"Great Russia" for the far right

On May 6, 2007, the founding congress of the Great Russia party took place at the Izmailovo hotel, the creation of which was initiated a month earlier by State Duma deputy from Rodina, known for his ultra-right views, Andrei Savelyev. He was elected chairman of the new party by an overwhelming majority of votes (180 to 3). The secretary of the central council was Sergei Pykhtin (a long-time “comrade-in-arms” of D. Rogozin and A. Savelyev in the Congress of Russian Communities), and the secretary of the presidium of the central council was Yuri Popov, a former Moscow City Duma deputy notorious for his discriminatory bills .

The congress was attended by 183 people from 61 regions. Among the guests (of whom there were about 300 people) were activists of the KRO, DPNI (these organizations co-founded the new party), as well as the National Bolshevik Front .

The party organizers demonstratively “sterilized” the program documents in order not to encounter any legal obstacles during registration (the charter of the new party simply repeats verbatim the charter of A Just Russia), although the moderation of the program documents caused dissatisfaction among the delegates. In particular, in his speech, A. Savelyev, speaking about the party program, emphasized: “This is such a super-short summary, the procedure for sterilizing the document was deliberately carried out, we were forced to do this in order to register.”

At the same time, the party does not hide that the main issue of its activities will be the “national” issue (D. Rogozin spoke about “kindling interethnic friendship,” which the party intends to tackle). Back on May 1, presenting his party, Andrei Savelyev said that the party’s program document is the so-called “Russian Doctrine” (written from an obviously ethnic perspective, since its text contrasts “Russians” and “ethnic minorities”, “diasporas” , “non-indigenous”, etc.), which, for example, proclaims the following:

• the possibility of the “Russian nation” changing “the guiding principles of religious policy: in particular, to provide for the possibility of a transition from the regime of a secular state to the regime of a confessional state” (however, for now the expediency of a secular state is recognized; it is also significant that Judaism is not included in the list of “traditional” confessions)

• introduction of censorship ( “the media have not proven anywhere in the world that they can do without censorship without slipping into information violence and moral unscrupulousness” )

• denial of the multi-ethnicity of Russia ( “this is a mono-ethnic state in which there are national minorities” )

• assumption of “liquidation of the Basic Law as a legal excess”, etc.

It is significant that Dmitry Rogozin, who gave a co-report at the congress, did not join the party, citing the fact that with his participation the risks of not being registered with the party increase, but he joined the organizing committee. Another member of the organizing committee was the leader of the DPNI Alexander Potkin (Belov). It is worth noting that in the reports on the congress that appeared on right-wing radical websites (including on the websites of the KRO and DPNI), no personnel decisions were reported, except for the election of A. Savelyev as chairman of the future party.

Based on materials from right-wing radical sites

Sources

• “Great Russia” chose its leadership // Lenta.Ru. 2007. May 5.
• Zakatnova Anna. Fantasies of the "toothy". Another party wants to get into the State Duma // Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 2007. May 7.
• Veretennikova Ksenia. Party of the Tiger Suit // Time for News. 2007. May 7.