The party is described as a "managed opposition" controlled by the Kremlin to legitimize its authority to govern. In this system, opposition parties are permitted to exist by the Kremlin largely to shore up the perception of the dominant party's right to govern, and so their principal role is to provide external and internal legitimacy. A delicate balance ensures in which opposition is intentionally not too stage-managed, as it ceases to become an opposition in any meaningful or visible sense, but it is also controlled as to stop parties from being too oppositionist and threatening. Essentially, the party operates within constraints imposed by the Kremlin. "Competitive" multi-party elections that the regime invariably wins then reinforces its own legitimacy.