In real life, though, all key parties to these talks are preparing various bargaining positions. They are discussing future party positions. Those, who are stronger than the rest, will demand additional opportunities, Igor Bunin, president of the Center of Political technologies, told RIA Novosti here today.
The Committee-2008 negotiating structure discussed possible scenarios for establishing the new party this week. Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces (SPS), which are the two main right-wing parties, suggested that the new organization be created on their basis.
At the same time, Yabloko (which as Grigory Yavlinsky claims, is even ready to change its name to Grusha (Pear) demanded 50 percent of all top positions, delegates, who conferred behind closed doors, say.
For their own part, Garri Kasparov and Vladimir Ryzhkov clearly displayed their intention to establish yet another party, thereby drawing SPS protests.
This scenario would make it even harder to merge on the basis of an existing party, Vyacheslav Nikonov, chief of the Politics foundation, told RIA Novosti. It is already obvious that Yabloko members will not join SPS, and vice versa, Nikonov added. The rightists cannot do without an umbrella-type structure, Nikonov stressed.
Irina Hakamada was even more emotional.
I am ready to join Yabloko and SPS, Hakamada said. However, I will not do this, if Ryzhkov and Kasparov set up their own party, she noted. This would be a complete shame, Hakamada stressed.
Experts think that the leaders of existing and hypothetical parties merely want to present additional arguments, as they vie for top positions inside a new liberal party.
Surely enough,liberals will merge because everyone would otherwise forget all about them after 2008, Nikonov believes.
Both SPS and Yabloko have lost their status as real-life parties; and they comprehend this perfectly well, Bunin went on to say. The main contradiction between Yavlinsky and Chubais will recede into the background, with both men losing their leading positions in both parties, Bunin stressed.
Talking to RIA Novosti, Grigory Yavlinsky's deputy Sergei Mitrokhin noted that Yabloko was ready to replace leaders in a democratic way, if the new party emerged under its auspices.
The main SPS ideologist Leonid Gozman said that Anatoly Chubais did not act as a shadow SPS leader, boasting almost the same rights as the other 27 political-council members did.
It is a myth that Chubais is omnipresent, and that his red-haired ears are sticking out everywhere, Gozman told RIA Novosti.
