Boris Nemtsov declared a victory
Wednesday after the State Duma installed him and Yabloko's
Vladimir Lukin as deputy speakers. He called it a defeat
for the Communists, who had helped block the nominations.
"Centrist and center-right factions in the chamber have
a chance in the near future to work constructively, without
the Communists, on a range of key laws for our country
- land and tax codes, passing a responsible and honest
budget," Reuters quoted Nemtsov as saying.
That would certainly be nice.
Well-regulated land sales and tax reform are long overdue.
But the appointment of Nemtsov
and Lukin to these minor posts isn't much of a victory.
It does not reverse the far-more-eloquent previous snub
the Duma offered by initially denying them these posts
- which, by tradition, are their due, as every major Duma
party is supposed to have one of the deputy speaker's
chairs.
And the very notion that the
Communists are the main obstacle to reform is such a worn-out
fallacy that it's hard to believe someone as supposedly
savvy as Nemtsov could still be flogging this flimsy excuse
for Russia's stagnation. Reform stalled not so much because
of truculent Communists, but because the Kremlin's interest
in real reform - as opposed to sweet-talking the IMF -
was less than overwhelming.
As dysfunctional as the Communists
can be, they were not the ones who created the current
system of crony capitalism through rigged privatizations.
It was the Kremlin, under Boris Yeltsin and Anatoly Chubais.
Now, some of the same moguls created under Yeltsin appear
to have secured a friendly successor in the person of
acting President Vladimir Putin.
Given that, the bargain struck
by the ostensibly liberal Union of Right Forces with the
Kremlin seems like less and less of a good deal. The Union
of Right Forces supports the Kremlin through a cooperation
deal struck with the Unity party. And gets what in return?
A vague promise to take up, but not necessarily support,
several reform bills.
By comparison, the Yabloko
party seems to have done better by not supporting the
Kremlin. They're out of power, yes, but they haven't clouded
what it is they stand for. Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky
has kept open the possibility of making a respectable
third-place run for president. If things go to a second
round, that would put him in a kingmaker's position, like
that of Alexander Lebed in 1996.
The Union of Right Forces,
however, seems to have little chance to have any real
influence at all.
