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WHAT FUTURE FOR THE RYZHKOV-KASPAROV PROJECT?

MOSCOW, March 21. (RIA Novosti)-Chess champion-turned-politician Garry Kasparov and independent Duma lawmaker Vladimir Ryzhkov are candidates for the leadership of a new democratic party. Committed to promoting a fair presidential election in 2008 and preventing either a third term for Vladimir Putin or the election of a handpicked successor, their Committee 2008 is most likely to be the core of a new liberal political movement, even if Yabloko and SPS prefer a merger to dissolution, writes a weekly, Moskovskiye Novosti.

While the champions of the new project targeting liberal voters claim that between 20% and 40% of Russians are ready to support "a decent party of genuine, not discredited democrats," polls suggest their real support might be significantly lower.

According to the Levada Center, 10% to 11% of Russians are inclined toward liberal ideas (not certain parties and names). Meanwhile, other pollsters, notably the Public Opinion foundation, report that many Russians name Putin and Zhirinovsky, rather than Kasparov, Ryzhkov, Khakamada, or Yavlinsky, as being among the nation's leading democrats.

In other words, the liberals' niche on the Russian political stage is only 5% to 7% of the vote and they have little opportunity to expand their support base in an election, because their media connections and electioneering resources are too weak to counter the Kremlin's propaganda machine.

As "live" opposition using every non-violent and legitimate opportunity to undermine the authorities seems to be the only viable form of opposition in today's Russia, new opposition entities need to portray themselves as being as radical as possible. And the Ryzhkov-Kasparov project's political prospects will be judged on this radicalism, as soon as it becomes a reality.