Translated material
"And for what?"
- Do you think that the Union of Right Forces can be removed from the elections?
- And for what? It is clear that technically any party can be removed at any election. But it seems to me that the authorities will not agree to this. We should have done this earlier, without applying all the pressure that we have experienced lately. Now everyone will understand that this is a political reprisal. It turns out that the authorities admit: they lost the war with the Union of Right Forces.
- How did this war manifest itself?
- I’m thinking of writing a brochure about black technologies after December 2. This will not be a political technology book, but a kind of synopsis about the degradation of power. Everything will be described there: the registration of spoiler parties, and actions at the stage of preparation of elections, and pressure on candidates in order to force them to leave the lists. After a certain point, such actions are no longer useless, because according to the law, from November 16, candidates can no longer leave the list. Therefore, now our enemies are focused on the information background and working with the target voter. Targeted provocations began: sending spam on the Internet, calling people at night to encourage them to vote for us. They also came up with a two-prong strategy: first, on our behalf, they hired students to distribute leaflets to people, which supposedly could be exchanged for discount cards in our office. The students, of course, were not paid. People who did not receive discount cards are also unhappy. I have no doubt that some other “creative” is in store. But it seems to me that the stick has already gone too far. Some people who are not supporters of democratic values, but see what is happening, begin to react differently than the organizers of these provocations would like.
-You didn't expect all this?
- Absolutely expected it. I’ll quote one of my favorite poets, Vladimir Vishnevsky: “Our strength lies in the readiness for a breakdown.” We encountered similar phenomena back in the regional campaigns of March-April 2007. They are repeated, because people, although creative, are lazy. So they came up with the idea that in the Tomsk region, Mayor Makarov, who was in prison, was campaigning for us. And in Kemerovo, let there be a terribly unpopular ex-governor Kislyuk. We knew what action to expect. Of course, the scale and pressure were changed. But in general, the authorities have not demonstrated new approaches.
— One gets the feeling that right now the Union of Right Forces is going through almost the most oppositional period in its life. Suffice it to name the lawsuit against Putin (the Party tried to obtain through the court the deregistration as a candidate for the State Duma of Vladimir Putin, who heads the United Russia list and who, according to the SPS, committed violations related to campaigning. However, the Supreme Court did not satisfy the SPS complaint. - Ed. )
- It seems to me that the election campaign does not mean changes in politics, it simply sharpens things up. In ordinary political life, the colors are blurred. People often ask me: “Why are you happy that Putin topped the United Russia list?” And I say: this is a clear polarization of the political space. Before this, many politicians said: “we are for Putin, but against United Russia,” “we are for the government, but against parliament,” and so on. But what are the pros and cons when in Russia power is concentrated in one hand? The concentration of power is reflected in these elections, in this political struggle. And now it becomes clear who is in the opposition and who is not. Someone says that he is against Putin and gives reasons. And someone - that he is for the friendship of peoples, internationalism and control of civil society over power. Or for joining the European Union. We have been declaring for two and a half years that we are an opposition party. All this time we opposed the cult of personality, the nationalization of the economy, and the one-party system. Nothing has changed.
-- SPS announced its intention to take part in the “March of Dissent”, organized by “The Other Russia”. So you have changed your position towards this opposition coalition?
- Our attitude towards the “Other Russia” has not changed. I remain opposed to broad right-left coalitions. I believed and still believe that unification on the principle of “against the government” is wrong. And that’s why we didn’t join the “Other Russia”. What happened? First of all, the “March of Dissent” is a broader phenomenon than “The Other Russia”. People come to him who may not know who Limonov and Kasparov are. Our position was this: as a party, we did not participate in the marches, but no one forbade party members from coming to these marches. I came too. Now we are participating in the “March of Dissent” precisely as a party, because the political situation has worsened. Moreover, on the eve of the elections, we want to express our attitude to what the authorities are doing during the election campaign.
— Why did the Union of Right Forces decide to nominate its own presidential candidate and why Boris Nemtsov?
- In a situation where the country is threatened by dictatorship, we must do everything to unite civil resistance and prevent the ruling group from usurping power for many years. Our task is not just to create an opposition faction in parliament. Our task is to return Russia to the right, democratic course. And it is impossible to solve this problem only in parliamentary elections, even if we win. We must oppose Putin’s plan with our own plan and nominate our own candidate for the presidency, who will propose our program for the development of Russia called “Freedom and Humanity.”
The congress of our party will nominate a candidate from the Union of Right Forces on December 17. But we need to declare who we intend to nominate right now. I propose that the Federal Political Council nominate my friend and comrade Boris Nemtsov as a candidate for the post of President of Russia at the congress of our party.
— Where do you think the rumors came from that Anatoly Chubais was leaving the Union of Rightist Forces?
- Provocations at every step. At the same time, those who are fighting us are trying to reach different target audiences. In the case of spam, the calculation was made on Internet users. There are people who have a good attitude towards Chubais. For them, his departure from the Union of Right Forces would be a definite signal. He did not leave and is not going to leave. And who, tell me, are the posters “Nikita Belykh - a homogenizing leader” aimed at? Is it really for metallurgists and food workers who are involved in the processes of homogenization of products?
--What does the Union of Right Forces intend to do after December 2?
- Let's get into the Duma and begin to actively work to implement plans for legislative activity, we will keep the country from sliding into totalitarianism, we will fight for human rights, against the cult of personality and the state planned economy.