Russian Parties Reveal Sources of Financing
Russian election authorities on Thursday released official financial reports of political parties for 2006. The documents clearly indicate that most parties have not followed the officials’ advice to stop accepting donations from nonprofit organizations.
24 of 35 parties registered at the end of 2006 have submitted their financial reports to the Central Election Commission.
United Russia with the largest budget party budget increased its funds by one-third in one year. The Fair Russia has the second-largest budget. Communists and the Liberal Democratic Party have augmented their financial capacities by 78 million and 47 million rubles, respectively. The Union of Right Forces is in an apparent decline with 1 million rubles less on its accounts in 2006.
Entrance fees and dues at United Russia were half as much as aid from the federal budget, 113 million. At the Russian Communist Party the two sources are almost equal.
Elsewhere, organizations outnumber individuals as outside benefactors at United Russia – 996 million and 6 million rubles, respectively. At the Communist Party people money is still significant– 13 million.
Party expenses are sometimes bizarre. The Communist Party, for one, paid 600,000 rubles for the Party Valour order and 1.2 million rubles for the Party Badge decoration in 2006. The Liberal Democratic Party spent 4.1 million rubles on Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s birthday banquet for 1,480 people and 1.2 million rubles for CDs with songs of the party leader.
Russia last December barred foreign-funded nonprofit organizations from financing parties. The Central Election Commission earlier recommended parties to refrain from using nonprofit money. The Fair Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party are the only on the list without nonprofit sponsors. The United Russia is still largely nonprofit-funded while 65 percent of donators at the Yabloko are from nongovernmental organizations. Election authorities say that the parties will have to change their approaches to financing this year.
Revenues and expenditures of major parties in 2006 (mln rubles)
| Party | Funds available as of the start of the year | Incoming funds | Expenses | Funds available at the end of the year |
|---|
| United Russia | 393,3 | 1382,6 | 1344,8 | 431 | | The Communist Party of Russia | 19,8 | 140,2 | 116,8 | 43,1 | | The Fair Russia | 17,5 | 152,4 | 160,7 | 9,3 | | The Liberal Democratic Party | 0,9 | 140,3 | 99,5 | 41,8 | | The Union of Right Forces | 15,1 | 29,1 | 34,1 | 10,1 | | The Yabloko | 26 | 40,3 | 50,2 | 16,1 | | Patriots of Russia | 0,1 | 144,2 | 138,8 | 5,6 | | The Agrarian Party of Russia | 2,3 | 46 | 47 | 1,3 |
Source: The Russian Central Election Commission
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All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 20, 2007
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