Reinventing Russia's Party of Power: “Unity” and the 1999 Duma Election

Two specialists on Russian politics chronicle the formation and early development of Unity, the latest version of the “party of power” in Russian politics. Unity's unexpected success in the election of the State Duma in December 1999 helped assure Vladimir Putin's subsequent election as president and gave him a reliable base of support within the Duma itself. The authors draw on extensive interviews with participants to outline the motivations behind the creation of Unity and the campaign strategy it pursued in the fall of 1999. They go on to analyze popular sources of support for the party, relying on a two-wave panel survey of the Russian electorate.