Paul Goble
Staunton, March 7
– In addition to firming up its links to left-wing parties in EU countries and developing
relations with right-wing nationalist parties there, Moscow must create new
parties consisting of emigres, ethnic Russian and otherwise, from the former
Soviet space, according to several members of the upper house of the Russian
parliament.
But that effort,
modelled after what Moscow has done in the Baltic countries and the former
Soviet republics and informed by what Beijing has done with the overseas
Chinese is likely to backfire because it will be viewed by everyone as a
Russian effort to interfere in the internal affairs of these countries, according
to one French analyst.
On Thursday,
Russia’s Federation Council discussed the possible mechanisms of expanding
Moscow’s contacts with and use of “the Russian world abroad,” a group that
speakers said numbered 25 million potential “’polite people’” who could help
promote Russian interests there and especially in the EU (svpressa.ru/politic/article/114882/).
Konstantin
Kosachev, the chairman of the Federation Council’s foreign relations committee,
said that that “the organizations of compatriots must be converted into a
self-standing influential social force in those countries where they live” and
that “this process must be supported by Russia.”
He
and other Russian senators pointed to the formation in Germany of the Einheit
Party as an example of such “’soft force.’”
Established two years ago, it now has “more than 4,000 members”
consisting primarily but not exclusively of Germans who emigrated from the USSR
or from Russia. It is registered in three of the German lander, but it has not
yet won any elections.
Dmitry
Rempel, the chairman of the party, said that “it is possible to say that we
support Russia’s position on many issues – Ukraine, opposition to the rewriting
of history, and opposition to the growth of nationalist attitudes here in
Europe. Here we are allies and ready to support Russia in these areas.”
The party “does not expect
financial help from Russia,” he added, noting that “we are a German party.” But
at the same time, he noted that it is closely linked with Russian businessmen
and social movements, which although he did not say so might very well be a
channel through which Russian assistance might flow.
Igor Morozov, a member of the
Federation Council’s foreign relations committee, said that Einheit consisted
of “Germans from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Russia” and seeks to
defend “the social-economic interests of migrants who consider Germany their
motherland.”
At the same time, Morozov said, the
formation of such a German party shows that “the ‘Russian world,’ besides its
ethnic components, consists of those who love Russian culture and history,
share our values, and finally speak Russian” as well as those “who have roots”
in Russia and “the children of mixed marriages.”
“The appearance of pro-Russian
parties as a political instrument for defending their social, economic and
humanitarian rights will only work to the benefit of the EU countries,” he
continued, saying that “we with gratitude acknowledge those conditions which
Germany has created for our resettlers.”
Leonid
Kalashnikov, the first deputy chairman of the Duma’s foreign relations
committee, said that he personally was glad that “the party of Lieberman in
Israel is among the leaders,” but that “if an analogous situation arises in
German, it will be still better. But this hardly depends on the Russian foreign
ministry or other structures.”
“It would be naïve to assume that
they are capable of [such] great achievements when there is no financing,” the
Duma deputy said. He added that Russia should focus on parties of the left
where its support is greatest rather than on parties of the right, only a few
of which are its backers. France’s National Front is “the exception” which
proves the rule, Kalashnikov said.
But French analyst Alexandre Lats disagrees.
He told “Svobodnaya pressa” that he very much doubted that “a party of migrants
from Russia could become a significant part of the political landscape in
Europe” not only because the numbers of such people are relatively small but
because other Europeans would view it as a heavy-handed Moscow ploy.
And
he explicitly cautioned against extrapolating from Russia’s experience in the formerly
occupied Baltic countries or former Soviet republics to Europe: The two
situations are completely different, he suggested, and a tactic that works in
one place is far from guaranteed to work in another.
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