In December, 2007, Russia will be for the first time electing Parliament according to the proportional system, with a number of other innovations of the electoral legislation to be applied. What may these innovations mean for the country? Will the proportional principles promote further democratization of Russia, or will they favour conservation of the established power configuration? The authors of the article try to answer these questions by turning to some examples of application of proportional and mixed electoral systems under the conditions of presidential or mixed forms of rule with a powerful president, and by analyzing the effects of the Russian variant of mixed system.