Comments on: Unify or die – the stark choice facing Russia’s liberals

By: После Выборов at Выборы в России

После Выборов at Выборы в России — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:32:44 +0000

[...] Siberian Light описывает положение партий, проигравших на [...]

By: KinderAmerika

KinderAmerika — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:18:49 +0000

LOL, as russian I can only laugh at you, sorry. You americans and under-americans are so funny you know. Ah ya, regarding your topic about SPS and Yabloko: “liberals, socialists, democrats, etc” – prostitutes is the word you are looking for.

Greets.

By: poemless

poemless — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:50:06 +0000

Chrisius,

Maybe the cognitive disconnect stems from the fact that “liberal” has a variety of political connotations, depending on where you are. In the US, it generally means social democrats; in Europe it often refers to the free-marketeers, and in Russia, it’s the label pasted on those critical of Putin and the “reforms” which have taken place under this Administration. I don’t know enough to know who is doing the labelling, but is does seem to work to the benefit of “The West” at the moment…

As an American, I do feel a little bit of Schadenfreude regarding the “liberals” being too fractured to unite in any meaningful way. Story of my life. Except we don’t even have the option of teaming up with the Communists. Not a bad idea, for those with social democratic leanings. And … I’m curious. What precisely would prevent self-funded big business “liberals” from running on the UR ticket? Not that I condone a 2 party system. I mean, just how ideologically opposed to a party with no ideology can you be? If you run on the UR ticket, do you wake up with a horse head in your bed the first time you vote against the President’s policies?

By: Chrisius Maximus

Chrisius Maximus — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:08:11 +0000

I seem to be the only person in the universe that believes this, but I don’t see why SPS and Yabloko are lumped together as “liberal” parties at all. SPS is by and large a party of big business, while the people in SPS are social democrats (in the current sense of the term) and anywhere in Western Europe would be called the Socialist Party. In fact at least a few years ago when I was paying attention to such matters Yabloko was voting with the KPRF more than it was with SPS.

I’m going to be even more heretical here and suggest that if Yabloko were to unite with anybody, the logical choice ideologically (and possibly practically) would be the KPRF.