Political parties on the opposition are dead set against the prospective arrangement.
"Don't turn elections into moneybags' races. The United Russia will certainly run ahead of all other parties, as far as financial opportunities go," Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist parliamentary group said to Novosti. He does not think that money decides all-and he knows what he says. The political activist did not abstain from a single election campaign Russia has come through to this day.
"Your spoken Russian must be rich enough to bring your truth down to the public. That's on what your election success depends," he said.
"An election fund ought to keep within the limits of common sense-or elections will turn into mere auctions. The party to get the highest bid will win," holds Alexander Chuyev of the Rodina group.
Local rulers make use of their control of election funds to politically pressure people they don't like, and oust them from the race. "So the tougher the Central Election Commission makes its election fund monitoring the greater sums pass into underhand cachets," he warned.
It is an ever greater problem to find sponsors, what with Big Biz politically passive, point out opposition party leaders.
"Finance is a headache of all parties except the United Russia-but I think we'll cope," said another of our interviewees, Boris Nemtsov. He is one of those at the cradle of a pioneer democratic project under the Committee 2008 aegis.
Mr. Nemtsov does not think a party's political success depends all that closely on its money.
The YABLOKO, on the contrary, views party funding as a crucial matter. All parties can hope for an equal start only when an election is funded from the federal purse, it insists.
"The more election funds bloat the more unjust an election gets. Big Biz will tighten its grip on decision-making. As we see it, all parties should be entitled to government financing," says Sergei Mitrokhin, prominent on the party.
A present-day 250 million ruble ceiling, roughly $8.5 million, is quite enough for a proper election campaign, he remarked to Novosti.
Meanwhile, United Russia bosses say they are ready with more legislative amendments to drive "undoubted outsiders" off election races with the money whip. The richer a party is the more politically efficient it is. That is the United Russia's firm conviction.
