MOSCOW (RIA Novosti political commentator Yury Filippov) The new liberals from United Russia have invited their colleagues in the party of power to take part in a discussion.
On Tuesday, one of its members, Vladimir Pligin, made a statement that is a kind of a liberal and anti-bureaucratic manifesto for those party members who do not feel comfortable with what they call authoritarian trends in the state machinery. These trends recently came to prominence in the Yukos saga, attempts to exert pressure on the media, a general consolidation of the bureaucratic positions to the detriment of free politics, and limitations on civil rights and liberties under the banner of the anti-terrorist campaign.
Pligin spoke about "resisting the bureaucratic reaction," "national sovereignty," the need to defend "democratic values" and "civil liberties," and criticized his own party for lacking a clear ideology. His set of slogans may be considered impeccable. In the last few years, much has been done to hone them to perfection by all the more or less important opponents of United Russia, be they liberals from the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko, Communists or Homeland nationalists. In an attempt to resist the pressure exerted by United Russia, which has ousted its opponents from virtually every important niche, the Communists have even come up with an updated version of their theory of class struggle. They suggested that oligarchs and proletarians unite in a single national patriotic alliance for the sake of victory of democracy over the hegemony of bureaucracy.
Pligin and his colleagues are proposing almost the same thing but with one substantial difference. Their union will be liberal rather than national and patriotic. This new anti-bureaucratic ideology may score success owing to the factor that has so far been the biggest obstacle for the opponents of United Russia. The party of power used to simply ignore almost every substantial critical remark that came from its opponents' lips. However, if such remarks are made by party colleagues and, moreover, are sanctioned as inter-party discussion, the ideological results may be obtained very rapidly. Hardly anyone would like to be known as a proponent of bureaucratic and authoritarian attitudes, so the new ideology may spread in the party very quickly.
This explains the forecast that there will be no split in United Russia over the new line in the near future. Its advocates have made it clear that they do not want to cause a split in the party or its State Duma faction. This sounds plausible, if only because there would have to be instantly recognizable platforms within the party for a split to happen. At the moment, nothing of the kind exists. The current dividing line passes between those who are in favor of bureaucracy and those who are against it. Using it as a slogan is absurd and can only discredit United Russia.
But in the longer term, i.e., by the 2007 parliamentary elections, United Russia is more likely to split into right and left centrist blocs or even into three parts. Suppose that in the years to come the party succeeds with its political project of "updated liberalism," and its members and media make liberal values popular. United Russia will then simply have to divide itself into different factions to win more votes at elections and enhance its political control.
However, for all that, the strictly liberal project has a rather vague future.
Liberal ideas in Russia were not merely discredited by the 1998 financial crisis and the fall in living standards during the liberal reforms. Throughout Russia's history nobody has managed to forge a liberal project, which sounds so appealing when presented by Western classics of liberalism, in a manner that would make it popular and attractive to a considerable part of the Russian population. There is no guarantee that the new liberals from United Russia will succeed in their efforts either. Moreover, they will have to compete with the "old" Russian liberals in the process. In any event, there is a great deal of work in store for them.
