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SECTION SPONSORED BY ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA www.tula-forum.com All about competitive advantages of
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY_NOVEMBER 15_2007
Tula region
Campaign Part 3 of our series on the major parties in the forthcoming elections, RBTH introduces two of Russia’s foundering groups
Lost causes?
Opinion polls show that support is slipping
away from two former major parties
There is no more sorry sight in submitted reports on im-
Russia than the state of its proving the national eco-
democratic parties. From a nomic machinery. After that,
position of strength and he was invited for interroga-
goodwill in the early Nineties, tion and taken to a TB clinic
their standing and influence is for “compulsory treatment”
VICTOR VASENIN_RG
now eroded. – only to make a miraculous
recovery after Mikhail Gor-
ANNA ZAKATNOVA
bachev gained power.
ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA Yabloko has always main-
MOSCOW
tained close contacts with
the human rights movement
Yabloko
that was established in the
Soviet era, and many former
Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of dissidents became its mem-
liberal democratic party bers or closely co-operated
Yabloko, was at one point in with the party. On an opera-
his life Ukraine’s junior- tive level, this gave Yabloko
league boxing champion. As many initial advantages, as Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the Yabloko political party
he discovered then, an assured it quickly established foreign
boxer must be able to get up contacts and advocated
and keep on fighting after Western-style development
being knocked down. This policies during perestroika
knowledge has stood him in and in the early 1990s.
good stead: in his recent polit- The party has also always had
ical career, the former heavy- a highly professional eco-
weight has suffered one num- nomic team. Yavlinsky him-
bing defeat after another. self is a respected economist,
having worked for the Soviet
ALEXEY NIKOLSKY_RIA NOVOSTI ALEXEY NIKOLSKY_RIA NOVOSTI
government from 1989-1991
An influx of petro- and authoring the famous EKATERINA CHESNOKOVA_RIA NOVOSTI
dollars has seen
“500 Days” economic transi-
traditional demo-
tion programme (ultimately
cratic allegiances
rejected by Gorbachev).
Coming into politics as the
turn to pro-Kremlin the Yavlinsky-Boldyrev-
parties, leaving
Lukin Bloc, Yabloko first se-
democratic mainstay
cured a representation in the
Yabloko without a
State Duma, the lower house Nikita Belykh, leader of the Russian Union of Right Forces
of parliament, in December
seat in parliament 1993. Ten years later, in 2003,
Yabloko just failed to reach alties shifted – mostly to the
The Union of Right
reforms, was established in architect of market reforms fect. Belykh helped the party
the necessary threshold to pro-Kremlin United Russia.
Forces
the run-up to the December The Union of Right and director of the Institute to some success at recent re-
Virtually all influential Rus- qualify for representation in Although Yabloko took note 1999 State Duma elections. It
Forces showed im-
of the Economy in Transi- gional parliamentary elec-
sian democrats have at some parliamentary elections. So of the change of political cli- In 2005, democratic politi- made a spectacular and prom-
point in their careers been
proved performance
tion – both stepped down, tions. SPS now has 70 depu-
small was the difference, mate, and transformed itself cians sank into despair after ising debut but four years
members of Yabloko. Most of
in local elections, but
and Nikita Belykh, a youth- ties in 33 regional legisla-
President Vladimir Putin into a classic social-demo- Yabloko and the Union of later, it suffered a complete ful representative of Rus- tures and is attracting voters
them eventually sided with phoned Yavlinsky and con- cratic party, it is no longer as Right Forces (SPS) failed to defeat. Shocked, the Rightists their national stand- sia’s fledgling capitalism, beyond its traditional elec-
rival parties or accepted im- gratulated him on the party’s popular as it once was. In- establish a united party to spent a lot of time and energy
ing remains dam-
was elected leader. torate. The party’s 2003 man-
portant positions in govern- victory. The morning, how- deed, Putin’s intention to run fight for the upcoming State trying to assess the causes of
ment. And perhaps because of
aged by the failures
Belykh is a native of Perm, a ifesto said nothing about old
ever, brought disappoint- for the State Duma on the Duma elections. Their efforts their setback. But the expla-
this, there is an impression
of 1990s Wild-West
city in the sprawling Urals age pensioners, but today,
