On 15 November 2008, SPS, the party with 15-year history (counting it from “Demvybor Rossii”, fittingly, “Democratic choice of Russia”) will be dissolved under proposal of its own federal political council. And on 16 November a new party will be constructed on the basis of its fragments, the party that still has no name and is referred to as “project”.  

It is going to be an amalgamation of three party structures – SPS, DPR and Civil Force. This will be an important stage in the realization of “Surkov’s plan” for further reduction of number of parties in the country. At a recent working meeting of the leadership of United Russia he said that”four parties would do”, and so the “unnecessary” parties got doomed for dissolution. 

Out of remaining in Russia 14 registered parties (and 2 years ago the number was 35) the destinies of 6 parties were decided after the statement by the main political technologist. Some will be affiliated to the pro-Kremlin United Russia and Just Russia, while others will be amalgamated with one another. No more than 9 registered parties will be remaining at the end of the year. Out of them only 2 still keep relative independence of their political positions – that’s CPRF and Yabloko. While Communists suit the Kremlin with their nationalist, anti-western and great-power rhetoric, and with their poor imitation of “protecting the workers’ interests”, the Yabloko seems to be decided to die a “natural” death through giving according recommendations to its potential sponsors. So by the next elections there might have been no Yabloko, just another “project”.       

Right before our eyes it is being finished forming the well known to Putin political system made in accordance with the pattern of “people’s democracy” of the former German Democratic Republic and some other socialist countries, featured with the main party – United Russia where the bureaucracy and 2 million of “ordinary” Russians have been brought in – and a few side-dish parties imitating a multi-party system, cheating one’s own population as well as the mass of “useful idiots” in the West.  

In case of SPS, remarkable is the cynical character of what is happening. The prospective “liberal” party is named very exactly to be a “project” and no one makes any secret out of the fact that this is the Kremlin’s project. The future co-chair of the “project” Georgy Bovt reassured everyone at a press conference of 2 October that “the authority posed no restrictions to the future members of the new right party”.     

But who would believe in the absence of political restrictions? Over the course of talks in the Presidential Administration one of the SPS leaders was given to feel the limits of the future “freedom”, when he was required to repudiate criticism of the Kremlin’s actions in the South Ossetia and Abkhazia. At the liquidational political council of 2 October, Leonid Gozman announced, under request by the regional leaders, the list of regions where the leadership will be kept by SPS, which is going to be one third of the general number, in accordance with the agreements made. It turned out that among those “SPS parts” of the “project” there are no regions with strong oppositional feeling like that in Moscow. Already at the stage of forming the “project” the purge is going on and getting rid of “disloyal elements” among the regional activists. Besides, arrangement of all the personnel decisions, including future ticket to the State Duma, is one of the terms of the “project”. According to Valery Bakunin, who was present at the meeting of SPS political council, it has been already announced about recalling of all the lawsuits by SPS to the Strasburg Court on Human Rights. Another principal condition by the Kremlin is no criticism of decisions by Putin and Medvedev. It is only allowed to criticize some ministers and some minor shortcomings, but not the fundamentals of the Kremlin’s policy.               

Justification of liquidating the SPS was given in the spirit of “consumer society”. The party is indebted and it will be helped about that. They party is also promised a co-chairmanship and one third of seats in the political council of the new project and one third of the regions. There is no other choice. It appears, however, that the basis of the new project will be made with regional branches of “Delovaya Rossiya”, ably created by its leader Boris Titov in over 70 regions. The piquancy of the situation is that “Delovaya Rossiya” has a political agreement about strategic partnership with United Russia. So all the Kremlin’s “projects” get intermingled into a round dance of “constructive forces”, composed of factions of United Russia.  

Now the project needs to get named. Among the possible options there are “Constitutional democrats”, “Party of Freedom”, “Right Russia”… Anatoly Chubais has sent a statement that “making a new right party structure is the only way of keeping up the liberal idea”.    

Well, it only remains to wish new “industrial” successes to the state corporation “Gospartstroi” (fittingly, “State Party Construction”).