Kremlin-connected commentator Sergei Markov also declared that the idea of Just Russia "was to have Putin's influence spread all over the political field." In this way, Just Russia was an "alternative party of power." Its founding represented long-term Kremlin strategic interests in channelling opposition and thus stabilizing the political regime, and therefore the party's creation allowed the left-wing social democratic electorate to be incorporated. The party's founding created a "managed opposition", providing the regime legitimation of 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.