Nationalist Party Being Set Up in Russia
Interfax - 4.21.12 - JRL 2012-74
MOSCOW. April 21 (Interfax) - Russian nationalist association Russkiye (Russians) has set up an organizing committee for a new political party, Russkiye's leader said on Saturday.
"The leaders of the Russkiye association have held a congress in the town of Glubokoye in the Vitebsk region (Belarus). An organizing committee was formed for the party, and I was elected chairman of it. All the documents are ready, and we are planning to submit them to the Justice Ministry on our return to Moscow," Dmitry Dyomushkin told Interfax.
"We chose a place in Belarus to meet because we thought it would be a safer venue for the congress. To stop the event being ruined by the authorities," he said.
The congress delegates included Alexander Belov, former leader of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), Georgy Borovikov, leader of the Pamyat (Memory) nationalist group, and Dmitry Bobrov, head of the National Socialist Initiative, Dyomushkin said.
"Nationalist leaders came from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vyatka, the Urals. Leaders of Belarusian rightist organizations were present at the meeting as observers," he said.
"We have decided to send a letter to the Belarusian government to thank it for taking no preventive action. The Russian nationalists like Belarus, they like its migration policy, and we have expressed a desire to try to build up our relations with the brotherly people of Belarus," Dyomushkin said.
Last week, Dyomushkin told Interfax that nationalists were disappointed with a statement by Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin on April 11 that parties advocating separatism and nationalism must not be allowed to be set up. Putin made the point in comments on a new law on political parties.
Dyomushkin said nationalists were determined to defend their plans to set up parties.
"The aim of any political movement is to take power, and any political organization pursues it," the Russkiye leader said. "History has shown that there are two ways to take power - through the political mechanism of elections or through a revolution. In effect, we are being deprived of the mechanism of elections."
Dyomushkin said nationalists were actively trying to organize parties for defending the interests of ethnic Russians and other ethnic groups indigenous to Russia. "It is our inalienable right as citizens of the Russian Federation to defend this. The Russian nationalists advocate the integrity of Russia and the ability for all citizens to exercise their rights," he said.
Dyomushkin said the founders of the planned nationalist party, to be based on Russkiye, include members of many other ethnic groups of Russia, and that this means the emergent party is not based on the ethnicity principle.
He said the party's name and symbols had been approved. "Its name will be the Party of Nationalists, and its emblem will be the imperial flag," he told Interfax.
Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russian News - Russia
MOSCOW. April 21 (Interfax) - Russian nationalist association Russkiye (Russians) has set up an organizing committee for a new political party, Russkiye's leader said on Saturday.
file photo"The leaders of the Russkiye association have held a congress in the town of Glubokoye in the Vitebsk region (Belarus). An organizing committee was formed for the party, and I was elected chairman of it. All the documents are ready, and we are planning to submit them to the Justice Ministry on our return to Moscow," Dmitry Dyomushkin told Interfax.
"We chose a place in Belarus to meet because we thought it would be a safer venue for the congress. To stop the event being ruined by the authorities," he said.
The congress delegates included Alexander Belov, former leader of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), Georgy Borovikov, leader of the Pamyat (Memory) nationalist group, and Dmitry Bobrov, head of the National Socialist Initiative, Dyomushkin said.
"Nationalist leaders came from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vyatka, the Urals. Leaders of Belarusian rightist organizations were present at the meeting as observers," he said.
"We have decided to send a letter to the Belarusian government to thank it for taking no preventive action. The Russian nationalists like Belarus, they like its migration policy, and we have expressed a desire to try to build up our relations with the brotherly people of Belarus," Dyomushkin said.
Last week, Dyomushkin told Interfax that nationalists were disappointed with a statement by Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin on April 11 that parties advocating separatism and nationalism must not be allowed to be set up. Putin made the point in comments on a new law on political parties.
Dyomushkin said nationalists were determined to defend their plans to set up parties.
"The aim of any political movement is to take power, and any political organization pursues it," the Russkiye leader said. "History has shown that there are two ways to take power - through the political mechanism of elections or through a revolution. In effect, we are being deprived of the mechanism of elections."
Dyomushkin said nationalists were actively trying to organize parties for defending the interests of ethnic Russians and other ethnic groups indigenous to Russia. "It is our inalienable right as citizens of the Russian Federation to defend this. The Russian nationalists advocate the integrity of Russia and the ability for all citizens to exercise their rights," he said.
Dyomushkin said the founders of the planned nationalist party, to be based on Russkiye, include members of many other ethnic groups of Russia, and that this means the emergent party is not based on the ethnicity principle.
He said the party's name and symbols had been approved. "Its name will be the Party of Nationalists, and its emblem will be the imperial flag," he told Interfax.