Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Theater or conspiracy?

I was going to save this for posting next week, but I might lose track of what's going on by then. The news stories are good examples of the intricacies of Russian politics and the attempts journalists make to explain things. The first article is from 14 September, the second one is from the 15th.

First the Kremlin leadership gets a compliant rich guy to run an "opposition" party. Then they make it look like they're trying to oust him. Does that make him an independent actor? Then he quits.

Signs of Faux Foul Play in Russian Politics

In a Russian political campaigning season known for monochrome and monotony, a spectacle of sorts unfolded Wednesday when the businessman Mikhail D. Prokhorov announced a scramble to stop what he called a Kremlin-orchestrated takeover of his party.

The assertion met with a good deal of skepticism in Moscow, since his party is already generally pro-Kremlin, while he is considered beholden to the government for the success of his business ventures.

Mr. Prokhorov, the Russian oligarch… said he had to expel from the party a number of members who had been conspiring with a political adviser to Russia’s president…

[Prokhorov's] accounts seemed to counter one of the signal objections to his candidacy: that people tend to see him and his party as a simulation of competition and pluralism rather than the real thing. Mr. Prokhorov has acknowledged that he consulted with the government before deciding to lead the party…

“Too many rumors went around that Prokhorov is a Kremlin project,” Konstantin Remchukov, the editor of the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta and a former member of Parliament, said in an interview.

“But now he will be in conflict with the Kremlin,” Mr. Remchukov said. “It is about improving his legitimacy.”…

After the accusations were made public on Wednesday, [Konstantin Remchukov, the editor of the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta] said, “Everybody will say, ‘The Kremlin attacked and he didn’t surrender. Prokhorov is a real muzhik,’ ” the Russian word for a tough guy.

“When people ask, are you a Kremlin project? He will say, ‘Didn’t you see that big fight we had?’ ”

Russian tycoon Prokhorov abandons leadership of Kremlin-backed party, claiming interference

One of Russia’s richest tycoons abandoned his efforts Thursday to build up a political party and enter parliament, saying he was unwilling to tolerate interference from the Kremlin.

Right Cause, a tacitly Kremlin-sponsored party headed by… Mikhail Prokhorov, had been expected to draw on the support of opposition-minded and pro-business voters…

Right Cause, which has been led by Prokhorov since earlier this year, was created in 2008 as the result of a merger between three center-right parties. Its mission was to draw in middle-class, business-oriented voters and to prevent them from going over to the political opposition.

The party currently has no deputies in parliament. It had been expected to make a healthy showing in the December election, but without the benefit of Prokhorov’s profile and financial resources, the future of the party now looks bleak…

The Kremlin appears to be irked at Prokhorov’s aggressive efforts to broaden his message and appeal to potential voters as an alternative to Putin’s overwhelmingly dominant United Russia party. Prokhorov also has displayed considerable political ambition, expressing an interest in being named prime minister and saying he might consider running for president…

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Labels: leadership, parties, politics, Russia