Under electoral law, parties that gained less than 3% at the parliamentary elections must pay for the TV airtime granted to them in the run up to the polls, the Gazeta newspaper said.
According to the paper, some parties owe millions of rubles and have almost no chance of being able to raise such sums. For example, the Democratic Party, the party that gained the least number of votes (0.13%) at the elections has been presented with a bill of around 150 million rubles ($6.1 million).
"In 2003, we had about one million rubles in debt, which we only managed to pay off by August 2007," Gazeta quoted Andrei Bogdanov, the party leader, as saying.
If parties fail to pay, their accounts will eventually be frozen and they will face liquidation.
However, some parties are considering uniting with the election winners in order to repay their debts, a strategy which will do little to halt the current rapid homogenization of Russia's political scene.
"The Party of Social Justice, led by Alexei Podberyozkin, gained 0.22% of the vote, and accumulated subsequent debts of some 200 million rubles ($8.2 million). The party does not have this kind of money, and Podberyozkin is ready to consider uniting with United Russia or A Just Russia," Gazeta said.
Political parties that failed to gain 4% of the vote at the elections are set to lose their 60 million rubles ($2.4 million) electoral deposits.
Of the 11 parties that stood at the December 2 polls, only four cleared the 7% election threshold to be elected to the State Duma, Russia's lower house.
These were - the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, which took 64.3% of the vote, the Communist Party (11.57%), the Liberal-Democratic party (8.14%) and the Kremlin loyalist A Just Russia party (7.74%).
