Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog at the Ekho Moskvi web-site

December 17, 2013

The Federal Council of YABLOKO held last weekend caused a violent reaction because the party once again expressed its commitment to its basic principles marking them in a very distinct and even sharp form.

The European Way of Russia

Yes, we are democrats. But today anyone can call himself a democrat.

We, however, clearly state that democracy can only be built through integration into the European Community. And here we speak not about a formal entry into the EU, but about creation of common structures that would guarantee that the Russian Federation will observe the values that are European by origin and nature, such as human rights, separation of powers, independent judiciary, etc.

These are not words only, but the most important alternative to what Vladimir Putin has been doing. Reprisals deployed by him challenge these values in practice. And in addition there is even a “theory” – a muddy ideological cocktail of all ideologies (Eurasianism, supporters of Sergei Kurginyan advocating restoration of the USSR, Orthodox obscurantism, etc.) justifying these practices from the point of view of some “traditional” and “conservative” values, which are mostly sucked from dirty fingers with the aim of aggressive opposition to the West.

Putin believes that such conservatism leads to the preservation of our unique civilisation. But if there is some kind of uniqueness, then it is reduced to the fact that Russia is a world leader as of social stratification, oligarchy and corruption. This “conservatism” is the direct way to barbarism.

What the reply of the opposition to all of this can be? Nothing. The opposition does not have a clear answer to the main challenge from the authorities, and it is united on the basis of a pure protest. The demand for fair elections was keeping it together for some time. But when only one demand was not enough, the protest ran out of steam.

And compare this with the situation in Ukraine. They also have an opposition there consisting of different political forces. But all of them are consolidated around a common positive idea – the European vector for their country. This is the guarantee of the stability of the protests.

Our opposition has no common positive idea. Different and conflicting ideologies are annexed to the slogan “Down with the government! ”

In Ukraine the protest offers an alternative, while in Russia the protest offer no alternative. That is why it has been rising in Ukraine and weakening in Russia.

Our Federal Council has adopted the following [resolution]: only the European way of development can be an alternative to Putin’s obscurantism. And today it is YABLOKO which has been most consistently offering this way.

Being in the real opposition to the anti-Western regime means to be pro-Western and pro- European. This more dangerous [for the regime] than cries “For Russia without Putin!”

And the faster other opposition forces will realize it, the sooner can we build a political future without Putin. But for us it is extremely important so that Russia’s future would be European. We absolutely do not want to build any other future.

And this is another our specific trait. We have never been regarding the fight against the regime as an end goal. To ouster Putin from power by peaceful legal means is not a cherished dream for us, but a step necessary for implementation of our program.

In Opposition to the System

YABLOKO has been an oppositional force since its emergence 20 years ago. This very distinctly distinguishes us from other liberals both true and fictitious. They were then in different government teams – those of Boris Yeltsin, or Anatoly Chubais and Yegor Gaidar, or Viktor Chernomyrdin.

After Vladimir Putin came into power that transferred into opposition personally to him. YABLOKO continued being in opposition to the system which:

1. was created by the aforementioned persons in 1990s;

2. brought Putin to power;

3. undergone an authoritarian evolution under Putin in 2000s.

It is senseless to simply remove Putin and his team from power. It is necessary to change the whole system. That’s why we have different ways with a number of parties and politicians. They speak not about changing the system, but about changing Putin only. And we are not satisfied with the system itself, even if it will be headed by someone else instead of Putin.

Anti-Oligarchy

The foundation of this system is the power of very big money appropriated by a non-market and a dishonest way: in 1990s in the criminal privatisation and mortgage auctions, and in 2000s in the process of redistribution of property and theft by bureaucrats.

Oligarchs are multibillionaires who appropriated the main assets of the country. And it is not really matters who they are – businessmen controlling the government (in 2000s) or state officials controlling the business. The main thing is that this results in a situation when Russia was ranked first in the world as of concentration of national assets and, consequently, was on the same place as of social stratification.

Today’s oligarchs differ from each other. Some self-actualised quite well in Vladimir Putin’s system or even formed in it. Others were entrusted to control democratically-minded voters by means of pseudo-oppositional rhetoric. And that is the meaning of the political project entitled “Mikhail Prokhorov”. This project emerged when Grigory Yavlinsky was withdrawn from the [presidential] election for participation in the opposition rallies.

There are other oligarchs offended by Vladimir Putin and ousted from power by him. They are the force willing to remove Vladimir Putin’s group from power so that to take their place and return to the control of giant assets.

This is the meaning of another oligarchic project entitled “Alexei Navalny”. Everyone demanded from me proofs of this. The right hand of this oppositional politician is the top manager of a large company owned by multibillionaires. What other proofs are required here?

This project is difficult to fight against, as shown by the Moscow mayoral election. But I think that we must find the strength for this, if we do not want a repeat of the oligarchic feast of 1990s which ended in the authoritarian morning hangover in 2000s.

And this is one more stance strongly upheld by our Federal Council.

Anti-Nationalism

Public, many of our supporters and even YABLOKO members have been pushing us to grouping together with the nationalists and left radicals for the desired goal of overthrowing Putin. For us this resembles playing a kind of political “Russian roulette”. Felling the power without knowing who will take it means once again stepping on a rake of 1917.

People with liberal-democratic views who helped the Bolsheviks because of their hostility to the autocracy were labelled “useful bourgeois idiots” by [head of the Russian coup of 1917] Vladimir Lenin. And later they ended their lives in the basement [of the KGB] in Lubyanka.

We believe that the basic ideologies of the nationalists and left radicals contain a much greater destructive potential for Russia and its citizens than the present regime with all its evils.

Nationalism in Russia represents a much greater evil than in other countries, as our state is multinational. If we want to RF to avoid the fate of the USSR and Yugoslavia, we must not simply condemn nationalism as anti-state ideology, but fight against it.

Russian nationalism is especially dangerous in this sense. If the largest nation of the country fells ill with this disease, all the rest will definitely be on the crouch start so that to take run from Russia taking away its territories. Just think about only one of the slogans of the nationalists “Stop Feeding the Caucasus!” It clearly indicates the point where disintegration of the country may begin.

Another defect of the Russian nationalism is that it is absolutely incompatible in any of its stages with the European way of development. It has a common denominator with exactly xenophobic and anti-Western vector imposed onto our society by Vladimir Putin’s regime. Therefore, in contrast even to the Ukrainian nationalists, not only they can support the European alternative to the regime, but are a group indirectly supporting the regime.

From this point of view, the “Alexei Navalny” project is unacceptable for us too. It is exactly for nationalism that Alexei Navalny was expelled from YABLOKO in 2007. And further we received confirmations that it was not a mistake. He participated in rallies under the slogan “Stop Feeding the Caucasus!” He was an active organiser and a participant of the “Russian March”. And he was supported by outright fascists at the Moscow mayoral elections.

To tell the truth

Another feature of our party is that we always tell the truth. Even if someone does not like it.

By the reaction to our Federal Council meeting, I realized that many did not like this. Well, it does not cease to be the truth because of this and we will not stop repeating it.

Indeed, due this trait, as well as all of the above mentioned, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of our party.

And not all parties that emerged in 1990s managed to survive until such an anniversary.

But it is not the main thing.

Our stance and goals based on pure truth beat in the heart of the ugliness represented by the present regime.

All other “shots” can at best only slightly injure it.