The Liberal Russia Party, founded last year and funded by controversial Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky – currently living in London in self-imposed exile – has said it is considering expelling him from its ranks and rejecting his financial backing. On October 9 the party’s governing body, the political council, is to decide on Berezovsky’s future as the party’s co-chairman.
As another co-chairman of Liberal Russia, State Duma deputy Viktor Pokhmelkin, explained to Gazeta.Ru, deep dissension of an ideological nature has emerged between the party leadership and its sponsor Boris Berezovsky of late.
''Berezovsky has an idea-fix – to overthrow Putin. To that end he is ready to side with anyone, even with the Communists. As for us, we do not consider Putin’s resignation an end in itself. His resignation would mean a great upheaval for the nation. Berezovsky desires great upheavals, while we need a great Russia, an economically strong country,'' Pokhmelkin said.
According to Pokhmelkin, at the latest conference of the Liberal Russia movement that was held on September 21 Berezovsky called for an alliance with the so-called ''national-patriotic opposition'', which unites communists of all hues and colours, ranging from market-oriented professionals to hardliners campaigning for the restoration of Soviet-style communist rule. Many delegates at the party conference, somewhat perplexed by their sponsor’s unexpected proposal, said his position as a co-chairman of the party was no longer tenable.
An extensive interview that Berezovsky granted to the editor-in-chief of the Zavtra daily earlier this month was perceived by the Liberal Russia leadership as yet another sign of his rapprochement with the ‘national-patriots’.
''The mere fact that he granted an interview to that newspaper speaks for itself. Basically, I do not altogether rule out that he could have financed the election campaign of Sergei Glazyev [the communist candidate to the post of the Krasnoyarsk Region’s governor who came third in last months election – Gazeta.Ru]. All those facts make our future cooperation with Berezovsky impossible. For me a union with the Communists is unacceptable.''
Pokhmelkin’s colleague, another co-chairman of the Liberal Russia party Sergei Yushenkov, commenting on the Berezovsky interview, told Interfax: ''The very fact that Boris Berezovsky granted an interview with that newspaper, which is the mouthpiece of the most reactionary part of the leftist opposition and is contrary to liberalism, and his earlier statements, showing his benevolent attitude towards the Communist opposition, are forcing us to reconsider his post as a co-chairman of the party at the next political council session.''
In Pokhmelkin’s opinion, parting ways with Berezovsky is unlikely to affect the financial condition of the movement. ''I have no specific data on the amounts of financing from him, but with those sums it is very hard to maintain a party – it is less that the budget of the SPS (Union of the Rightist Forces). Whilst Boris Abramovich [Berezovsky] supported the party, for obvious reasons it was difficult for us to attract someone else’s financing. Besides, I consider taking money from him unacceptable in principle.''
Speaking on the same financing issue, Sergei Yushenko in a interview to Interfax said: ''We refuse further financing of the party's activities by Berezovsky, although we are grateful to him for the economic assistance he provided at the initial stage of the party's development. We will again use the sources of financing the Liberal Russia movement actually had two years before Berezovsky joined us. These sources are from the country's small and medium-sized businesses.''
The final decision on Berezovsky’s dismissal from the post of co-chairman, and, consequently, on his de facto expulsion from the party, is to be made by Liberal Russia’s political council on October 9.
The formal pretext for including the issue in the council’s agenda was the official appeal submitted by Liberal Russia member, and leader of the Democratic Union movement, Valeria Novodrovskaya. However, judging by the statements made by Pokhmelkin and Yushenkov on Friday, it is obvious that they have been considering the step for a while.
With Berezovsky expelled from its ranks, Liberal Russia may lose at least $100 million, which the well-known entrepreneur promised to earmark for the party’s election campaign. Consequently, the fledgling party may face serious difficulties in attracting new sources of financing, especially as there are already two strong liberal parties – Yabloko and the Union of Rightist Forces – that have their sponsors, political influence and factions in the lower house.
It is common knowledge that those two parties receive financial support mostly from the country’s major and medium-sized businesses, and they are unlikely to share it with anybody else. It could well be that following Liberal Russia’s divorce from Berezovsky, the party may get bogged down and never re-surface. After all, Liberal Russia has only been of interest to the media because of its high-profile sponsor.
It is noteworthy, that hitherto the Justice Ministry has denied Berezovsky’s party official registration, citing inconsistencies in its charter. Liberal Russia activists slammed the decision as politically motivated and contested it in court, but to no avail – a Moscow court upheld the Ministry’s decision in August. Last Friday the Moscow City Court rejected Liberal Russia’s appeal against the earlier ruling. In this connection some observers assumed that the party would be forced to distance itself from Berezovsky in order to get official registration.
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