Right-wing vacillations

Due to internal contradictions, the Union of Right Forces may lose elections to the capital’s parliament

The Moscow right cannot develop a unified political line before the elections to the Moscow City Duma, which are scheduled for December 16. This was clearly visible at last weekend’s conference of the Moscow organization SPS, dedicated to the election of a leader and, in fact, the election tactics of the capital’s right-wingers. There are two concepts: Arkady Murashev advocates open opposition to Yuri Luzhkov, and acting. Chairman of the capital's Union of Right Forces, Eduard Vorobyov, takes a non-conflict position in relation to the mayor's office, defending, in fact, the pro-Luzhkov line in the Moscow Union of Right Forces.

Formally, the choice was made: the Moscow organization of the Union of Right Forces was headed by Mr. Vorobiev. However, his victory was not convincing enough. Mr. Murashev received a comparable number of votes in the voting and became Mr. Vorobyov's first deputy.

One of the members of the federal political council of the Union of Right Forces told a correspondent of the newspaper Vremya Novostei that “there are irremovable contradictions in the Moscow Union of Right Forces, which are unlikely to diminish even in two weeks, when the second stage of the Moscow conference of the Union of Right Forces takes place.” At this conference, the right will have to adopt the final election program, as well as nominate candidates for the Moscow City Duma deputies by secret ballot for the upcoming elections. In such a situation, the “federal rightist” emphasized, “no matter what tactics the Moscow rightists choose, they are unlikely to be able to get more than three or four people into the capital’s parliament.”

While the Moscow Union of Right Forces is defining itself, other forces are taking over the anti-Luzhkov niche. On Friday, the “First Free Generation” movement, led by Vladimir Shmelev, which first showed itself during the 1999 mayoral campaign as supporters of Sergei Kiriyenko, announced its intention to take an active part in the upcoming elections to the Moscow City Duma.

The movement is known for many political actions directed against Mr. Luzhkov. For example, together with the organization “Lawyers of the 21st Century”, the PSP achieved that the Supreme Court recognized the capital’s law “On District Government” as contrary to federal legislation. In addition, the PSP achieved the cancellation of Yuri Luzhkov’s order to move the Moscow Bird Market outside the Garden Ring. The leader of the PSP, Mr. Shmelev, said that the movement will claim a third of the mandates in the City Duma, because it wants to see “politicians of the new generation” in the capital’s legislative assembly.

A little earlier, the “Free Moscow” movement, led by Messrs., was going to occupy the anti-Luzhkov niche. Koptev-Dvornikov and Semenov, who, by the way, were joined by Mr. Murashev. The leaders of Free Moscow decided to revive the Moscow Alternative project, created with the participation of Marat Gelman in the 1999 mayoral elections to support Sergei Kiriyenko.

Maria NIKIFOROVA