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Yesterday, on the Remembrance Day of the Victims of Political
Repressions, a large number of people gathered by Solovetsky Stone
in Moscow (Ed. Solovki was one of Following a succession of party
congresses, most of them in December 2001 and January 2002 and
concerned with compliance of documentation with the law "On
the Parties", in general the political structures of Russia
took some time to emerge. (... ) Only now Russia's political structures
have begun resuming their activities after the New Year's holidays;
so the party life promises to become more diverse soon. What are
the parties planning to do in the near future? We asked the leading
political parties this question.
Establishing regional branch offices is a fundamental problem
faced by the party authorities of United Russia. Unlike all the
other parties, it has to implement the most difficult step - to
unite
three local groups of the party in each of the 89 regions and
elect its local leaders. In an interview with our reporter, senior
deputy of the Central executive committee of United Russia Yevgeny
Trofimov said that the party has decided to use an atypical approach
to resolution
of this delicate issue. Instead of issuing orders to resolve
all staff problems in the regions within a month, membership of
the party applied to governors, heads of legislative assemblies
in the regions and also regional envoys with a request to express
their opinions about the most suitable candidacy for head of local
branches of United Russia. As a result, over 2,000 proposals were
submitted to the Central committee, and it was decided that the
most honourable would be selected at a special meeting in March,
and that the candidacies would only be nominated to regional branch
offices subsequent to this event. Then the party will build up
a network of local and primary party groups. Most frequently,
university heads of local higher education institutions and also
directors of enterprises are proposed, Trofimov said. In some
regions, regional leaders even include themselves in the party
lists, such as, for instance, Ulianovsk Governor Vladimir Shamanov.
Moreover, completion of the main documents of the party and formation
of the machinery of the new structure is among United Russia's
plans.
The Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) is also active.
Thus, in February the party of Boris Nemtsov intends to hold
a conference
dedicated to freedom of speech in Russia entitled "Power
of press of press on power?", and also a campaign aimed against
toughening the visa regime for Russian citizens entering the US.
The SPS also intends to continue upholding the need to conduct
military reform, which the government is about to resume to discuss
in March. As for withdrawal of some of the party members from
the SPS, it would not lead to a wave of withdrawals from the party,
as thought in the structure. However, an upcoming political council
of the SPS, where confirmation of the authority of the head of
the party's executive committee is expected, may be rather hard.
Three nominees would claim to this post, which is currently occupied
by Eldar Yanbukhtin, a source in the SPS told us. Preparation
of amendments to the Constitution, linked with transition of the
Federation Council on an elective basis will be the main "surprise"
from the SPS.
Yabloko is also preparing a draft law for appointing the upper
house by election; however, the party does not intend to amend
the Constitution, deputy chairman of Yabloko Sergei Mitrokhin
said. Basically, Grigory Yavlinsky's structure intends to focus
on the struggle to ban the export of nuclear waste to Russia and
also work out amendments in the law for reforming the housing
services. Moreover, Yabloko also intends to work on a draft law
"On Public Television", which would make it possible
to form a certain semblance of the BBC TV network, and also a
document "On Public Monitoring of the Activity of the Special
Services." As for party building, throughout the year Yabloko
will form a network of election headquarters, which would not
elect regional heads only, but also prepare for the next elections
to the Duma.
Unlike the aforementioned parties, the CPRF only held its congress
last Saturday. Therefore, in the near future the structure under
the head of Gennady Zyuganov intends to get ready for changing
registration of the party in the Justice Ministry. To succeed
in this goal, the communists will have to hold conferences in
the regions. Decisions adopted at the congress are to be confirmed
at the conferences; then the documentation will be submitted to
the Justice Ministry headed by Yuri Chaika.
However, the communists consider preparation for the impending
parliamentary election to be their main task. It is piously believed
in the CPRF that the parliamentary election will be held ahead
of schedule.
The major wave of tempestuous election campaigns is behind already:
less than two years are left until the next Duma election, if
we put to one side the forecast of the communists.
So, the only factors which can enliven the routine of current
Russia's political structures are, on the whole, either the law
"On the Parties", or lawmaking in the lower house of
parliament.
Seen also:
Yabloko and SPS
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