Irreconcilable opposition

Galina Khovanskaya may sue Yabloko

Apparently, United Russia managed to create such conditions in the elections under which political forces calling themselves opposition, working for the liberal electorate, act exclusively against each other. At the very least, the election race in the capital showed that relations between potential opposition colleagues in the Moscow City Duma will be conflictual even after the elections. Yesterday, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent, A Just Russia candidate Galina Khovanskaya did not rule out the possibility of suing Yabloko party leader Sergei Mitrokhin. “I don’t know how they will look me in the eye,” said Ms. Khovanskaya, clarifying that as a result of the “dirty political technologies” used by the Yabloko members, her honor and dignity suffered.

Let us recall that at the height of the campaign period, an expert in housing issues and a State Duma deputy was removed from the party list of A Just Russia following a lawsuit by the head of Yabloko, who accused Ms. Khovanskaya of bribing voters with the help of free consultations. The corresponding decision of the Moscow City Court, as Galina Khovanskaya told Vremya Novostey, did not have time to come into force, since she and “SR” filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. And literally the day before the elections, last Friday, the Russian Supreme Court officially reinstated Ms. Khovanskaya as a candidate from A Just Russia. However, as she herself claims, the provocation of the Democrats was partly successful. “The end of the election campaign was disrupted for me. I was unable to take part in debates on housing and communal services issues, appear on the radio, and in general my nerves were frayed,” Ms. Khovanskaya complained about the tedious court procedures that distracted her from the election campaign, including as a candidate in a single-mandate constituency in Moscow .

According to Galina Khovanskaya, who was previously a member of the Yabloko party, she never expected such an attitude from her former comrades. “They apparently decided that they needed to fight for their two seats in the Moscow City Duma in any way,” she believes. And apparently, if former party comrades have to work together in the Moscow City Duma, it will be difficult cooperation.

At the time when the number was being typed up, the counting of votes in Moscow was still ongoing. And as Sergei Mitrokhin told Vremya Novostei yesterday, Ms. Khovanskaya’s candidacy really poses a threat to his party. However, the “political demonstration” itself, as he called the attempt to remove a competitor from the elections, according to him, had nothing to do with Ms. Khovanskaya personally. “This was a demarche against the Kremlin project - A Just Russia, which is trying to replace the real opposition with pseudo-opposition,” said Mr. Mitrokhin.

According to Deputy General Director of the Center for Political Technologies Alexei Makarkin, A Just Russia was created by the Kremlin to attract center-left voters, but will not be as categorical in criticizing the authorities as Yabloko. In a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent, Mr. Makarkin noted that it is figures like Ms. Khovanskaya who give this party weight in Moscow and make it, although loyal to the authorities, still capable of constructive criticism.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO