Political Factions In Russia
A typically pithy and on-the-spot set of remarks from the Economist's Russia correspondent.
I make little effort to keep track of which unheard-of party with no ideology and no obvious support base represents which splinter faction of what clan within the ruling elite's three big groupings. It's enough to remember what those
groupings are:
- the siloviki, people linked to the security services, whom I always imagine as thin men in ill-fitting suits who spontaneously cause lightbulbs to fuse as they walk past them;
- the business-linked "family" - in my mind's eye, portly types with flashy cufflinks fearfully glancing over their shoulder to see if one of their bodyguards is planting a landmine under the armoured Mercedes;
- and the "liberal reformers" - intense, sharp-eyed, desperate men overloaded with files who have long since discarded the moral dilemmas that their work involves and live their lives trying not to pick fights with either of the other two.
But at any rate, the fact that at least 50 Duma deputies switched parties after the last elections is a good sign of how little the election itself has to do with politics and everything to do with who can manipulate the balance of power to their own advantage.
08 December 2003
Political Factions In Russia
A typically pithy and on-the-spot set of remarks from the Economist's Russia correspondent.
I make little effort to keep track of which unheard-of party with no ideology and no obvious support base represents which splinter faction of what clan within the ruling elite's three big groupings. It's enough to remember what those
groupings are:
- the siloviki, people linked to the security services, whom I always imagine as thin men in ill-fitting suits who spontaneously cause lightbulbs to fuse as they walk past them;
- the business-linked "family" - in my mind's eye, portly types with flashy cufflinks fearfully glancing over their shoulder to see if one of their bodyguards is planting a landmine under the armoured Mercedes;
- and the "liberal reformers" - intense, sharp-eyed, desperate men overloaded with files who have long since discarded the moral dilemmas that their work involves and live their lives trying not to pick fights with either of the other two.
But at any rate, the fact that at least 50 Duma deputies switched parties after the last elections is a good sign of how little the election itself has to do with politics and everything to do with who can manipulate the balance of power to their own advantage.
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