| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
United Russia Defines the Country's Place
The United Russia Party and the Institute for Social Projection held an international conference yesterday entitled “The Role of Political Parties in World Politics and the Development of Democracy.” The party tried to evaluate that role with the first Russian-made rating of world powers, obviously made to spite foreign analogs such as those by Freedom House, Transparency International and Reporters without Frontiers.
The Political Atlas of the Modern Age was prepared by experts at the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International relations (Russian abbreviation MGIMO). It rates 192 countries on nationhood, external and domestic threats, potential for international influence, quality of life and institutional bases of democracy. These indicators allow Russia to be displayed in a more favorable light than often happens. Thus, Russia ranked 81st for external and domestic threats, 73rd for quality of life. Its rather low rank of 93rd for institutional bases of democracy was made up for by a ranking of 27th among states with an independent strategy for national development and 7th for potential international influence.
Prof. Andrey Melvil, who designed the atlas, emphasized that he is not a member of any party and was not acting on party orders when he worked on the atlas. He also took the opportunity to criticize surveys that examine only a single aspect of countries, such as freedom of the press or corruption. “The rating does not present a pessimistic or optimistic picture,” said Vladimir Pligin, member of the presidium of the United Russia General council, “but a realistic one. We use the same approach in the policies of our party.”
Foreign attendees at the conference did not deny the possibility of the survey receiving recognition abroad, although “an interesting attempt” was the warmest words used to describe it. Portuguese Social Democrat Mario David expressed the opinion that corruption should have been considered in the atlas. Aidin Mirzazade of the Yeni Azerbaijan Party disagreed with the low indicators shown for his country, while Serafim Urechean of the Our Moldova Party considered the indicators shown for his country inflated.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 22, 2007
|
|
|
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
