| A large scandal is rising in the Duma again.
Deputy Head of the YABLOKO faction Sergei The Union of Right-Wing
Forces leader Boris Nemtsov has a new idea. He doesn't think that
all democratic parties should support Vladimir Putin in the next
presidential election. Instead, he believes that democrats should
promote a single candidate, whose identity will be determined
by the time of the parliamentary elections. Nemtsov is proposing
an agreement among all democratic parties: "The candidate
will be nominated by the party that wins the most Duma seats,
and the remaining parties will accept him." According to
Nemtsov, the agreement may be signed by the Union of Right-Wing
Forces, Yabloko, and Liberal Russia.
A source in the Union of Right-Wing Forces assumes that Nemtsov's
statement is just "an attempt to draw attention to himself".
"This is Nemtsov's fixation," the source said. "He
still views himself as Yeltsin's successor. Hence his dislike
of Putin and his presidential ambitions. Hence the desire to unite
all democratic parties, apparently under the leadership of Nemtsov
himself."
Potential participants in the agreement dislike Nemtsov's idea
too. "The idea of unification among all democratic forces
is the right one, sure, but it has never been implemented since
1991," says Yuli Nisnevich of Liberal Russia. He believes
that such an alliance always fails because the democrats are unable
to choose between supporting and opposing the regime, and due
to the leaders' ambitions. Nisnevich says it's absurd to imagine
that "Grigory Yavlinsky and Nemtsov will come to an understanding".
That is why, Nisnevich says, Nemtsov's initiative should not
be taken seriously. He calls it an element of a kind of political
maneuvering by Nemtsov: "This is an attempt to remain in
the focus of attention even though he has exhausted his resources
as a significant politician, to say nothing of a presidential
candidate."
Yabloko is pessimistic as well. Yabloko public relations manager
Sergei Mitrokhin calls Nemtsov's statement shallow, saying: "We
should plan our moves based on the actual situation on the eve
of the election." Generally speaking, Mitrokhin agrees that
the party that wins the parliamentary elections should "have
a decisive say in determining the common strategy of all democratic
forces for the presidential election." However, this doesn't
mean that this party should have a monopoly on nominating a single
candidate, according to Mitrokhin.
See also:
Yabloko
and SPS
| 