Russia's main "parliamentary" parties

Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF)	Now recognizes the legitimacy of private property and free markets
	Advocates a major role for the state in the economy
	Exploits patriotic slogans, nationalistic proposals, and nostalgic conservatism
	Commands the loyalty of the older, poorer, and more rural voters
	Its leader, Gennady Zyuganov, has been a nationally recognized political figure for the last decade
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR)	Has an ill-defined and rapidly changing ideological orientation
	Has a popular leader, Zhirinovsky
	The core of Zhirinovsky's views are nationalistic and imperial
Yabloko	Has a well-defined political niche of the "liberal opposition"
	Has a core electorate of the not-so-well-off intelligentsia and white-collar workers of large and medium-sized cities
	Has a national grassroots organization
	Has a well-known leader, Yavlinsky
Union of Right Forces	Is unabashedly liberal
	Has young, wealthy, and urban electorate
	Has only skeletal organizations outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg
	Has strong financial resources
	Its leaders include some of the best-known political figures: Gaidar, Nemtsov, Chubais, Khakamada

When compared to each other, these four parties share many attributes that can also be identified in parliamentary parties in other political systems. They are interest-based or ideological parties. All of them participated in previous Duma votes and have financial resources, brand names, and organizational capacities to take part in election campaigns. All of them have well-defined political orientations, loyal electorates, and notable leaders. All managed to establish disciplined factions in the Duma. Their levels of support have remained relatively stable: no new ideologically based party has managed to challenge these established parties for their political niches.

This core group of well-established parliamentary parties, however, has not dominated parliamentary elections and has not enjoyed monopolistic control over the internal affairs of the Duma as do many party systems in consolidated democracies. The results of the 1999 and 2003 parliamentary votes suggest that the party dominance over parliamentary elections and parliamentary representation may be declining, not increasing.

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