Kasparov Calls for Shadow Parliament
The Moscow Times reports:
Opposition coalition The Other Russia on Wednesday proposed creating an alternative parliament that would unite opposition groups across the political spectrum.
The alternative parliament, tentatively titled the National Assembly, would consist of 500 to 600 members, including activists from liberal opposition parties and groups, such as Yabloko, the Union of Right Forces and Mikhail Kasyanov's Russian People's Democratic Union, opposition leader Garry Kasparov told a news conference.
"In a situation where acting political institutions in the country have been practically eliminated, a platform is needed where our country's agenda can be discussed," Kasparov said.
The group's inaugural session could be held before the summer and would focus on finding solutions to pressing national problems, including corruption, social inequality and the results of privatizations in the 1990s, Kasparov said.
Opposition groups will hold a conference April 5 to 6 in St. Petersburg to hammer out the details on the composition of the assembly and its activities, Kasparov said.
Union of Right Forces head Nikita Belykh said his involvement in the alternative parliament would depend on the results of the St. Petersburg conference, in which he will participate.
Spokespeople for Kasyanov and Yabloko head Grigory Yavlinsky could not confirm whether the two would participate in the St. Petersburg conference or the alternative parliament. Sergei Udaltsov, head of the leftist opposition group Red Youth Vanguard, said his supporters would participate in the National Assembly if they could agree with other opposition groups on how the assembly's members will be elected.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov curtly declined to comment on the creation of an alternative parliament.
The Other Russia plans to hold Dissenters' Marches in Moscow and St. Petersburg in early May to protest the inauguration of President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, Kasparov said Wednesday.
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7 comments:
A parliament is a body elected by the people, not a self-appointed cabal of pro-western sycophants representing no one but themselves.
By your definition, the Russian Duma is not a parliament. We quite agree! And so does Kasparov!
And he isn't saying he's forming a parliament, he's forming a SHADOW parliament. Read before speaking, you will look less foolish.
Then again don't, we find your sanctimony highly amusing.
Strange as it may seem to you, the Russian State Duma was elected by the people.
Well, Poland had a government in exile and Mexico has a shadow government in place: done in protest over the last elections they had---so Kasporov isn't doing anything too wild. And look at how Yasar Arafat manipulated the world, no one ever originally voted for him and his PLO to be the representatives of the Palestinian peoples, yet look at what he became.
Kasporov's biggest problems are actually going to be 1) being able to get a room rented to them, and 2)hoping P/M don't decide to hold an urban warfare games in their neighborhood when they decide to meet.
So you agree that Kasparov's brainchild is nothing but "a self-appointed cabal of pro-western sycophants representing no one but themselves"? Well done, Ma'am! :)))
Anonymouses: I hate to be the one to break it to you, but those were not elections, any more than they were in the Soviet Union or they are in North Korea. Having a vote is not the same as having an election. That's why not even the endlessly accomodating Europeans will even bother observing your elections any more - because doing so would make them part of the farce. In Sartre's famous word, it would make them NAUSEOUS.
Kasparov et al. are probably more PRO-RUSSIAN than Putin and Medvedev could ever dream of being. As for "representing no one but themselves", it is obvious no one in the Duma is representing the democracy of the individual, so Kasporov has every right as an individual to seek whatever non-violent venue he has to make 'his' voice heard.
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