"PERISCOPE - ПЕРИСКОП" via Mike Nova
Russian opposition: inside or outside the system?, Grigorii Golosov
via openDemocracy by Grigorii Golosov on 8/31/11
Opposition parties in Russia fall into two categories, described by the Russian press as ‘system’ and ‘non-system’. The ‘system’ opposition is made up of the official political parties entitled to participate in elections. This means they have fulfilled the requirements of the Law on Political Parties: a multitude of technicalities relating to the organisational structure of the parties, their programmes and financial accountability regulations. But the main condition is extremely difficult to satisfy, because it requires a party to have no less than 45,000 members.
Opposition parties inside the system
Before autumn 2006 there were more than 30 parties in Russia, but many of them were subsequently closed down because they didn’t meet the legal requirements. Today there are only 7 left: the government party ‘United Russia’ and 6 other parties which are regarded as ‘system’ opposition parties. 3 of them have representatives in the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament (the Duma): the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), ‘Just Russia’ and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). There are 3 others, which are not represented in the Duma: ‘Right Cause’, ‘Yabloko’ and ‘Patriots of Russia’. The main difference between the parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties is that the first are entitled to take part in elections without the imposition of any additional conditions, whereas the second have to demonstrate their entitlement to participate by collecting a large number of signatures.
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Clearly the best cooperation strategy for today's opposition is not coordination, but so-called 'concerted action', which was part of the transition to democracy in both Chile and South Korea. This strategy allows for political actors to preserve their autonomy and a critical attitude to their partners, while making efforts to achieve a result for the common good and refraining from actions which could minimize this result.
Since a result of equal advantage to all would be achieved by causing the greatest possible damage to the political monopoly, its practical expression would be a call by the 'non-system' opposition for votes to be cast on 4 December for any party other than 'United Russia'.
Sideboxes
'Read On' Sidebox:
Russian Federation, Federal Law On Political Parties
Russian Election Laws (www.democracy.ru)
Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, web site
Russian Elections Since 1991, by Neil Munro and Richard Rose, Centre for the Study of Public Policy Publications, University of Aberdeen
GOLOS Association-reliable data on elections since 2000 (in Russian and English)
The Russian Vertikal: the Tandem, Power and the Elections, by Andrew Monaghan, Nato Defence College, Chatham House, June 2011
Related stories:
Political dialects: why Russia's regional elections matter
Russian elections: who needs them?
Russian elections: it’s a long, long while from May to December
Mikhail Prokhorov: gilt-edged whipping boy for the Russian elections?
Russian regional elections: business as usual
Matviyenko: the governor nobody wanted
The golden ticket: voting for Matviyenko
The Kremlin, the billionaire and the liberal opposition
Putin’s National Front: lifebelt for a sinking regime?
Putin-Medvedev: Russia's managed drama
The Right Cause: a suitcase without a handle
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via www.facebook.com on 9/5/11
Российская оппозиция накануне выборов http://polit.ru/article/2011/09/05/strategy/
ПОЛИТ.РУ: Российская оппозиция накануне выборов
polit.ru
Мы публикуем материал доктора политических наук, профессора Европейского университета в Санкт-Петербурге, директора проектов Центра содействия демократии и правам человека «Геликс» Григория Голосова о раскладе сил накануне выборов в Государственную Думу РФ, назначенных на 4 декабря 2011 года. Хотя и...
Russian Reset a Cold War Restart
via ARIEL COHEN - Expertise on Geopolitics and Energy Security on 8/11/11
Russian Reset a Cold War Restart
08-08-2011Recent statements by Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian president’s Special Representative for Missile-Defense Cooperation with NATO, raised hackles in Washington. Putin called the United States a “parasite” on the global economy, while Rogozin claimed that U.S. senators told him our missile defense is aimed at his country.
Putin was speaking at his United Russia Party youth camp on LakeSeliger, while Rogozin let his hair down during a visit to Washington. Their words were not uttered in a vacuum. Russia has also threatened to stop cooperating with the United States over Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, and North Korea, if Congress passes the Sergei Magnitsky sanctions. (Already the State Department has placed some 64 Russian officials affiliated with the death of the famous whistle-blower while in prison on a visa blacklist.)
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Russian Threats a Heavy Blow to Obama’s “Reset” Policy
via ARIEL COHEN - Expertise on Geopolitics and Energy Security on 8/11/11
Russian Threats a Heavy Blow to Obama’s “Reset” Policy
08-11-2011The U.S. State Department appears to be preempting and diluting the Senate’s Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011 (S. 1039) by placing some Russian officials on a visa blacklist.
Last week, the State Department placed some 64 Russian officials on a visa blacklist that would prevent them from entering the United States. These Russian prosecutors and policemen all played a role in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the most famous whistleblower in post-communist Russian history.
