It's not that people doubt that the citizens most devoted to the president and Russia sit in the State Duma in the ranks of the Unity faction. But last week, the members of the "Unity" just shook Russia, setting an example ...

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This is not to make people doubt that the citizens most devoted to the president and Russia sit in the State Duma in the ranks of the Unity faction. But last week, the members of the "Unity" simply shook Russia, setting an example of collective self-sacrifice. Like Japanese kamikaze pilots, they expressed a desire to perish in the flames of re-elections, if only to sink with them the aircraft carrier of communism, harmful to the Motherland.

The scale of the self-sacrifice of "Unity" is especially striking, if we recall the economic side of the issue. It's no secret that a certain Russian deputy hunts for laws, just like a hunter hunts in the Siberian taiga. Hunting for a big game, for example, for the federal budget, comes to the point that such trifles as money for paying off foreign debts disappear from the draft law hung with free amendments. (The latter circumstance convincingly proves that, unfortunately, not a single group of deputies of any kind is on the payroll of the rotten West.)

In the absence of a large animal, squirrels and black grouse are hunted. Well, for example, under the guise of concern for the mental health of the viewer, you can write a law on advertising, cutting the income of advertisers by a factor of three, and wait until they come running to the Duma with promises of a sweet life.

With the dissolution of the Duma, the process of making money comes to an end. On the contrary, it is time to invest money - in the election campaign. And without any guarantees that the voter stoned with leaflets will choose you. Imagine the feelings of a person who has rented a meter of the state border for four years, and is driven out in a year and a half, and you will understand the full depth of Unity's self-sacrifice.

From the very beginning, the leaders of Unity, like pioneers on the line, diligently swore that their actions were not at all a demarche against the government, but, on the contrary, the essence of a flank attack on the unbridled communists. Perhaps the first time secret maneuvers were so loudly commented on even before they were completed. Which gives rise to doubts about the veracity of official comments.

Unity claims to achieve better results than in 1999. This is doubtful. Something else is more important. In more than two years, parliamentary elections will be held in the country, and in three - presidential ones.

Parliamentary elections before presidential elections are a rotten thing, especially in 2003, when we will have more debts and oil prices will become cheaper. It is beneficial for the Kremlin to hold parliamentary elections now and get a Duma of approximately the same composition, saving itself a headache in 2003.

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then the future Duma will be pro-presidential—that is beyond doubt. The president is equally popular with the people, oligarchs and governors. Under these conditions, any election turns into a test of loyalty to the president. Let us recall Tatarstan or Bashkortostan, where in the last elections, the people, in accordance with the convictions of the chiefs, voted entirely for Fatherland. It seems that this time the people will hasten to correct their mistake and unanimously vote for the new convictions of the heads of these republics.

However, it is not obvious that the party for which this people will vote will be Unity. In place of the Kremlin's political technologists, it would be wise to create not one pro-presidential party, but two or three. How exactly to do this is a purely technical question. It was to come up with "Unity" that Berezovsky's political genius was needed, and to clone him, a couple of Kremlin PR people are enough.

And it is absolutely certain that the composition of the Unity faction will change dramatically. In 1999, at the beginning of the race, Fatherland was the favorite, places in it, according to slanderers, were sold out for four hundred thousand dollars a little thing, but in Unity they took for nothing and just anyone. Now all regional and federal forces are ready to consolidate around the Kremlin. That is, a place on the party list of "Unity" is no longer worth it as a cheap gallery, but as a presidential box.

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from and it is asked: are the actors exactly playing those roles (communists - political racketeers and "Unity" - Timurovites, who gave them a worthy rebuff) that appear on the poster officially?

Didn't the Kremlin's political technologists incite the communists to a pocket rebellion, which is of no importance if the case does not end with the dissolution of parliament? Of course, it did not make sense for the narcissistic defenders of the people to explain the true purpose of the manner. You could have told them that the president needed their support to fire Kasyanov.

Now the Kremlin wins in any case. Either he will change the entire parliamentary deck, handing over the cards he needs, or he will finally train the existing parliament.

Yulia Latynina, columnist for Novaya Gazeta