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As it should be, two years before the next presidential
election, the
campaign teams of leading political forces are starting to plan
their
strategy and tactics in preparation for this key event. For example,
the
Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) is making new attempts to persuade
all
right-wing parties to field the same presidential candidate. The
SPS Council
will meet on July 21-22 and propose a selection method. The technique
is
quite simple. One presidential candidate from the democractic
forces will be
named by the party that obtains the most votes in the next parliamentary
elections.
The list of parties capable of gaining 5% of the vote required
to enter
the Duma is not long: Yabloko, the URF, the Democratic Party of
Russia
(Mikhail Prusak), the Russian Union Social-
Democratic Party (Mikhail Gorbachev), and maybe Liberal Russia.
It is already known that Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky is totally
against the idea. He cites the fact that in 1995, after he and
Yegor Gaidar
shook hands on television and promised to unite, he was deceived.
Gaidar
maintains the opposite: that Yavlinsky said the next
morning that he had been joking. Thus, the two of them are not
on speaking
terms.
Boris Berezovsky, who is directly involved in Liberal Russia,
is also
against the agreement. Reportedly, he intends to invest up to
$150 million
in the Liberal Russia party, hoping to gain a substantial faction
in the
Duma. Time will tell.
And lastly - it is already known how big business has responded
to the proposal of the SPS: positively. And big business funds
practically all political parties. | 