November 29, 2007	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 18, 1428

MOSCOW, Nov 28: President Vladimir Putin warned the world to steer clear of Russian politics on Wednesday, four days from parliamentary elections that his party is set to win. “We’ve done everything to protect Russia from internal shocks, to firmly put it on the route to evolutionary development and — I need to repeat — we will not allow this process to be corrected from the outside,” Putin said at a Kremlin meeting with foreign ambassadors.

The warning echoed Putin’s broadside last week against domestic opponents whom he described as “jackals” scrounging outside foreign embassies.

Putin told the diplomats that Russia would follow “the path of democratic development.” However Sunday’s parliamentary election, in which the ruling United Russia party is forecast to win more than two thirds of seats, is increasingly overshadowed by accusations that the Kremlin is stifling opposition, as well as mystery over Putin’s future.

Wednesday marked the official start to next year’s presidential election on March 2, after which Putin is required to step down.

The formal start to the race appeared to close a constitutional loophole under which Putin might have been able to bypass a ban on serving more than two consecutive terms.

So far only about a dozen figures with marginal public support have launched a Kremlin bid, leaving the country waiting for Putin to name his preferred successor.

Putin has said that a big United Russia victory this Sunday would give him a “moral” mandate to retain a major, yet so far undefined role.

He was due to address the nation in a pre-recorded broadcast on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Fuelling criticism of the fairness of the parliamentary polls, aides complained that former chess champion Garry Kasparov, arrested during a banned opposition rally in Moscow last Saturday, had been barred access to lawyers and visitors.

“I’ve tried twice to see my client but I’ve not been authorised to do that.

The officials at the Moscow city police headquarters never explained why and this contradicts all norms of international law,” lawyer Olga Mikhailova said.

Kirill Sharov, a spokesman for Moscow city police, denied this, saying “the lawyer has the full right to visit.” He said Kasparov was due to be released on Thursday, but that the time was not yet known.

Kasparov aide Marina Litvinovich said that parliament member Vladimir Ryzhkov and Kasparov’s longtime bitter chess rival Anatoly Karpov, who is a member of a state-backed civil watchdog, had also been denied access — despite holding status that gives them prison visiting rights under Russian law.

Sharov said this was normal because Kasparov had been jailed on administrative charges of public disorder, which did not qualify him for private visits.

Kasparov, considered by many the greatest chess player in history and now a bitter opponent of Putin, was arrested while leading an unauthorised protest march and sentenced to five days in jail. The following day some 200 activists were arrested at a similar rally in Saint Petersburg.

US President George Bush said he was “deeply concerned” by the crackdown.

The possible Putin successors mentioned most frequently in Russian media are First Deputy Prime Ministers Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev, as well as Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.

The only political figures who have declared their candidacy for the elections so far are from Russia’s fractured opposition and include a former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and a Soviet-era dissident.

Political analyst Alexei Malashenko said he did not believe Putin was able to step down.

“The entire vertical of power is built under Putin. It is hard to imagine that he can give this vertical of power to someone,” Malashenko told Echo of Moscow radio.

In another report of harassment by the authorities, Kasparov’s The Other Russia coalition told Echo of Moscow radio that 10 activists had been arrested for unknown reasons. “They didn’t explain. They took documents,” activist Dmitry Putenikhin said.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, whose party is forecast to win a small minority of seats in the State Duma, said “there has never been such a dirty election, even in the era of (Boris) Yeltsin.”—AFP