The Weekly Standard and RIA Novosti offer contrasting views of Russia's opposition parties this week. In "Democracy in Russia" Leon Aron profiles the Republican Party of Russia and its charismatic spokesman Vladimir Ryzhkov. Ryzhkov, unlike the core group of bureaucrats and politicians that run the country, hails from Siberia. Aron believes that Russian classical liberal reformers may be on the verge of an electoral breakthrough, if they can only overcome the system-rigging of Putin's United Russia:
At Putin's "suggestion" the Duma a month ago passed legislation eliminating the single-member districts from which half of the Duma deputies have been elected up until now. Instead, in 2007, all candidates must run on party lists...In addition, the heretofore common practice of two or more parties' joining to form an electoral bloc has been prohibited, while the minimum share of the national vote a party must win in order to secure seats in the Duma has been raised from 5 to 7 percent. Russian observers and media are now barred from observing the count on election day, and representatives of international monitoring organizations will be admitted only by personal invitation.
Meanwhile, RIA Novosti's Peter Lavelle has dismissed Ryzhkov as "the West's new darling", like the cause celebre oligarch Khordokhovsky. While they have a point that the terms "Right" and "Left" as used in the West are irrelevant to Russia, their gratutious comparison of Russian liberals with "American neocons" is equally as irrelevant (and further proof that the term neocon - even outside American politics - has come to simply mean "bad").
Certainly Russians are sophisticated enough to understand that not all touted reforms are beneficial, especially "privatization" unaccompanied by the rule of law. Putting property into private hands with no secure private property rights in place is no privatization at all. No Russian wants to go back to the humiliation of the Yeltsin years, which is what led to Putin's consolidation of power. Even if there have been some recent real gains for the economy, Russians understand that their country is too vast to be governed from the top down. The real economic growth now taking place has only accelerated the demand among young Russians for ordered liberty. Only with the rule of law and honest elections will all Russians be able to benefit from the country's wealth.
