Translated material
Farsighted Seleznev
The speaker of the State Duma wants to become president, but not now
Chairman of the State Duma, leader of the Party of Revival of Russia Gennady Seleznev announced yesterday at a meeting with students of Surgut University about his intention to run for president in 2008. When asked why not in 2004, he replied: “Each of us knows that the Constitution allows for two terms of four years to be president, and each of us understands who will be president after the upcoming elections.” This political farsightedness can be explained by various reasons. Seleznev has virtually no chance of retaining the post of speaker in the next Duma convocation: his party is unlikely to enter parliament, and positions there are distributed exclusively according to party quotas. Having soberly assessed the situation, the Chairman of the State Duma has long stated that he is tired of his position. But Seleznev does not want to be a simple deputy due to his political activity. Political scientists also name another reason for the speaker's loud statement - the 2003 State Duma elections. “There is only one logic here: Seleznev has a game with very dubious chances. One way to raise the prestige of a party is to give the leader the status of a presidential candidate. Zhirinovsky and Yavlinsky are such candidates, and this is one of the party’s resources. Seleznev went there too,” Deputy General Director of the Center for Political Technologies Boris Makarenko told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper. - But since he is, to put it mildly, a cautious person, he is afraid to declare that he will go against Putin in 2004. So he went for a harmless, although a little funny, option.”Gennady Seleznev also shared the news with students that the Party of the Revival of Russia will go to the elections on its own, without entering into blocs with other political forces. “Because they won’t give him a decent place in any block. He quarreled with the communists, and will not take a solid position in the party in power,” Vyacheslav Nikonov, president of the Politika Foundation, told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostei newspaper.