Pro-Kremlin party has most cash for Russia election

MOSCOW, Aug 30 (Reuters) Russian officials say every party will have an equal chance in this year's parliamentary election, but financial accounts released today suggest pro-Kremlin parties are more equal than the others.

The United Russia party, which is loyal to President Vladimir Putin, gathered nearly three times as much in campaign contributions as its nearest rival in the second quarter of 2007, Central Election Commission figures showed.

It earned 359.8 million roubles (.03 million) in that period.

Fair Russia -- another pro-Kremlin party but less well established -- was second in the money rankings with revenue of 121 million roubles.

The Communist Party, successor to the party that once ran the Soviet Union and now in opposition to the Kremlin, came third with 106.6 million roubles.

United Russia officials say they attract most money because they are the biggest and best-supported party in parliament. Opinion polls show they will win another large majority in the December. 2 election.

But their opponents say the gap in financing is a symptom of the way politics in Russia is heavily slanted in favour of the Kremlin and its supporters.

''The explanation is that it (United Russia) is the party of power,'' Communist campaign manager Ivan Melnikov told Reuters.

''For example, the Communist Party has little chance of collecting campaign contributions from companies because if they do give to us, they are persecuted by the tax authorities ... United Russia and Fair Russia have no such problems.'' DIFFICULT CONDITIONS ''Obviously this means we do not have the same opportunity to buy television airtime, to pay for posters, to publish advertisements in newspapers,'' said Melnikov. ''But we have learned to function under these conditions.'' The election to the lower house of parliament, or State Duma, is being treated in Russia as a dress rehearsal for next year's presidential election, when Putin is expected to say who he favours to replace him.

Putin is likely to sign a decree this weekend officially ordering the start of the election campaign.

His opponents say United Russia gets the lion's share of airtime on national television, the main source of news for most Russians, and that it also gets practical help from local officials, many of whom are United Russia members.

Vladimir Churov, the Central Election Commission's chairman, said last month the election ''will be run just as well as in France or Italy, and better than in some of our neighbours.'' Churov is a long-standing friend of Putin.

Opinion polls suggest United Russia will be joined in the next parliament by Fair Russia and the Communists, with the nationalist LDPR possibly also scraping in.

The liberal opposition, influential in the 1990s but now marginalised, may not get over the threshold to qualify for seats in the State Duma.

The Yabloko party, standard bearer for the liberals, was way down the money league in the second quarter, pulling in 51.4 million roubles, or about one-seventh of United Russia's income.

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