Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

296 Cameron RossParty competition was also much greater in the capital cities of the federalsubjects where there were fierce battles for power. 40 Thus for example, inIzhevsk, the capital city of Udmurtiya, 223 candidates contested the 42 seatsfor the City Council in the elections of 16 October 2005. Party membershipis also much higher amongst the mayors of capital cities. Thus, for example,in my study of seventy mayors of capital cities (in post as of March 2007),sixty-two were members of a political party, and of these, fifty-nine weremembers of United Russia: two were members of ‘A Just Russia’, and onewas a member of the ‘People’s Will’ party.Appointment of mayors of regional capital citiesOver the last few years there has been a vigorous debate within the Russianpolitical establishment over the vexed question of granting regional leadersthe power to appoint the mayors of their capital cities. In November 2006,the Governor of Sverdlovsk, Aleksandr Levin, stated that:sooner or later mayors would be chosen in the same way as governors.Governors would nominate candidates for mayors in local representativeorgans, deputies would vote on their choice. If we build a power vertical itshould not be interrupted at the level of the governors. It should penetrateall structures – from the president to the heads of rural settlements. 41As Coalson notes, public support for such a policy has also come from anumber of high-ranking politicians, such as: Lyubov Sliska, the First DeputyChair of the Duma (and a member of United Russia); Vladimir Zhirinovsky,Deputy Chair of the Duma (head of the Liberal Democratic Party ofRussia); Vladislav Surkov, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.However, other key politicians, such as Boris Gryzlov, Chair of the Duma(head of United Russia), have declared their opposition to such a move. 42Critics of the proposed amendments also argue that the elimination ofmayoral elections would require changes to the Russian Constitution. Article32.2 states that: ‘Citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right to beelected to bodies of state governance and organs of local self-government.’Furthermore, Article 130.2 declares that ‘local-self government shall beexercised by the citizens through referendums, elections, and forms ofexpression of their will, through elected and other bodies of local selfgovernment’,and Article 131.1, states that ‘the structure of bodies of localself-government shall be determined by the population independently’. 43 Theappointment of mayors would also violate the ‘European Charter of LocalSelf-Government’ to which Russia is a signatory. Article 3.2 of the Charterstipulates that rights in the field of local self-government must be exercisedby democratically constituted authorities. 44At a meeting of an All-Russia Inter-municipal Forum in Novosibirsk inNovember 2006, fifty mayors of Siberian cities sent an appeal against the