#10 - JRL 8119 - JRL Home
gazeta.ru
March 15, 2004
We did everything we could - Khakamada
Anton Brazhitsa

With the presidential campaign completed, liberal candidate Irina Khakamada is set to withdraw all the lawsuits she filed against the authorities and her rivals and instead focus on the creation of a new political party, Free Russia.

On the whole, Khakamada is satisfied with how her campaign went and believes it to have been more successful than that of the Union of Rightist Forces (SPS), which she earlier co-chaired. Now she says she is ready to part ways with the party.

Irina Mutsuovna, are you satisfied with how your election campaign went? What worked and what did not?

Clearly, I didn’t have enough time. I joined the race hastily; the move had not been properly prepared in advance. Only with some three and a half weeks left before the election our campaign became more or less logical. But in terms of our political platform and our address to the people I think we managed much better than SPS did in its time [during last year’s parliamentary campaign]. I managed everything professionally because I led and controlled that process myself.

In terms of organization, the campaign was very hard, especially in the regions. Needless to say, we failed to effectively employ all the resources in the regions, as it is impossible to set up regional cells so quickly in such a short time. In some areas we enlisted the support of Yabloko branches, in others SPS cells, as well as new people, but very often they failed us. It is very difficult to organize and find decent people in such a short time.

For instance, we were entitled to free time slots on regional television in Nizhny Novgorod, but we never used it. That opportunity to address the voters was lost. We simply failed to find decent people; many of those who signed up to campaign for us actually proved to be acting in someone else’s favour. But, on the whole, albeit over a short time we did everything we could and we did a worthy job.

Were there any interesting campaign ideas or achievements?

The main thing was that we addressed the voters honestly. That was not a mere PR-stunt; we opened an all-Russian hotline and invited opinions and ideas from the people.

(Khakamada is refering to her project ‘The People’s Program for the Development of Russia’. Started on 26 February, a round-the-clock hotline was organized and a special web site was opened on the internet for all those wishing to share their views and recommendations with Irina Khakamada on how to improve the situation in Russia and to protect democracy. All in all, 7,000 people called in and 3,000 more posted their recommendations on the web, Khakamada said earlier last week. On the basis of those recommendations ''a platform of the democratic opposition'' entitled ‘Modern Power for Modern People’ was compiled.)

It seems that we have managed to lay a sort of foundation, to get down to earth, to establish a contact.

Another achievement of ours was that despite the fact that the fourth channel (NTV), whose audience is ‘mine’ by tradition, decided against broadcasting election debates and I worked only on television networks that are ‘not mine’, I nonetheless managed to get a lot out of them.

And although Vladimir Putin had refused to meet his rivals in open debates, I succeeded in building my tactics on opposing the incumbent directly, and not other candidates. And I think I did everything right. Also, what we did get right was that our platform and leaflets, the web site and even my virtual debates with the president were logical and interconnected.

How do you evaluate the use of the incumbent’s official position and that of the authorities for their campaigning purposes during the election? Do you believe that factor to have seriously undermined your chances of securing a higher vote?

I think the so-called administrative resource was really very strong. I don’t believe that the NTV channel, after sending us a price-list for participation in televised debates hosted by Savik Shuster (Shuster hosts the Svoboda Slova political show on NTV. ­ Gazeta.Ru), suddenly decided against broadcasting the debates without any pressure from the Kremlin.

It is like a genie: once it is out of the bottle, the system, like a flywheel, keeps on working even though Putin himself may not want it to. Without him being aware the bureaucrats begin to steamroll everything into the asphalt. That pertains to the regions primarily. Indeed, in many regions we had serious problems.

According to all the reports I’ve received, budget subsidies were directly linked to the number of votes cast for Putin. That’s outrageous.

In other words, all mayors and governors knew: should they fail to see to it that a certain percentage [of votes] is cast [for Putin], they would not get the required financing, and, vice versa, should they over-fulfill the plan they would get budget financing. That’s horrendous.

Will you continue the legal battle launched before the elections. Will there be new suits against the Central Election Commission?

If we encounter serious violations we will fight. As for the complaints already lodged, we will most probably drop them. As regards our dispute with the Rossia channel, we have somehow managed to settle it. (Khakamada’s staff had sued the state-run Rossia channel after the latter ran a 29-minute meeting of Putin with his election agents. Khakamada then accused the election authorities and Rossia of denying equal rights to presidential candidates and demanded that all other candidates be given additional time slots for broadcasting their own meetings with supporters. ­ Gazeta.Ru.)

Well, they gave us those five wretched minutes of live broadcast. So be it. I think we will withdraw the complaint because the campaign is now over. I think we should also drop the case against Sergei Mironov, let him have it his way. (In one of his public interviews presidential candidate and Federation Council speaker Sergei Mironov alleged that Khakamada was receiving financing for her campaign from criminal sources.)

As for the falsification of results and vote rigging, we will closely follow up on that and should we detect any violations we will got to court.

And on the whole how do you evaluate the role of the Central Election Commission (TsIK) during the campaign?

TsIK, as I see it, acts as a state organ. You can see it yourself: whatever the president does, everything is good, whatever other candidates do, it is all for the sake of personal PR. Such accusations are somewhat strange. After all, PR is a component part of any election campaign. If Veshnyakov himself had joined that race as an alternative candidate he would have been able to feel for himself what the administrative resources are like.

What are your plans for the future?

My plan is to set up the Free Russia party.

Together with Yabloko?

No. I will build a party of my own, and only then will I be ready to join forces with someone else. I need to unite my supporters, those who have cast ballots for me, and see what can come of that. In fact, I have gathered my personal electorate, and people want me to be their leader. Yet, I am a normal sane person and I campaigned for the forming of an electoral alliance (with Yabloko and SPS). I am ready to join forces.

Have you already invited some well-known politicians to join your new party?

You mean those who do not have parties of their own? In fact, I am open to Vladimir Ryzhkov and Viktor Pokhmelkin. But as for SPS, it appears, we will have to part ways. It seems to me that SPS is bound to remain a party that acts under the strong influence of the Kremlin.