Russian Liberals Form Coalition to Block Communists
Prominent reformers announced plans Friday to form a major coalition to prevent Communists from returning to power.
Russian liberals have been galvanized by last week’s slaying of democratic lawmaker Galina V. Starovoitova.
Her death--coming in the wake of anti-Semitic statements by a Communist lawmaker and the party’s failure to censure him--has prompted speculation that Russia’s hard-liners are growing increasingly confident and are willing to go to great lengths to achieve political domination.
Several liberal leaders have called for a joint front against hard-liners. On Friday, a group of prominent reformers signed a document launching a coalition, the Interfax news agency reported.
However, Russian liberal groups have been torn by rivalry in the past, and the prospects of their union remained unclear. The leader of the most outspoken and consistently liberal movement, Grigory A. Yavlinsky, has refused to join the coalition.
Parliament Speaker Gennady N. Seleznyov, a Communist, said the group will last “no more than a month,” the Itar-Tass news service reported. The liberals will fight bitterly over selecting a leader and “as a result of it, they will all perish,” Seleznyov predicted.
The group has yet to work out a platform and select a leader, according to Itar-Tass.
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