MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia’s presidential election came under new attack Friday from a Western democracy watchdog, as President Vladimir Putin warned in a major speech that his successor will have to compete in a new “arms race.” In a fresh blow to the credibility of the March 2 poll to replace Putin, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said that “an election where there is not a level playing field for all contestants can hardly be considered as fair.”
The condemnation followed Thursday’s decision by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to cancel a planned observer mission, citing obstacles imposed by Moscow. Russia insists that the election is fair and reacted angrily to the OSCE boycott.
In its statement, the PACE said that, “while the forthcoming election may appear competitive to some, with four candidates in the running, the real choice of alternatives is limited at best.”
Putin’s hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev, a career lawyer and bureaucrat currently serving as first deputy premier, is expected to have no difficulty in securing a landslide and is already acting like president in waiting.
He accompanies Putin on official trips through Russia and abroad, and appears at length every day on the state-managed national television channels.
Meanwhile, Putin made a major televised speech outlining a roadmap for Russia’s ambitions up to 2020 — a wide ranging address that reinforced Putin’s role as the most powerful figure in the country, despite being due to step down in May.
Putin told a gathering of the full government, parliamentary leaders and top generals, that his “plan to bring Russia out of systemic crisis” meant the country was again “respected.”
However he signalled challenges, to pull the economy from “extreme inefficiency” and also to guard against Western pressure.
“There is a new turn in the arms race…. Russia will always respond to this new challenge,” Putin said, promising “new weapons that are qualitatively the same or better than those of other countries.”
Putin has said he may serve as prime minister if Medvedev is elected, prompting widespread speculation that the Kremlin master will retain significant influence in years to come.
He cannot seek re-election in March because of a constitutional ban on more than two consecutive terms, but he could in theory return for a third term after Medvedev.
Medvedev’s main campaign message has been a promise to continue what he calls “the Putin plan.”
Putin listed booming foreign investment, the crushing of the Chechen independence rebellion, and rising salaries as among his main achievements since taking power eight years ago.
“I know there is a lot left to do, but the course has been set,” Putin said. Domestically the biggest problems named by Putin were the need for a more modern economy and an end to widespread corruption.
“You have to go to every agency with a bribe: to the firemen, the health inspection, the gynaecologists.
Whom don’t you have to go to? It’s just terrible,” he said.
Putin also directed fire at NATO and the United States for their own military build-ups and accused unnamed Western forces of “interference in domestic political fights (which is) not only immoral but also illegal.”
Putin went on to accuse Western governments of using “dishonest competition… to get themselves access to our resources.”
The March 2 election pits Medvedev against Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and a barely known politician, Andrei Bogdanov.
Opinion polls give Medvedev between 63 and around 80 percent of support.