Rodina's removal

[Dmitri Glinski]

One explanation that seems likely to me is as follows: Rodina leader
Rogozin is a longstanding enemy of Yury Luzhkov - he aggressively
participated in the nationalistic PR campaign that brought the
Luzhkov-Primakov bloc down in 1999 and paved the way to Putin's
presidency. It seems that a relatively high share of seats for
Rodina has been lobbied for by the Kremlin 'siloviki', and that
Luzhkov (who is generally on his way out) made a firm stand,
letting it be known that he won't depart peacefully if that means
leaving Moscow to the extreme right. His formal position at the
head of the United Russia list gives him a bargaining leverage. And
the Moscow court system is still largely under his control, so he
pushed through this decision and somehow made the Kremlin to accept
it.

That's certainly a hypothesis that is as good as any other.

Dmitri Glinski




Quoting "CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK/CIS LISTSERV Server (14.4)"
<LISTSERV at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>:

> 2 Dec 2005
>
> Just a few moments ago I watched newscaster Vladimir Kara-Murza
> broadcast a puzzling new legal development in Russia (on the RTVi
> network).  He reports that today (Friday) a Moscow court had
> handed down
> a ruling which forbids the party "Rodina" from participating in
> the
> upcoming elections for Mosgorduma.  As you may be aware,
> right-wing
> "Rodina" recently ran a TV ad in Moscow advocating that the
> "garbage"
> ("musor") be cleaned from the streets.  The ad shows a very pale,
> blonde
> woman pushing her baby carriage past a group of "litsa kavkazskoi
> natsional'nosti."  The darkish-skined men are throwing watermelon
> rinds
> on the sidewalk, there is a close-up of the baby carriage passing
> over
> one watermelon rind.  The "garbage" in question is clearly people
> from
> the Caucasus, metonymically represented by the watermelon rind.
> It is
> these people who, in the opinion of "Rodina," need to be cleansed
> from
> the streets of Moscow.
>
> Back to the TV broadcast.  The court held that the ad was
> unacceptable,
> and that "Rodina" (a sizeable political group) would therefore
> not be
> allowed to participate in the election.  The judge, clearly
> uncomfortable, was shown reading his ruling.  He referred to the
> offensive ad (speaking of "litsa chernykh volos").  Everyone in
> the
> courtroom seemed taken aback.
>
> I refer to this odd event in view of recent postings about racism
> in
> Russia.  The ruling clearly recognizes that there IS a problem.
> Would
> anyone out there know how it came to be dealt with in this
> particular
> instance?  I am astonished and puzzled.
>
> Regards to the list,
>
> Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
>
>
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