Illusion on the right

The Yabloko party held the second part of its 18th congress last weekend. The delegates managed to agree on an election strategy for the Duma elections and their own presidential candidate - the founder of the party, Grigory Yavlinsky. Some political scientists believe that Yavlinsky's persona has become quite boring and is unlikely to excite the minds of voters. Others believe that it is recognition that gives him a chance to win. The Yabloko members themselves are counting on the unification of democratic forces to win the presidential and Duma elections. The revived Right Cause party, which, on the one hand, is loyal to the Kremlin, and on the other hand, is oriented towards the liberal public, can draw votes away from the potential alliance.

Although there are still two years left before the election of the head of state, it is by no means too early to start the presidential campaign, since the Democrats will have to break through a saving gap in the existing political system and overcome the social impasse that a society that has found itself in complete apathy has hit. The delegates to the Yabloko congress outlined such prospects. According to Yavlinsky, to be successful in the elections, the party needs a reform program that, in terms of relevance and significance, could be compared with the abolition of serfdom.

The need for unification is also recognized by Yabloko’s allies in the opposition camp. Ex-co-chairman of the PARNAS party Vladimir Ryzhkov and State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov, who were present at the congress, called for the creation of a single list of candidates for the Duma elections and the election of a single candidate for the presidential elections. According to preliminary agreements, Gudkov will run in the elections from Yabloko in the Tushinsky single-mandate district of Moscow, and Ryzhkov - in one of the districts of the Altai Territory. Both are ready to support Yavlinsky's presidential campaign if he is the single Democratic candidate.

Although at the congress there were some voices in favor of the fact that single candidates are not appointed, but determined through a democratic procedure, most of the delegates had no doubt that it was Yavlinsky who should represent the democratic camp in the presidential elections. Yabloko is often accused of not being able to negotiate, but Yavlinsky as a single candidate can become either a point of consensus or an explanation for why the party has failed to unite with other political forces.

First Vice-President of the Center for Political Technologies, editor-in-chief of Politkom.ru Alexei Makarkin believes that Yabloko will not be able to agree on a single list at PARNAS, so the nomination of Yavlinsky, among other things, will legalize this circumstance.

“In fact, Yabloko’s task in this situation is to make sure that the failure in the negotiations is blamed on another force. And in this case, Yabloko says: we wanted to unite, we are ready to accept representatives of other political forces, but they must admit in advance that Yavlinsky is a presidential candidate. For, for example, people from the Civil Initiative party, this may be possible. For PARNAS representatives this is impossible. Thus, there is an explanation for why the unification failed,” Makarkin told Polit.ru.

Yavlinsky promised that the party would do everything possible to unite the democrats in the upcoming elections, although back in early February, Yabloko chairman Emilia Slabunova rejected the idea of ​​one of the leaders of PARNAS, Ilya Yashin, who proposed putting forward a single list based on PARNAS in exchange for Yavlinsky’s support in the presidential elections. elections. According to Slabunova, this would be tantamount to the self-liquidation of Yabloko, but negotiations on this issue continue.

It can definitely be said that Yabloko does not plan to unite with Mikhail Khodorkovsky. “Khodorkovsky’s political views are unacceptable to the party, in particular, his attitude to the oligarchic system of merging business and government, loans-for-shares auctions, discussions about revolution, a “left turn,” and the style of his attempts to participate in Russian politics,” Yabloko explained.

Previously, Khodorkovsky launched the “ Open Elections ” project to support single-mandate opposition candidates. Candidates from the “Khodorkovsky list” will need to collect signatures or run for the “licensed party”, of which there are currently two: PARNAS and Yabloko. Several of Navalny’s associates, who planned to run in the elections from PARNAS, have already asked for support from Open Russia. The possibility of Khodorkovsky's transitive presence in the alliance of democrats could become conflicting and, in the end, make its existence impossible.

While the opposition parties are trying to unite, another threat has appeared on the horizon on the right for them - the “Right Party”, which is undergoing an intensive course of rehabilitation and today elected Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov as its chairman. In an interview with RBC, Titov stated without undue modesty that his party is capable of winning over the opposition electorate to its side.

“This group has been very negative lately. They basically deny everything. But this is created by politicians who represent the interests of this group. We think that there will be quite a lot of people who will support the "Growth Economy" program that we propose. Those who want change will leave this negativity and follow us,” Titov said.

The renewed “Right Party” is a project that originated in the Kremlin’s internal policy department. Titov is personally supervised by the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Vyacheslav Volodin. The updated political council included regional commissioners for the rights of entrepreneurs and businessmen. Titov himself is confident that there is a demand for a right-wing party in society, including among adherents of liberal Western values, who agree that we must “run to business, to competition, to the market economy, and not back.”

The coalition of democrats, however, given the crisis trends that dictate the leftist agenda, can counterattack with a social program. In times of crisis, there is no demand for right-wing liberals from below, therefore, as observers note, the emergence of a business party may signal a crisis of ideas in the Kremlin. And the participation of people like Oksana Dmitrieva, who left the ranks of A Just Russia, should inspire the confidence of opposition-minded voters in order to draw their votes into an artificial project.