Organizers of Russian opposition conference urge democrats to unite
Interfax
Moscow, 2 April: Organizers of the Democratic Conference that will take place in St Petersburg on 5 April believe that only unification will allow democrats to gain serious public support.
"The emergence of a new political force of a democratic orientation is capable of mustering wide support of progressively-minded citizens of Russia. A potential stable base of support for such a political force consists of at least 10-15m voters. In the future such a political force would be able to seek support of at least 50 per cent of Russian voters," a statement, which the organizers of the event have sent to all its potential participants, says.
At the same time they believe that until now the creation of such a political force has been hampered by several factors, in particular, "unprecedented actions aimed at restricting freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of political parties' activity in the country".
Also, they believe that in many respects it is a fault of democrats themselves.
"A part of them have turned out to be unprepared to meet the demands of a new time, in many respects having preserved the views, ideology, disputes and leaders of the 1990s. Another part of newer forces of the democratic spectrum tended to street nationalist rhetoric, often incompatible with democratic values, and to extremely aggressive, sometimes non-constructive criticism of the authorities," the statement says.
"We intend to set up a broad coalition political and public movement in Russia. It is necessary to ensure as broad a consolidation as possible in the framework of the movement of professional, popular and honest democratic politicians who enjoy trust of the people, as well as a large number of public figures, human rights activists and businessmen," says the draft statement, which is being planned to be considered at the Democratic Conference.
At the same time its authors believe that "it is necessary to ensure an effective system of collective leadership and management of the movement to prevent the risks of usurpation of power by certain leaders and transformation of the democratic forces' coalition into a party headed by one leader, which was already the case in the past".
Apart from that, the statement notes: "We do not want the dissolution of the democratic parties and civil coalitions which are currently active in Russia, in particular, Yabloko and the SPS [Union of Right Forces]. On the contrary, we are calling for cooperation with the movement, active participation of its representatives in the movement's work and control over its activity."
The authors of the statement are not aiming to immediately transform the democratic coalition into a formal political party. "The issue of the movement's transformation into a party, which has not been withdrawn from the agenda in principle, will be considered by us at next stages," the document says.
It is also inviting the authorities to "a dialogue and a voluntary elimination of restrictions on the freedom of speech and activity of political opposition in the country".
"We are not going to seek confrontation with the authorities and base our activity exclusively on the criticism of their actions. In connection with this we are open for both participation in the formal political process (including elections, which are still held) and the dialogue with the authorities, in the framework of which discussion of ways of the country's real democratization is possible," the organizers of the conference note.
At the same time it is clear from the document that they do not have "any illusions about the present authorities and results of their activity" and reserve the right to continue criticizing the authorities, including "in a sharp manner". [Passage omitted].