The recent statements by Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian President’s Special Representative for Missile Defense Cooperation with NATO, raised hackles in Washington. Putin called the U.S. a “parasite” on the body of global economy, while Rogozin claimed that U.S. Senators told him U.S. missile defense is aimed at his country. Putin’s statements are baffling, as the global economy needs consumer consumption for growth—and the United States is by far the biggest consumer country. In fact, the U.S. trade deficit drives a lot of global growth.
Putin spoke at his United Russia Party youth camp on LakeSeliger, while Rogozin let his hair down on a visit to Washington after a meeting with two U.S. Senators. These are no longer words alone: Russia is also threatening to stop cooperating with the U.S. over Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, and North Korea, if Congress passes the Sergei Magnitsky sanctions. The toughening Russian negotiating positions and rhetoric—including Putin’s outburst and Rogozin’s calling two U.S. Senators “monsters of the Cold War”—suggest the Obama “reset” policy is failing and needs reassessment.
Moscow’s Sanctions Tit-for-Tat Threatens to Kill the “Reset”
This week the State Department has placed some 64 Russian officials on a visa blacklist that would prevent them from entering the United States. These Russian prosecutors and policemen all played a role in the death of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the most famous whistleblower in post–communist Russian history. While the Foreign Ministry in Moscow loudly protested that the U.S. is being tough on Russia, the imposition of sanctions looks more like the State Department’s pre-emptive way to prevent the Senate’s Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011 (S. 1039) from passage.
Russia has threatened to “respond asymmetrically” against the Obama Administration’s “reset” policy if the bill becomes law. In a tit-for-tat, the Russian Foreign Ministry reportedly is drawing up a list of U.S. officials who will be banned from Russia and prevented from banking there. While this may be of little concern to Washington, Russian threats to curb cooperation on Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, and North Korea are taken more seriously.
The New Power Alliance: Russia, Germany and France
07-21-2011Moscow is flush with cash from energy sales and arms producers in France, Italy and Germany are happy to take large chunks of it. They are busily selling Russia advanced weapons, sensitive dual-use systems and military supplies. All this indicatesunprecedented Russian openness about (and need to) buy advanced weapons systems. Moreover, Moscow-based experts say privately that the Kremlin hopes the arms deals help revive the Russian-French-German axis that began to emerge in 2003 in opposition to the US-Iraq war.
Recent military sales include a record-breaking deal signed on June 17 between France and Russia. Moscow bought two French Mistral-class assault ships/helicopter carriers worth more than $1.4 billion, and it has options for purchasing two more. This is the largest deal between a NATO country and Russia since the alliance’s inception and the largest defense sale from a Western power to Russia since the World War II-era land lease.
Washington Mum as France, Germany Arm Russia
07-08-2011Amidst the ongoing aerial campaign against Muammar Qadhafi’s forces in Libya, NATO is struggling with a problem that is affecting the integrity of the alliance. Arms producers in France, Italy, and Germany are selling advanced weapons, sensitive dual-use systems, and military supplies to Russia.
These military sales to Moscow, which is flush with cash from oil and gas sales, signal the decline in strategic cohesiveness among some of NATO’s most important members.
Such military sales include a record-breaking deal signed on June 17 between France and Russia in which Russia bought two French Mistral-class assault ships/helicopter carriers worth more than $1.4 billion, with options for purchasing two more. A Mistral-built ship can carry up to 16 helicopters and tens of armored vehicles, which would enable Russia “to land hundreds of troops quickly on foreign soil” from one ship.
07-29-2011
07-28-2011
07-21-2011
07-18-2011
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U.S. Should Further Support in Azerbaijan
via ARIEL COHEN - Expertise on Geopolitics and Energy Security on 8/10/11
U.S. Should Further Support in Azerbaijan
08-01-2011America has sacrificed a lot fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan - but we are not alone. The United States and our NATO allies are getting help from places many Americans can’t find on the map.
Late on July 5, an Azerbaijani tanker plane crashed in Afghanistan en route to U.S.-NATO Bagram Air Base with a load of fuel. The United States and NATO should mourn the nine crew members who were killed on board, but this accident also should serve as a reminder of the invaluable contributions and sacrifices this small, predominately Muslim country has made for NATO and American forces when other coalition allies have been pulling out of Afghanistan. The supply plane flew from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, which is located in the strategic region of the South Caucasus and the Caspian Sea littoral. Azerbaijan and its neighbor Georgia are important transit countries for U.S. and NATO troops and supplies to Afghanistan via a network of ports and railroads, which is known as the Northern Distribution Network (NDN).
Russia Stamps Out Political Opposition
07-15-2011Russia has emasculated the country’s center-right. Steps have been taken to split the liberal vote in anticipation of the Duma elections in December. “Right Cause,” a Kremlin-supported quasi-opposition founded in 2008 under the aegis of Anatoly Chubais, the architect of ’s controversial privatization, elected an oligarch as their new party leader. Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s third-richest person (worth $18 billion, according to Forbes), the owner of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, a playboy and allegedly Russia’s most eligible bachelor, became the party’s new boss.
