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Russia faces choice between Nazism and democracy, tycoon-in-exile tells liberals
Interfax

Moscow, 30 March: Identity is "problem number one" for Liberal Russia, Boris Berezovskiy, co-chairman of the party, has said. "To be heard, we must be identified first," said he via a Moscow-London TV link-up to delegates of the Liberal Russia congress, under way in the Russian capital today.

"We are in a unique situation. No-one but us is prepared to take over this position of truth in Russia, where authoritarian power has intimidated society again," Berezovskiy stressed.

He named five strategic priorities for the new party: liberalization of the individual and citizen, power, society, state structure and foreign policy. But the first point, liberalization of the individual, gets top priority.

"Russia will become either a democracy or a Nazi state, there is no other choice," Berezovskiy believes. He noted in this connection that Liberal Russia should "help every citizen become responsible for his actions and his position".

Berezovskiy described patriots as the most active part of society and at the same time the most conservative part, calling them statist patriots. "It is necessary to help the statist patriots become liberal patriots. Such a transformation is an important historic task for us," he said.

Yet another major task for Russia, according to Berezovskiy, is to refashion it into a federation structured according to a national principle, with all its constituent republics enjoying the same status.

He emphasized in this connection that the creation of the Union of Russia and Belarus, where Belarus enjoys a higher status than the republics comprising the Russian Federation, was principally wrong.