Russian chess ex-champion Garry Kasparov takes part in a news conference held in the ITAR-TASS news agency.
Photo: Pavel Smertin
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Kasparov to Flounder Through a Morass
Head of Committee-2008: Free Elections, chess ex-champion, Garry Kasparov arrived in St. Petersburg past weekend to launch establishment of his own party. St. Petersburg branch will appear already this April.
Garry Kasparov and State Duma’s deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov officially announced last week they would create their own party after all attempts to set up a united democratic party based on the Committee-2008 came to a final standstill.
At the St. Petersburg meeting, mostly attended by the representatives of existing parties, including Yabloko and Khakamada’s Nash Vybor (Russian for Our Choice), Kasparov said his objection is to get 40 percent in the next State Duma. To attain this purpose, Kasparov intends to attract political forces at large. “From the radically right to the radically left, there is a political morass. Our chance to win is to take in everyone, up to Glaziev,” Kasparov said pointing to Rogozin’s Rodina as the main competitor.
Though the new party will hardly be registered in the near term because of the 50,000-member ceiling required to the effect, Kasparov and Ryzhkov plan to hold a congress already this summer. St. Petersburg branch will appear this April. Kommersant found out it will be headed by Sergey Gulyaev, deputy of the city’s Assembly.
Kasparov specified he has found donors with some businessmen started channeling funds but in secret. “There is no money of Berezovsky here,” Kasparov stressed. Moreover, Kasparov is setting up his own organization “based on one of the small parties.” Though no name of the above party was given, Kasparov might have meant the Republican Party of Russia, one of the founders of Democratic Russia co-chaired by him for some time. The republicans have a net of regional branches but failed at Duma’s elections.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 11, 2005
|
|
|
