education to young people at 16-25 years old, teaching them Koran, Islamic history, Arabic and Turkish languages. Physical education is also compulsory. The madrassah also pays for sending best students to continue their studies in Turkey.
    "I started to pray when I was in the second form (at high school). That was in 1991-1992. At that time there were predominantly old people in the mosque. You could count young people with the fingers of your hand. But now it's the opposite - there are more and more young people in the mosque. The number of worshippers, the number of young people coming to the mosque is rising with every year. (It is happening) because of the help from the state," deputy director of the college, Niyaz Sabirov, told Reuters.
    Carnegie Endowment analyst Masha Lipman believes Russia's Muslim regions are drifting apart from the rest of the country.
    "Those territories (Russian Muslim republics) are more like some separate states where Islam is a predominant religion. That's exactly what I mean when I say they are very much unlike the rest of Russia," she told Reuters.
    "(Muslim) regions are left to their leaders so they can enrich themselves. In return, it is required from them to contain violence, terrorist attacks, kidnappings and killings as much as possible within the borders of their regions so it doesn't spill over to the rest of Russia. And one more demand in return is to provide the required election results. It is their obligation, and they oblige," Masha Lipman said.
    A combination of corruption, religious militancy and clan loyalties have inflamed the insurgency in the North Caucasus which President Dmitry Medvedev has called Russia's biggest domestic security threat.
    About 700 people were killed in 2011 in violence between security officials and militants, reported the Caucasian Knot website, which monitors violence.
    Just over two weeks before the election, in Ingushetia, a small region in North Caucasus bordering Chechnya, the local president was meeting the region's religious elders.
    They all gathered in a tent set up in a snowy field between the highway and an old brick church.
    Heavy security was in place, as usual when the black limo of Ingushetia President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov drove to the tent on a dirt track.
    Inside, President Yevkurov discussed with elders the latest preparations for the Mar. 4 election.
    "The only choice that the Ingush people can make is to elect Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin the President. He took part in creating Ingushetia, he will take part in its development. Therefore, we should not have any opposition, nothing. The Ingush people has been first, and it should be first in this matter too," said one meeting participant sitting in the front row addressing the regional leader several metres in front of him.
    As the meeting ended and President Yevkurov exited the tent, he was satisfied with the results.
    "Everything that has been done in Ingushetia over the past 10 years was done under the leadership of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Therefore, they, these people, understand that to elect Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will mean the continuation with this whole direction further forward. This is a perspective, this is positive for the future, this is a real chance to live better than today," the Ingushetia President told Reuters.
    At the same time as the meeting took place, huge trucks were carrying tanks and other military hardware along the highway past election billboards urging locals to vote for Vladimir Putin to get the respectable future.
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