Opposition Groups Urged to Cooperate

By Sergey Chernov

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: February 22, 2012 (Issue # 1696)

Director Alexander Sokurov, authors Boris Strugatsky and Yakov Gordin and composer Leonid Desyatnikov are among those who signed a public appeal to the St. Petersburg opposition Tuesday. It urges people to stop quarreling and unite in protest against the rigged Dec. 4 Duma elections and continuing violations during the presidential election campaign in favor of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Putin is preparing to become president for a third time, after 12 years of being in power.

The appeal, which described the stationary meeting after the Feb. 4 anti-Putin march as “scandalous” and off-putting, called for representatives of the two organizational committees to stop arguing and create a single united organizational committee to unite city residents, instead of a limited circle of political activists, in their struggle for people’s rights.

But this weekend is likely to see two separate rallies organized by two different groups. The For Honest Elections committee, which cooperated with the Civic Committee during the Feb. 4 march, has objected to further cooperation. The Feb. 4 march proved to be the largest protest since Putin took presidential office in 2000, drawing, according to organizers’ estimates, from 25,000 to 30,000 people.

Following the Feb. 4 march, the For Honest Elections committee released a statement saying it would not allow nationalists to attend the rallies it organizes, citing an incident in which nationalist Nikolai Bondarik (a speaker from the Civic Committee) shouted homophobic insults at Igor Kochetkov, chair of the LGBT rights organization Coming Out, as he spoke at the event. Kochetkov was invited to speak at the event by the For Honest Elections Committee.

In its turn, the Civic Committee criticized the For Honest Elections committee for letting Kochetkov speak, as he was not included on the final list of speakers authorized by the committees, describing it as a “provocation.”

The Civic Committee objected to Kochetkov speaking, as the rally was not about gay rights, but electoral fraud, according to The Other Russia chair Andrei Dmitriyev, who said he wished to ban both activists from speaking at rallies in the future.

The Honest Elections committee includes the Yabloko Democratic Party and a number of smaller political, social and human rights groups, while The Civic Committee features the United Civil Front (OGF) democratic movement, The Other Russia, the Party of People’s Freedom (Parnas) and several nationalist organizations.

On Saturday, City Hall refused to authorize a march organized by the Legislative Assembly’s 22 opposition deputies and the For Honest Elections committee. The march was to start on Nevsky Prospekt and end in a stationary meeting on St. Isaac’s Square this Sunday as part of the national protest campaign a week ahead of the March 4 presidential elections.

The deputies of Yabloko, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) and A Just Russia have invited deputy city governor Nikolai Tikhonov, who supervises the Law, Order and Security Committee, to come to a session of the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday and answer their questions as to why the march has not been allowed.

Yabloko’s spokesman Alexander Shurshev confirmed Tuesday that Tikhonov would be asked about the ban during the session. Earlier, the three factions prepared a draft statement expressing their distrust of Tikhonov.

The OGF’s executive director Olga Kurnosova said Tuesday that the Civic Committee, whose chair was elected last week, has always encouraged united civic protests. However, this week the Civic Committee will hold a march on Saturday, rather than on Sunday, when other protests will be held across Russia.

Kurnosova said it was done to demonstrate that St. Petersburg protests are not “just a local affair,” by inviting national opposition leaders from Moscow, most notably Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner whose popularity soared during the anti-fraud protests in December and February.

She confirmed Tuesday that the OGF national leader, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, would also participate in Saturday’s march, along with the Left Front’s coordinator Sergei Udaltsov.

City Hall didn’t authorize the proposed route along Nevsky Prospekt, but agreed Monday to an alternative route — that of the Feb. 4 march, which started near Oktyabrsky Concert Hall and finished on Konyushennaya Ploshchad. The march will start at 2 p.m. Saturday.