The Platform of Russia's Parties - Who Stands on What?

Russian parties go in for the fauna world

On 31 July 2003, followers of the Yabloko party gathered at the Moscow center Internetmediacom for a press briefing devoted to the establishment of an inter-regional public association "Yabloko Without Yavlinsky." The party's followers both from Moscow and Russian regions expressed their support to the movement. The participants of the briefing arrived from St.Petersburg, Nizhni Novgorod, Novorossiysk, Ekaterinburg and other Russian cities.

The goal of the movement "Yabloko Without Yavlinsky" is clear from the title. Movement's activists turn reporters' attention to the difficult situation in which the party had found itself because of its leader's policy. Igor Morozov, leader of the new movement, chairman of the committee for the development of the local self-government, provided the following explanation of the initiative: "We have always supported Yabloko. We voted for this party duriong the 1995 and 1999 elections. The most important thing for us was the party's devotion to democratic ideals and its independence on any power, on the state and on the large capital. We said that there was at least one intelligent and honest party in the Duma. We do not like Yavlinsky's weakness, ambition for power, his populism. It pushes people away from Yabloko. It is not ruled out that the party may not overcome the five-percent barrier at the elections to the State Duma, according to opinion polls data," Morozov stated.

The movement's initiators are certain that if Yavlinsky remains the party's leader, the party will inevitably fail during the upcoming Duma elections and then it might vanish from the political scene at all. In addition, Yavlinsky's presence in the party implies the loss of the traditional right-wing electorate.

President Vladimir Putin took a very active part in the establishment of the Russian Party of Life. This has been claimed by one of political counselors of the party. The official said the idea of the party appeared as a result of informal consultations between the Russian president and the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Furthermore, the title of the party - the Party of Life - was suggested by a semiologist of the Italian Lewis University, whose specialists had consulted Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, ABN reports. Italian philosophers agreed, the combination of words "party of life" was the utmost expression of "social and cultural values of new Europe." Western scientists of politics believe, traditional political movements (democrats, conservatives, liberals) have lost their peculiar features for the electorate in 1990-2000. That is why, Italian experts believe, the future belongs to the parties, whose ideology is aimed at realizing human values.

"Political parties similar to the Russian Party of Life are likely to appear in Europe in the nearest future, for example a party of hope or a party of conscience and so on," a political counselor of the party said. The official said, Russia with the help of the Party of Life unexpectedly became the ground to implement new political models, which can definitely strike a serious blow on Kremlin political technologies.

Russian media outlets have been amusing themselves with the interest that the Russian politicians have showed in swimming, crawling and flying species of the animal world. In Moscow, one can see huge posters depicting a big squirrel sitting next to a wheel, and the writing says: "Let's protect small business and entrepreneurship." The poster is "signed" by the Union of Rightist Forces (SPS , as it is known in Russia). A musk-rat would look great on that poster too.

In fact, the title the "Russian Party of Life" is incorrect to a certain extent. Animals do not have any nationality. Secondly, no Russian person is associated a musk-rat with the Russian fauna. It deems that the Party of Life is going in a wrong direction.

The fashion was accepted by Gennady Raykov's People's Party too. The party is currently being very passionate about a reindeer. On August 1st, deputy chairman of the People's Party Oleg Korgunov arrived in the Nenetsky autonomous district with a two-day work visit. The press service of the regional administration told Rosbalt news agency, the politician had a meeting with the administration of the region and deputies of the district and municipal assemblies. There was also be a press conference and a meeting with the party's followers in the region. On Saturday, Korgunov took part in the celebration of the Reindeer Day at the deer-raising company Evr on the coast of the Barents Sea. The deputy took part in the award ceremony to congratulate the winners of traditional competitions.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov celebrated the 100th anniversary of the party with his "July theses." The subjects of the "bolshevik succession" in the verbal struggle with the "bourgeois counterrevolution" and "Yeltsin-Putin terrible regime" became one of the theses for the communist Party's pre-election campaign. The list of enemies includes other figures of modern history - well-known TV hosts. Gennady Zyuganov criticized the terrible murderous regime of Yeltsin and Putin, called upon all party members to work and not to "bring everything to compassion or sponsorship."