Prokhorov made headlines when, in a brilliant move, he got out of the metals business on the eve of the 2009 economic recession. His name was in lights once again when the French policebriefly detained him for bringing a planeload of “party girls” from Moscow to the fancy ski resort of Courchevel. Today, he is launching the ?-car, the first Russian hybrid vehicle aimed at the mass market. If successful, it may make Prokhorov even richer; if not, it would be an expensive flop.
Russia
08-01-2011
07-26-2011
07-15-2011
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Glasser and Aron on the fall of the Soviet Union - Foreign Policy (blog)
via Leon Aron - Google News on 8/17/11
Glasser and Aron on the fall of the Soviet Union
Foreign Policy (blog)
Foreign Policy Editor in Chief Susan Glasser and author Leon Aron sat down recently with Tim Farley on POTUS radio, channel 124, on Sirius XM Satellite Radio to discuss the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union. ...
Russia's glorious revolution lives on - Washington Post
via Leon Aron - Google News on 8/18/11
Russia's glorious revolution lives on
Washington Post
A glorious revolution swept through Russia 20 years ago. Glorious, because it was almost completely nonviolent and because no one who was there will ever forget the sense of solidarity, camaraderie and even affection people felt for one ...
What it meantForeign Policy (blog)
all 428 news articles »
Блестящая российская революция продолжается - inoСМИ.Ru
via Leon Aron - Google News on 8/19/11
Блестящая российская революция продолжается
inoСМИ.Ru
Леон Арон (Leon Aron) – директор по российским исследованиям в Американском институте предпринимательства (American Enterprise Institute). Его книга «Пути к храму: память, правда, идеи и идеалы при совершении Российской Революции, 1987-1991» (Roads to ...
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Moscow attempts to elbow Strasbourg aside, Anna Sevortian
via openDemocracy by Anna Sevortian on 9/4/11
Editors’ note: Since the first European Court of Human Rights judgment on a Russian case was delivered in 2002‘ Strasbourg’ has become a synonym for international justice in the eyes of many Russians. Today the European Court receives tens of thousands of applications from Russia each year – sadly, the majority of them inadmissible – making it the most effective international instrument for Russian human rights protection. Even with Russia’s problematic record on implementing the court’s judgments, many in Russia – authorities and public alike – seem to recognise the court’s transformative potential. Unfortunately, this has also meant it was not too long before revisionists got to work and the legitimacy of the court is increasingly being questioned.
A recent and innovative study by University College London compares the influence of the European Court in newly-acceded countries with its influence in countries that acceded some time ago. The research bears witness to the court’s transformative influence in the newly-acceded countries, such as Bulgaria and Turkey. But its truly striking finding was that the European Court continues to enjoy a high level of legitimacy among politicians, judges and lawyers in each of the 5 countries studied (UK, Ireland, Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria), despite their varying records on implementation. In Russia, however, where this record is to a certain extent comparable with Turkey’s, the court’s legitimacy is being increasingly questioned.
On 20 June 2011 Alexander Torshin, acting chair of Russia’s upper parliamentary chamber, introduced a bill proposing amendments to a number of laws. The draft bill stipulates that in cases where the European Court has found a provision of Russian law to be incompatible with, and therefore a violation of, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), this judgment should be the subject of an additional review by Russia’s Constitutional Court.
Russia ratified the European Convention for Human Rights in 1998. Most of the cases filed by citizens of Russia involve the non-execution of decisions of national courts. Other cases deal with the protection of property; the need for a speedy trial; inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees; and the right to liberty and security (Photo : European Court web site)
According to the draft bill Russia would have to implement the European Court decision only in the event of a Constitutional Court finding that the given provision of Russian law violates the Russian Constitution. In effect this means that the Constitutional Court is able to override and block the European Court’s rulings, on both general and individual measures. The proposed amendments would not affect monetary compensation, which would continue to be paid.
"If adopted, the bill would place Russia in contravention of its legal obligations and obstruct access to justice for Russian citizens."
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Many more cases await their turn. These include the complaint filed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, claiming the expropriation of his oil company, Yukos. In the coming year the court may also consider the complaint filed by the newspaper Novaya Gazeta after it was found guilty of defamation for criticising a Ministry of Defence expert opinion referred to in the prosecutor's decision to close the criminal case surrounding the 2000 Kursk submarine disaster.
Debates relating to the European Court could become a focal point in the upcoming election cycle and parliamentary session. Now is the time for the Russian leaders and its international partners to take a strong stand on the binding nature of European Court rulings, lest it fall victim to political posturing.
Sideboxes
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The EU’s human rights policy in Russia: more than rhetoric?
Optimism of the will: defending human rights in Russia
Many problems, but one purpose: human rights in Russia
The ones that lost: Russian cases rejected at the European Court
Human rights for Russian drug addicts: I will not be silenced!
The European factor in Russian justice
Tackling Russia’s legal nihilism
Towards the Rehabilitation of Law: interview with Bill Bowring
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Democracy and government
