| MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - The great political
reshuffle that crowned a chain of elections has resulted in the establishment
of a two-party system in Russia. On the one hand, there is United Russia,
the party in power, which is aligned with the Kremlin, and on the other
hand, there are the last heroes of the opposition, who have diverse views
but are unanimous in their criticism of the current government.
Vremya Novostei newspaper reported that the opposition is facing major
financial problems because of businessmen's unwillingness to risk supporting
them. Therefore, the parties have no alternative but to appeal to the
public.
The Communists are particularly industrious. Their plea for donations
on their web-site goes as follows: "Give as much as you can."
Yabloko has begun collecting voluntary donations from its members and
supporters. All major sponsors want confirmation that the Kremlin does
not have any objections to financial support of the party, said Yabloko
deputy chairman Sergei
Mitrokhin.
Boris Nadezhdin, member of the Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) political
council, told Vremya Novostei that the SPS party was poorly financed as
well. The status of the SPS is hurt because it is not currently in parliament,
which does not help it attract sponsors.
The very tradition of party financing has been dying. It is absolutely
unprofitable to invest in political parties today, said Boris Makarenko,
first deputy director general of the Political Technologies Center. There
are two reasons. First, there are no solvent parties, as all parties are
in a precarious state. Second, there is no desire to invest in a party
to gain parliamentary influence, as the next elections will be held in
four years. There is also a more general question of why. It is common
knowledge that United Russia has a majority and no decision can be made
against it. Thus, Vremya Novostei said that Russia faced the dilemma of
whether to have an opposition at all. If Russia needs it, it should be
financed. But if not?
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