Russia’s ruling United Russia joined Saturday the leadership of world biggest party association, International Conference of Asian Political Parties, ICAPP. The inscription reads: "Asian Russia."
Photo: Alexander Miridonov
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United Russia Appreciated in the East
Russia’s ruling United Russia joined Saturday the leadership of world biggest party association, International Conference of Asian Political Parties, ICAPP. The adherents of sovereign democracy are apparently of greater demand in the East than in the West – United Russia is only the observer in the similar European association.
The ICAPP Permanent Committee sat in Islamabad Saturday to welcome United Russia as its 17th member. The Committee includes the biggest parties of such states as Japan, India, China, while ICAPP unites 245 parties from 45 Asian states.
“It is the world biggest association of political parties,” said Konstantin Kosachev, who is the deputy secretary of the United Russia’s General Council Presidium and head of the State Duma’s Foreign Committee. The party’s entrance into the ruling bodies of ICAPP “is the evident acknowledgement of our country as one of the leading centers of global policy,” Kosachev said.
By joining this association, a source with the party explained, United Russia hopes to contribute to the government’s international activity, as “what can’t be done at the state level can be accomplished at the party's one.”
Meanwhile, the analysts are generally surprised that United Russia joined exactly the Asian association. The thing is that the Asian understanding of the party’s involvement materially differs from Europe’s interpretation of democracy. United Russia has long ties with the Communist Party of China and the Chinese have always manifested keen interest in United Russia’s views of sovereign democracy. Exactly those views might have drawn together United Russia and the parties of a few states in the East.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 31, 2008
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