2001 Moscow City Duma election

The Moscow legislative election of 2001 was held on 16 December of that year to the fourth convocation of the Moscow City Duma. The elections were held according to a majoritarian system in 35 single-mandate constituencies.

Every sixth candidate was registered on the basis of an electoral deposit (the amount of which is 450 thousand rubles ). There was a noticeable increase in the role of administrative resources compared to previous elections and the understanding by potential candidates that “the fight is useless - everything has been decided in advance”. 25 incumbent deputies took part in the elections, 22 of them were re-elected for a new term. The city election commission spent 121 million rubles on the elections.

Background
Journalist Sergei Dorenko announced his desire to run for deputy, but he refused to participate a month before the elections, citing the fact that he had been sentenced for hooliganism. He was going to create and lead the coalition “In Defense of Putin - Luzhkov”.

On November 5, 2001, the leaders of the emerging ruling party United Russia, as well as the leadership of the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko - Shoigu, Luzhkov, Nemtsov, and Yavlinsky - signed a joint appeal in which they declared their desire to present a single list of candidates for deputies of the city council. According to Moscow Mayor Luzhkov, “essentially, this is the first experience in the history of new Russia of consolidating various political parties on the eve of elections”. Of the 35 districts, 33 were won by candidates who were on this “list of four”.

Aftermath
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the LDPR, said that the elections were rigged, and the real turnout was 14%. At the same time, Deputy Speaker of the Moscow Parliament Alexander Krutov took the initiative to abolish the minimum turnout threshold of 25%, but expressed his disagreement with Zhirinovsky's opinion and pointed out that talk about low turnout "is a great myth, since 30% is a normal phenomenon".

During the term of office of the Moscow City Duma of the third convocation, there were factions “United Russia”, communist, “Rodina” and two democratic ones - “Yabloko - United Democrats” from representatives of “Yabloko” and “Union of Right Forces” and “New Moscow” from representatives “Union of Right Forces”, Russian Party of Life and former independent deputies.