BBC Monitoring Russian left-wingers' linkup seen as step towards manageable opposition Source: Kommersant, Moscow, in Russian 3 Aug 04
The Motherland faction has announced its plans to coordinate its actions with the Communists in the Duma. The Kremlin is reportedly unperturbed by the opposition's joining of forces. Moreover, according to a Russian paper, this move was authorized by the Kremlin, which regards it as a step towards a "manageable opposition". The following is excerpted from a report by Russian newspaper Kommersant on 3 August. Subheadings have been inserted editorially.
Dmitriy Rogozin, leader of the Motherland faction in the Duma and of the party of the same name, yesterday announced his intention to create a coordinating council with the CPRF [Communist Party of the Russian Federation] faction for joint actions in the State Duma. The Communists reacted favourably to the idea, although they regard the Motherland as a "Kremlin project". But the Motherland's initiative will not go beyond the framework of the level of opposition permitted by the Kremlin: even united, the left-wing minority is incapable of obstructing the adoption of laws needed by the authorities, but on the other hand Mr Rogozin himself will be able to earn political points by demonstrating his opposition credentials to voters yet again. [Passage omitted].
Similarities
The Duma Communists proved ready for an alliance - despite the fact that since the moment that the Motherland bloc emerged they have described it as "the Kremlin's pocket bloc", created to split the camp of left-wing and patriotic forces. As Ivan Melnikov explained to Kommersant yesterday, the Motherland faction "is a mix of different people, and many of them are close to the CPRF faction in terms of their approach, their assessments, and their analysis". In Comrade Melnikov's opinion, this is evidenced by the results of Duma voting "on basic laws in the last year and a half". He therefore feels that "it is logical and natural in principle to take the next step - to move from recording that they have common positions to coordinated actions".
Differences
But for all the similarity over their approaches and voting motives in the Duma, the CPRF and the Motherland have fundamentally different opposition credentials. The Communists are opposed to One Russia, the government, and the president, where as nobody from the Motherland leadership has ever spoken out against the president. Dmitriy Rogozin himself has always stressed that his associates have complaints only against the government. And yesterday too, when criticizing the government draft law on benefits, he preferred to talk about "the astonishing shift of the parliamentary majority to an extreme right-wing position", which, in the Communists' view, is definitely not astonishing since it reflects the liberal bias in President Putin's policy.
The Kremlin's alleged designs
Moreover, during that same February when Mr Rogozin became the sole leader of the Motherland party, Kommersant's sources in the presidential administration were saying that it was the Kremlin that had given Motherland carte blanche to demonstratively display "tough opposition". Kremlin spin doctors gave the Motherland the role of "the number two party of power", which would win the attention of voters if One Russia should for some reason lose its image as "the number one party of power". And the Duma examination of the draft law on benefits is the very occasion when One Russia is at risk of severely undermining its image as "the defenders of the people".
So it is not hard to suggest that Mr Rogozin has also agreed to an alliance with the CPRF with the Kremlin's knowledge. The combined votes of the Motherland (39 deputies) and the CPRF (51 deputies) will not, however outweigh One Russia's constitutional majority, so there is no threat to either the benefits law or other laws that the executive branch needs. On the other hand, Motherland will be able to demonstrate to voters that it is not afraid of speaking out against the authorities and concluding an alliance with the Communists, who have withdrawn to a position of total opposition. And this will ultimately increase the Kremlin's chances of creating a manageable left-wing opposition in Russia.
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