WP:Fear of Putin Gives Rise to Unlikely Allies(pol. foes unite to survive)

[DeepModem Mom]

Fear of Putin Gives Rise to Unlikely Allies
Dominance of President's Surrogate Party Forces Others to Cooperate for Survival

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 6, 2004; Page A15


IVANOVO, Russia -- Under the bust of a pensive Vladimir Lenin, an unlikely group of politicians gathered here at the regional headquarters of the Communist Party last month. Representatives of the Communists, the Western-oriented Yabloko party and the Union of Right Forces agreed to mount joint rallies, work together in the local election commission and regional parliament, and consider strategic alliances in local elections next year.

The unspoken item on the agenda -- but the one really driving this group -- was the political survival of everyone in the room.

Faced with the near total dominance of United Russia, the surrogate party of the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin, and proposed political changes that could institutionalize its control, the men in the room said they easily coalesced around the idea of a common enemy, even though they have long seen the enemy in each other.

"Our ideas are very different, sometimes absolutely opposite, but we're united by the fact that all of us are facing one dominant party," said Sergei Kolesov, head of the Union of Right Forces in Ivanovo, a city about 180 miles northeast of Moscow. "A party that seems intent on seizing all political power -- that quickly creates some common language."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38044-2004Dec5.html