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Paul Holmes · Lounge Wizard Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 1012

Gorbachev, Russian billionaire to form new party

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Reuters

September 30, 2008 at 11:37 AM EDT

MOSCOW — Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will join forces with Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev to launch a new political party independent of the Kremlin, the billionaire businessman said on Tuesday.

Mr. Gorbachev, 77, won the 1990 Nobel peace prize for allowing the peaceful revolutions the previous year that brought democracy to Eastern Europe after decades of Soviet control.

Though hugely admired in the West, he is deeply unpopular at home for presiding over the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union that led to economic and political chaos. When he last ran for president, in 1996, he won just half a per cent of the vote.

Mr. Gorbachev initiated plans for the new party, said Lebedev on his website http://alex-lebedev.livejournal.com/141495.html

"He gave our people freedom but we just can't learn how to use it," wrote Mr. Lebedev, who said the provisional name of the new party is the 'Independent Democratic Party'.

The party will press for legal and economic reform and promote the growth of independent media, said Mr. Lebedev, who does not plan to bankroll the party himself but said it should be financed only from "non-state sources".

He said the party favoured "less state capitalism", the development of independent media, reform of the justice system and a stronger role for parliament, adding that it would take part in elections.

However, Mikhail Kuznetsov, the deputy chairman of Mr. Gorbachev's present political organization, the Union of Social Democrats, said winning seats was not the objective.

"Mikhail Sergeyevich (Gorbachev) is not striving to take seats in parliament, he is going to establish an independent democratic party and its task will be to let young people find fulfilment in new politics," Mr. Kuznetsov said.

Mr. Gorbachev declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

He has in the past criticized many of the electoral practices of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, but has stopped short of attacking Mr. Putin himself.

Mr. Gorbachev also backed Russia's role in last month's war with Georgia, which was widely condemned in the West. Mr. Putin, who was president until this year, has been accused in the West and by Russian liberals of stifling free expression and the development of multi-party democracy.

"There will be no extremists," Mr. Lebedev said of the new party's membership, suggesting that economists and members of the failing right-wing SPS party would be welcome to join.

Mr. Lebedev's National Reserve Corp. controls more than 30 per cent of Russian flag carrier Aeroflot, in which the Russian state holds a majority. He and Gorbachev both have stakes in the independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, where murdered journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya worked.

overseas_expat · VIP Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 620 Location: Moscow

I saw that in the news this morning. I love it.

I hope he sticks to his guns. Gorbachov is not a young man and he's facing some mighty nasty opposition.

I wish him well.

lillywilliam · Just Starting Joined: 28 Apr 2008 Posts: 3

Its a great news lol... but didnt watch in T.V but nice to hear from you...