In doing so, the source said, the authorities hope to avoid what happened in the last regional elections. Back in October, only two parties – the United Russia and the Communist party – managed to achieve the minimum proportion of votes to gain seats in the Moscow Duma, which resulted in two of them representing the entire vast and multicultural city.

In addition, the new law is to give smaller parties more support on the regional level and encourage a more pluralistic political system in Russia.

The question that makes regional politicians worried is what will happen if less than 4 parties reach the threshold the president has insisted upon. So far, there have been no concrete answers coming from the Kremlin. The same source says that if Kremlin’s suggestion is not implemented in the next elections due on March 14, regions will be punished with sanctions.

The only way to implement the new law is to lower the minimum threshold of votes the party needs to get seats. This currently stands at 7 percent, but in January 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev said in his Annual Address that he wants to lower this threshold to 5 per cent to give small parties more chance to get seats. However, in six regions out of eight, this remained a proposal only.

Practically, this means that if there are only four parties in the region, and three of them gain enough votes to get seats but not the fourth, the fourth will be given seats anyway.

The Kremlin’s measure is supposed to create a more diverse political landscape in regions. Actually, it seems the authorities are trying to impose a multiparty system on the regions, just because this is the symbol of democracy.

Political analyst Sergey Brilev, however, believes that the Kremlin’s move, if it is not made up by journalists, is for the better.

“Even though it sounds and looks artificial, we will be able to say that we live in the country with a European government,” Brilev told RT.