(CNSNews.com) - Ahead of Russian parliamentary elections this weekend, critics of President Vladimir Putin are accusing him of going to great lengths to ensure an overwhelming victory for his United Russia party, thereby providing a way to hold on to power.

Putin heads the United Russia's list, and with polls indicating that the party will win hands-down, he will be well placed to become retain his influence -- possibly as prime minister -- after he is constitutionally required to stand down as president at the end of his second term next May.

Many analysts suspect that he aims to ensure a weak and loyal successor as president, whom he can control ahead of a possible return to the presidency in 2012, or sooner. Doing so would not violate the constitution, which forbids three successive presidential terms.

Critics say opposition parties' chances of making an impact in Sunday's election have been undermined by corruption, harassment, demonization of the opposition by state-controlled media, changes to electoral laws, and restrictions on foreign election monitors.

Unnamed officials of the three main opposition parties have accused the Kremlin of promising them seats in the 450-member State Duma in return for pledges not to criticize Putin, the Moscow Times reported Wednesday.

Human rights groups accused Moscow of harassing and arresting critics, including former world chess champion -- and leader of an anti-Putin movement called The Other Russia -- Garry Kasparov, who was arrested during an unauthorized protest at the weekend and jailed for five days.

Amendments to election laws include a lifting of the threshold needed for a party to win Duma representation, from five percent of the vote to seven percent.

Heritage Foundation scholar Yevgeny Volk predicts that only four parties will make the threshold: United Russia, with Putin at the helm.
Just Russia, which he describes as a "creature" of the Kremlin.
The Communist Party, whose leaders criticize the regime "but are incapable of proposing anything positive or constructive," and
Vladimir Zhirinovsky ultra-nationalist LDPR faction, which "tends to approve the government's draft laws on most issues."
Meanwhile, two parties that could provide genuine opposition, the center-right Union of Right Forces (SPS) and the liberal-left Yabloko, will be effectively prevented from winning a seat, Volk said in a memo last week.

During the last Duma election, in 2003, the election monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe -- the continent's biggest security group -- sent 450 observers to monitor the poll.

This year, Russia's Central Elections Commission limited the mission to around one-sixth of that size and also placed restrictions on the scope of the monitoring.

On Nov. 16, the OSCE announced that it was withdrawing from observing the election, citing restrictions imposed by the government, and delays on issuing visas for the 70 monitors.

Putin blamed Washington for the OSCE's decision, saying the U.S. was trying to undermine the election's legitimacy. The State Department on Monday denied the charge.

In the OSCE's absence, the election will be observed by a 55-strong team from the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, and several dozen observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Russia is a member of all three bodies.

'Authentic democracy'

"As Sunday approaches, it has become apparent that United Russia will do anything to win a majority in the parliament," The Other Russia said on its website.

"Whatever the motivation, a major win will allow the Kremlin loyalist party and Putin complete control over the laws and legislature ... And with fewer electoral monitors and a cancelled mission by the OSCE, the world will not be watching as the election is stolen," said the group, whose leader, Kasparov, hopes to be released from custody later Thursday.

Putin has denied allegations that the polls are being rigged or will be unfair.

"We know the value of authentic democracy and are interested in conducting honest, maximally transparent and open elections," he told foreign diplomats at a Kremlin reception Wednesday.

"I am certain that this is precisely what these elections will be," he added.

Putin also warned about interference from abroad, saying "we will not allow these processes to be corrected from outside."

The U.S. and other governments have voiced unease about Putin's growing authoritarianism and centralization of power, and anti-Western rhetoric and policies.

Last September, he named a relatively unknown bureaucrat as prime minister, prompting suspicion that he was positioning Viktor Zubkov to be his chosen successor as president.

Andrei Piontkovsky, visiting fellow with Hudson Institute, speculated this week that Putin has decided that the only way he can retain power without formally violating the constitution is "to hand over the throne for a few months, at most three or four, to someone he could trust implicitly, and then, when that someone sought to retire on health grounds, to resume the presidency."

Piontkovsky said the Zubkov, who had long-standing and close ties to Putin, was his pick as "the only person in the land he could entrust briefly with the throne of Russia."

In recent months, a supposedly grassroots movement, "For Putin," has emerged to campaign for the president -- who enjoys high popularity ratings -- to remain in power.

In a Nov. 21 speech at a "For Putin" rally in Moscow, Putin lashed out at opposition parties and the West, and told the gathering that the next few months would see "a complete renewal of Russia's highest state power."

Urging his supporters to vote for United Russia in the Dec. 2 election, he added, "whoever wins in December will also win in March."

The presidential election is scheduled for March 2. With the presidential campaign formally launched on Wednesday, observers are watching closely to see whether Putin will endorse a candidate or give any further hints about his own plans.

A pre-recorded address to the nation by the president is scheduled to be broadcast on Thursday, media reports said.

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