In his speech in the Houses of Parliament
in London YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin stated that policies
of the Russian government towards an anti-European way of
development had been changing the situation in the country.
In his speech Mitrokhin touched upon such topics as political
reprisals, toughening of the laws, clericalisation of the
state and the problems of the opposition.
A conflict with the West has become more apparent and moreover
demonstrative. Cultivation of xenophobia and hostility to
the outside world allows the regime to feel more confident
when rejecting accusations of election fraud, destruction
of an independent judiciary, and so on, Mitrokhin stressed.
Sergei Mitrokhins briefing was held on the initiative of
Lord John Alderdice. The meeting was hosted Simon Hughes MP,
Deputy Leader of LibDems, and Lord Alderdice, immediate past
LI President. British MPs from the Liberal Democratic Party
and their supporters and students from the London School of
Economics and other British Universities participated in the
meeting.
Sergei Mitrokhins report evolved around the specifics of
the development of Russian and the tasks of the YABLOKO party.
President Putin had responded to the mass reprisals with
tightening of the screws, Mitrokhin said. This is how Vladimir
Putins regime tries to avoid the fate of his Middle Eastern
counterparts. Obviously, Putin has been very concerned of
the fates of his colleagues from the Arab world, and this
makes him take up preventive measures against the Arab Spring
scenario in Russia, he noted.
According to Mitrokhin, the government found a pretext for
launching reprisals against the public activity after the
developments of the rally of the 6th of May, when the police
and security services managed to use the adventurous moods
of some leaders of the protest movement for mass provocations
at Bolotnaya Square in Moscow.
Sergei Mitrokhin told to British MPs about political reprisals
against the opposition: political prisoners of the rallies
of Bolotnaya Square, Leonid Razvozzhayev, YABLOKOs activists
Maxim Petlin, Suren Gazoran and Yegeny Vitishko. Policemen
are awarded bonuses and even gratuitous apartments for breaking
peaceful rallies, he noted. The government divides the society
creating social intolerance to all the critics of the system.
Vladimir Putins regime has been continuously borrowing repressive
practices of a totalitarian state, including not only Soviet,
but also Nazi methods, Mitrokhin said.
In additions, the State Duma began at a record high speech
introducing amendments broadening the proxies of the secret
services and the police and restricting political and civil
activities: into the law on rallies, the law on non-governmental
organisations, the law on state treason and amendments stipulating
toughening of controls over Internet and mass media.
According to Mitrokhin, Putin responded to the challenge
made by the society with a new state ideology based on aggressive
clericalism.
Orthodoxy has been exploited by the regime in a very specific
interpretation focusing on the contraposition of this confession
to the European values and the Western way of life, he stressed.
The specific interpretation of Orthodoxy has begun playing
the same role for Vladimir Putin's regime as the interpretation
of Marxism for Soviet communists, racial theories for Adolph
Hitler or Catholicism for General Franco.
In practice such ideological evolution resulted in a demonstratively
cruel sentence to the participants of the Pussy Riot punk
band, inspired anti-liberal "Orthodox leanings"
or aggressive patrols by the Orthodox Banner Bearers and establishment
of theology faculties in technological universities.
Speaking about the problems of the Russian opposition Mitrokhin
gave a negative assessment of a union of some liberals with
left or right radicals. A new political structure the Coordinating
Council of the Opposition supported by such liberals represents
a kind of a lift to the big politics for left radicals and
nationalists or people with eclectic views, as for the latter
extreme views are typical, Mitrokhin noted.
Mitrokhin also stressed that the views of left radicals and
nationalists had not represent any alternative to the ideology
or practices of the ruling regime. Realizing the deadly danger
of radical ideologies for Russia YABLOKO had to resolutely
dissociate itself from the so-called "united opposition"
dominated by left-wing radicals and nationalists.
As 100 years ago, when mostly radical left opposition opposed
anti-liberal autocracy, at present the divide line has been
lying between anti-liberal reactionary government and non-liberal
revolutionary opposition prone of right or left extremism,
Mitrokhin noted.
In such circumstances, I see the mission of the YABLOKO
party as follows: strictly marking the liberal and the European
vector of the Russian politics we should peacefully change
Vladimir Putins regime in this direction without any revolutionary
upheavals that may lead either to destruction of the country,
or to another period of totalitarian rule by the left-wing
or the right-wing. The deja-vu situation implies that there
should be at least one party which remembers the lessons of
the history and therefore has a chance to avert repeating
of the tragedy, concluded Mitrokhin.
See also:
A
Russian Deja-Vu. The Political Development and the Objectives
of the YABLOKO party. Sergei
Mitorkhin's lecture in the British Parliment, London, November
12, 2012
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