#9 - JRL 7281
Novye Izvestia
August 8, 2003
PICKLED APPLE
Liberals blame Chubais and Kokh for dirty campaign tactics
Tension rises between Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces
Author: Alexander Kolesnichenko
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

YABLOKO DEPUTY CHAIRMAN SERGEI MITROKHIN CLAIMS THAT THE UNION OF
RIGHT FORCES IS DISCREDITING HIS PARTY THROUGH "DIRTY" CAMPAIGN
TECHNIQUES. WHEN THE PARLIAMENTARY CAMPAIGN OFFICIALLY STARTS,
MITROKHIN INTENDS TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION OVER THIS.

Sergei Mitrokhin maintains that Anatoly Chubais, CEO of Russian
Joint Energy Systems (RJES), has allocated $5 million for the purpose
of discrediting Yabloko, and that the anti-Yabloko campaign is being
orchestrated by Alfred Kokh, campaign manager for the Union of Right
Forces (URF). There has already been a score of media articles
accusing Yabloko of populism and lacking constructive ideas. Dummy
organizations are being set up. Having nothing to do with the real
Yabloko party, they nevertheless organize demonstrations and release
statements in Yabloko's name. This particularly applies to the
Movement of Yavlinsky's Supporters and the Yabloko Sans Yavlinsky
movement.
Mitrokhin does not fear that leaders of the URF could take legal
action against him. On the contrary, he himself threatens them with
legal action. Mitrokhin expects to see them in court in September
"because the election campaign is not officially on yet, so electoral
legislation is not yet in effect."
Mitrokhin attributes the attacks on his party to "critical moods"
in the URF due to its rating being under the required 5%, and
therefore to the danger of failure in the election. Yabloko's own
rating never goes below 6%.
Sources in the upper echelons of the URF deny all allegations.
"Sure, we have some grievances against Yabloko, but we have never
used dirty campaign tactics," said Viktor Nikrutenko, Secretary of the
URF.
Nikrutenko does not think that brawling will benefit either the
URF or Yabloko, because their electorates are similar. As for the PR
campaign against Yabloko, Nikrutenko believes that its architects can
be found in the non-democratic camp.
Political scientists maintain that relations between the two
democratic parties have never been so unfriendly. The URF hopes to
remove Grigori Yavlinsky as Yabloko leader, in order to win away some
votes afterwards. After all, the URF owed its success in the 1999
parliamentary campaign to the fact that many pro-democracy voters were
disillusioned with Yabloko.
"Yabloko's stable electorate does not exceed 3%," said Boris
Makarenko, deputy director of the Political Techniques Center. "Its
unstable electorate amounts to approximately the same figure. These
are the people who are still undecided about whom to vote for -
Yabloko or some other party. The battle now underway is about these
voters."
Political analyst Boris Kagarlitsky maintains that the problem
stems from relations between the Yabloko and the URF.
Kagarlitsky: Yabloko voters hate the URF even more than their
ideological opponents, the Communists. They are convinced that Anatoly
Chubais of the URF is Russia's public enemy number one. That is why
Yabloko leaders are forced to demonstrate over and over again that
they have nothing to do with the URF.