Oksana Zaitseva. Order of the Phoenix

Order of the Phoenix
Oksana Zaitseva

Publication date: February 10, 2004

Circus left, the clowns remained. Even the complete defeat of the agents of “manual democracy” in the parliamentary elections did not stop them on the path to achieving a new political system in Russia. Neither the chickened-out Yabloko, which has not decided to take a position on either side of the anti-Putin barricades, nor the Union of Right Forces, which zealously rushed into the embrasures of United Russia, can calmly leave the political arena. The Union of Right Forces, which even before the elections decided to say goodbye to its career in case of failure, did not find the strength to stop. Split into two camps - those supporting Khakamada and those opposing it, the Union of Right Forces is also divided into several groups - supporters of former leaders of the right (separately Nemtsov, Chubais, Nadezhdin, Khakamada), as well as those wishing to make their own political career from the ashes.

But those on the right stand firm and smile tensely. The past differences have already been forgotten and the hopelessly belated SPS + Yabloko bloc has been formed, and now the chess players and defeated democrats have crawled into the committee of the future . "As long as we are united, we are invincible." But when will this “for now” end? Most likely, when the right-wing camp feels even the slightest confidence in the future.

A massive behind-the-scenes movement is growing to create a party (or parties) of new democratic forces in Russia. The trouble is that the neo-democrats do not have a suitable candidate for leadership who could be presented to the population without hesitation.

Now Irina Khakamada is fighting for the opportunity to take this honorary post. It is quite obvious that it was for this purpose that Irina Mutsuovna joined the popular race of candidates for the post of President of Russia. After all, voter support for Khakamada will give her a kind of mandate to create a new democratic party and legitimize her claims to supremacy. At the very least, she will become the sole leader of the Union of Right Forces. To achieve this, Khakamada needs to get more votes than the Union of Right Forces received in the parliamentary elections. Another thing is that this attack on President Khakamada most likely will not add much political weight. She now fits in too well with the troupe of oppositionists who are not interesting to anyone. But, of course, we cannot discount it, because it may well turn out that the presidential elections will throw us a surprise worse than the December one and Khakamada will receive a more or less clear percentage.

It's bad without a leader. Russia is a country of pale leaders with burning eyes. The population needs a speaker, a dictator and a strongman. Better with marginal traits: for example, an alcoholic or a psychopath. Russians have a stable parental and patronizing attitude towards Putin’s family-positive image. Therefore, to enhance the presidential effect, Vladimir Vladimirovich scares citizens with a zugunder . A leader in a non-democratic state is the main guarantee of success. However, the defeated democrats do not yet want to be reborn either under the banner of Khakamada or anyone else. Quite natural.

Former leaders have lost their political status; previous slogans and methods have not justified themselves. The Russians did not understand what the essence of democratic reforms was, but they perfectly appreciated Glazyev’s dream of taking away everything “from whoever needs it.” Glazyev relied on the base instincts of the population; the democrats sang about a bright European future - and lost. Therefore, new strategies, goals and means need to be developed. And it would be better to understand in advance how to crawl to the next elections with minimal losses, and ideally, with a justified expectation of triumph. It is already quite clear that the term “civil society” will not be understood by a Russian; he would like equality, brotherhood and not to work.

The Russian democratic movement suffers not only from total misunderstanding on the part of the population, but also from the exorbitant ambitions of its representatives. Instead of moderating the heat of stardom, Democratic leaders are trying their best to retain at least a piece of their former popularity. Of course, it doesn’t work out - as it turns out, it didn’t work out during the entire election campaign. The right makes blunder after blunder. Let's hope that this is a temporary phenomenon, actions, as they say, in a state of passion. If not, their non-return to the Duma in 2008 can be considered a full-fledged pessimistic forecast.

Today the political council of the Union of Right Forces took place. This event was apparently underground, since the SPS remained silent - neither the goals, nor the topics, nor even the very fact of the group’s gathering were advertised. At the last meeting, a new structure of the party was developed - from the democratic group of co-chairs, it was decided to transfer the leadership of the party to authoritarian hands, that is, to the leader, the one and only. What the right will come up with this time - they will restructure again or finally get down to business - is not yet clear. But most likely they will limit themselves to encouraging speeches about the prospects for democracy in Russia.

Meanwhile, the Central Election Commission announced that the missing Ivan Rybkin could be elected president. If he doesn’t show up before the elections and nevertheless wins, that will be real democracy. With a Russian popular print.