Voters Dispirited About State of Democracy

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia, March 2 -- Voters slogged through cold rain and mud Sunday to cast their ballots at Precinct No. 1619 on Pushkin Street here, though many expressed feelings about the state of democracy that were even gloomier than the weather.

"Everyone understands that nothing can be changed," said Mariana Poromaryova, who voted for President Vladimir Putin's handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev. She said Russia was a democracy in name only, with leaders lacking accountability to the people they rule.

"The people live in one country, and the government in another," she said.

Moments later, another voter stormed off after an exit pollster asked about her vote.

"I voted for anybody but United Russia!" she said, referring to the pro-Kremlin party that backs Medvedev. "Because they are all the biggest crooks!"

Many voters expressed anger or apathy about a campaign without real competition. In recent days, United Russia workers hit the streets with brochures and projected political ads onto buildings with laser light shows. To which many Russians responded: Why bother?

"United Russia will win probably, and there is no other choice," said Rosa Ivanovna Agaeva, 73, a Communist Party supporter. During Soviet rule, she said, there was not as much airy talk of democracy but a lot more economic security.

"That was the way we lived, and we got used to it," said Agaeva, who worked in a pharmacy. "You were given a job with regular pay."

Sergei Ivanov, 36, a worker who was using a blowtorch to waterproof a bank's windows, said he had not voted since Boris Yeltsin's presidency -- and then only because he was in the army and had to vote. Ivanov summed up the state of Russia in one word: "Disgusting."

Much has changed since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 and, outwardly at least, Rostov is an inviting showcase of progress. On the Don River, near the heart of Russia's grain-producing breadbasket region, this provincial capital of more than 1 million has the feel of Chicago. Canals connect to rivers farther inland, and travelers are a short hop from Black Sea resorts.

Glassy new office buildings and residential towers line Rostov's broad thoroughfares. But the signs of a fitful march toward a market economy and open society abound.

Liudmila Romanenko, 51, who works in a grocery store and lives in a Soviet-era communal apartment, said she has trouble making ends meet on her salary of 5,000 rubles a month, or about $200.

"I'll have to keep working until they take me out feet first," she said Saturday while moonlighting as a nanny.

Many Russians complain that they live in a land without laws, a country where corruption is widespread and the most inquisitive press has been stifled.

Yet Natasha Nozhenko, 20, a linguistics student at Southern Federal University, said before the election that she would vote for Medvedev because even a flawed poll is better than none.

"It is our national character," she said. "Russians are different from other Europeans. First, we have to change ourselves."

Special correspondent Anastasia Osipova contributed to this report.