Yabloko shows part of the problem with political parties in Russia today. Vladimir Putin is often blamed for turning Russia away from true democracy during his eight years as president of Russia. What's not mentioned is how the liberal parties in Russia, the ones that would have been the opposition to Putin during his presidency, basically fell apart during that time.
Yabloko has suffered from infighting among its leaders for quite some time now, hurting their ability to compete effectively in national elections. Past that Yabloko and other liberal, reformist parties from the 1990's, like the Union of Right Forces (SPS in Russian) were tied to the economic chaos of the nineties in the minds of many voters, something that hurt them greatly in the polls. Neither Yabloko nor the SPS received enough votes in the most recent election to be represented in the Russian Duma.
Yavlinsky though should get a lot of credit for forming the first western-style democratic party in Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union.
No comments:
Post a Comment