I think the prospects for a SocDem/non-Communist (Russian sense of the term here) party are enormous, if the left could get out of the shadow of the KPRF (the only mass party in Russia) or if, even better, the KPRF shed its rhetoric and tried to appeal to non-Communist voters. As it is, the KPRF gets 25-35% of the vote regularly, Putin's United Russia gets another 40%, and various other dinky parties get the remainder. Practically all the non-KPRF left wing vote (and 80% of Russians are left-wing) goes to Putin.
Nobody's going to vote for SocDem parties with 1% of the vote (go ahead! throw your vote away!), and certainly nobody is going to vote for Gorbachev, el loser supremo. I think Seleznyov might be able to pull something off; and think the Eurasia Party has possibilities as it drifts closer toward sanity.
_________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail