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The Big Integration

Oleg Kozlovsky, Coordinator of Oborona movement

Early April marked a new wave of opposition coalition building. Three events

took place in each of the three main political camps. Liberals gathered in St.

Petersburg on 5 April, the Leftists met in Moscow on 6 April and the Nationalists had

their convention on April 12. The goal of each of these events was to unite the

majority of political forces of the corresponding wings.

The liberal conference in St. Petersburg founded a coordinating group, whose

task is to prepare creation of a new democratic or liberal movement. This group

included Garry Kasparov of United Civil Front (OGF), former and present SPS leaders

Boris Nemtsov and Nikita Belykh as well as St. Petersburg Yabloko head Maxim

Reznik. Mikhail Kasyanovs movement Russian Peoples Democrat Union (NDS)

claimed it would also join the body, so did the Oborona movement. Yablokos leader

Grigoriy Yavlinsky notably ignores this initiative.

The big question, however, is whether these people will be able to find

common ground for the new movement. It seems that they have more differences

than they have in common. While OGF and Oborona are both members of the

consistently opposition Other Russia coalition, many SPS and Yabloko members see

Kremlin as the lesser evil compared to the Left- and Right-wing opposition. They are

still thinking in terms of the 1990s struggle against the red revenge, unable to

see that the revenge is already here, simply done by the KGB, not the

Communists.

Meanwhile, some of the Communists with National Bolsheviks and other Left-wing organizations are trying to join up. Their conference on 6 April called for

abolishment of capitalism In favor of socialism but admitted that they need to

tactically cooperate with the Liberal opposition in order to restore free elections,

pluralism, freedom of speech etc. It should be noted by the way that the Communist

Partys leader Gennadiy Zyuganov was also absent at the event, just like Yavlinsky

the day before. Old, Yeltsins era parties leadership appears to be unhappy with

these new emerging structures at their sides.

The third and the least known was the Right-wing meeting of 12 April.

Russias extremely fractured Nationalist flunk gathered in Moscow to discuss itsfuture. They adopted a draft of a statute for a Civil Antifascist Court, which is

planned to examine the cases of human rights violations by the Russian authorities.

However, organization of the political wings is not the ultimate step in the

integration of Russian opposition. Increasing pressure from the authoritarian regime

pushes different political forces to join their efforts. Liberals, Communists and

Nationalists are all equally interested in being able to promote their ideas and to

struggle for real power in the country. This means that they need to step over the

boundaries of their political camps and cooperate with their recent (and future)

rivals.

The Left-wing and the Right-wing conferences claimed that they would

participate in the National Assemblya new project proposed by the Other Russia.

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The National Assembly is the unprecedented in recent Russian history attempt to

construct an alternative branch of poweran analogue of the Parliament. While the

State Duma is losing last remains of legitimacy and trust from Russian citizens after

the fraudulent elections, the National Assembly is here to take its place in

peoples conscience, of course. This strategy of creating parallel organs of authority

is has been used successfully by Solidarity in Poland as well as in Russia itself in

1917.

Dozens of small and large organizations have already agreed to send their

delegates to the Assembly, which is to have its first session on May 18. These will

represent all existing ideologies and will be a striking contrast to the dull and

grayish Putins Duma.