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Pundits and politicians sceptical about prospects for new Russian liberal party
Interfax
November 16, 2008

The appearance of a new liberal party -the Right Cause - brought mixed reaction from the Russian political scene. None of the existing political forces regard it as a strong opponent, however political analyst Gleb Pavlovskiy says the Right cause might have a bright future on the liberal scene. The following is a selection of comments from Russian pundits and politicians following the announcement about the new liberal party being set up; subheadings inserted editorially;

Political scientist

Political scientist Gleb Pavlovskiy said that the new party would have to develop a new strategy and work hard to win seats in the Russian State Duma. "Right-wing (liberal) parties have a strong negative capital of several failures in the recent five years, and it is very hard to deal with such inertia," Interfax quoted him as saying.

"One Russia is a powerful opponent not only as a ruling party. It is the main opponent on the right (liberal) front, too," Pavlovskiy said. Speaking about other Russian liberal parties, Pavlovskiy was more optimistic.

"These groups are not a big problem for the Right Cause," he said.

Opposition leaders

On the contrary, leaders of other opposition parties and movements are sceptical about prospects for the Right Cause to become a real political force, a later report by Interfax says.

"What happened today shows that we were right to refuse to join SPS (the Union of Right Forces party which disbanded itself to join the Right Cause). We have said that this is a party of big business, which is unable to stand in real opposition to the authorities," the leader of the Yabloko opposition party, Sergey Mitrokhin, said, Interfax reported.

"It will be the end of liberal organizations and the end of the remains of their democracy in politics," a leader of The Other Russia opposition movement Eduard Limonov has said as quoted by Interfax news agency.

"The argumentation in favour of such decision is not new: to survive and achieve the least possible success in the elections, one cannot stand in principal opposition to the authorities, one must reach agreement with the authorities, without turning back on one's views," the leader of the Russian People's Democratic Union, Mikhail Kasyanov, wrote in an open letter to the congress of the Union of Right Forces where the party disbanded itself.

"There should not be any illusions: you are about to betray the activity and values for which the Union of Right Forces was created," he said adding that he will not cooperate with the Right Cause.

Representatives of State Duma factions

The One Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation have said they do not see the Right Cause as a serious rival. "The One Russia calls the united democrats demagogues, and the Communist Party calls them traitors of democratic values," a report by Interfax news agency says.

"We do not consider them to be our competitors, the One Russia, its liberal representatives are known not only by the bills they proposed, but by real actions they carried out. New liberals are only known for their loud declarations," State Duma deputy from the One Russia party, member of the 4 November discussion club, Andrey Makarov, has told Interfax news agency.

Secretary of the Communist Party Vadim Solovyov has said that they do not regard the new party Right Cause as their rival because "they have absolutely different voters". "If there were normal elections in our country," then the new democratic party would press the One Russia party, he said, Interfax reported.

"They (the Right Cause) will win 2-3 per cent (of votes) at best in the nearest elections," Solovyov said. "But the pro-Kremlin party may be given an extra few per cent to uphold an image of democracy for the West," he added.

The leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovskiy agrees with him saying that 2-3 per cent is the most the new liberal party can win at the State Duma elections.

"Not everybody has united. If they all gathered together - (United Civil Front leader Garri) Kasparov, (leader of the Russian People's Democratic Union Mikhail) Kasyanov, (former leader of the Yabloko party Grigoriy) Yavlinskiy, maybe even (leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party, a leader of The Other Russia movement Eduard) Limonov from the opposition, then maybe they could count on 5-6 per cent of the votes (in the next Duma elections)", Zhirinovskiy said, Interfax reported.

Also, Zhirinovskiy said the new party will face strong competition from the One Russia party: "Today, all issues have already been resolved by the One Russia party - it developed an ultraliberal legislation, there are ultraliberal ministers in the government - (Finance Minister Aleksey) Kudrin, (Agriculture Minister Aleksey) Gordeyev and others." The new liberal party will have nothing to offer to the voters, he said.

Former Union of Right Forces leader

The former leader of the Union of Right Forces, Nikita Belykh, said that the party's role in politics will be "somewhat decorative". Interfax news agency quoted Belykh as saying: "There is a future (for the party) but only in the conditions of a managed democracy. The role which the party will play will be rather decorative, but possibly it will manage to defend liberal and democratic values and enter regional parliaments".