ment; and since then the sit- United Russia ticket has re- were frustrated by the per- nation was quite simple: The industrial region where get- pensions and grey issues are
among many local politicians uation has only got worse. duced Yabloko’s ratings to a sonal antipathy between people of Russia did not like capitalism ting ahead is a tough busi- at the focus of the rightist’s
that those who remain are a Until the early 2000s, cash- mere 1pc of the national elec- leader of Yabloko Grigory Wild West-style capitalism, ness. Anyone who could agenda. However, SPS have
hard core of the most un com- strapped public-sector work- torate. Yavlinsky and privatisation and blamed SPS for their make his first million in such yet to translate their regional
pro mising. ers – specifically teachers, Yavlinsky is likely to receive reformist Anatoly Chubais, troubles. ing process. The party’s adverse conditions, so the success into higher federal
Yavlinsky himself has an un- doctors and scientists – were more votes during the 2008 and unbridgeable ideologi- Acknowledging the need for founders – Anatoly Chubais, reasoning went, would not poll ratings. At least at the
easy relationship with the Yabloko’s main electorate. presidential elections, but cal differences between so- change, and unable to come who now heads the re- have much difficulty gaining federal level, it seems that the
authorities. In the mid-1980s, But with the influx of petro- even with this support, cial democrats and liberals. to terms with their social- vamped energy giant Uni- a foothold in Moscow. voters are unwilling to for-
he worked for the USSR dollars these people became Yabloko may not survive SPS, a party associated with democratic rivals, SPS fied Energy Systems (UES), It would seem the change of give the “democrats” for the
State Labour Committee and more affluent, and their loy- until the next election cycle. democracy and free market launched a major rebrand- and Yegor Gaidar, another leadership has had some ef- hardships of the 1990s.
-
Tula Centuries of frontier wars forced this city to become armourer to the tsars
By the middle of the 17th cen- It’s both a pleasure and in-
tury this was the leading gun- structive to walk through
Guns and Tartars, gingerbread and samovars
making town in Russia, and Tula. In some of the older
the major supplier to the state. streets you can still see the
And at the end of the 18th historic buildings, while in
century Tula craftsmen were others the architecture re-
producing the decorated guns flects the different stages and
Travel a little less than 200 relish to the Tartars. If it had for the city’s main streets. knives, guns and other goods which became the plant’s sig- styles of the Soviet design in-
kilometres south along the M2 not been to their taste, why A peculiarity is just how big – was relatively basic, but this nature product. fluences.
from Moscow and you arrive did they spend so much time the kremlin is for a city of Tu- dramatically changed under It’s quite straightforward to And when you’re vsiting Tula,
at Tula, a city that is somehow raiding and razing the town, la’s size, but then it was the tutelage of some of Eu- visit the plant and its shop, don’t forget the souvenirs:
both Russian and Soviet. It’s leaving the people either meant to protect more than rope's leading gun-makers. which are to be found in the you’d never see such a wide
worth the journey, because dead or destitute? just the civilian population, The state-owned Tula arma- centre of town, between the choice of gingerbread and
you’ll find things you would For the first 300 years of its the churches and the garri- ments plant was founded in kremlin and the river Upa. sweets in Moscow, and the
never see in the capital. existence, Tula was part of son. During the 15th and 1712 on the orders of Peter the From the kremlin entrance samovars (Russian tea urns)
the Ryazan county, but in the 16th centuries, Tula’s gun Great, and was from the very the best way to get to the plant are also a signature Tula
ANTON RAZMAKHNIN / MOSCOW NEWS
early 16th century it came and iron-making industry beginning equipped to meet is via Metallistov Street product.
MOSCOW into Moscow’s orbit. was founded. the latest European stan- which, 300 years ago, consist- Not far from the city is Yas-
By 1520 the wall and towers As with most of Russia and, dards, making the Tula brand ed of one-storey wooden naya Polyana, the estate and
Tula, capital of the Tula of its kremlin (citadel) were indeed, Europe, iron ore in its truly competitive interna- houses belonging to the iron burial place of Leo Tolstoy. It
Oblast, was founded early in completed… walls and tow- simplest form is in abundance tionally. makers. From the mid-18th is now a museum and well
the 12th century (documents ers that can still be seen here, and being a frontier Records show that in 1720 century onwards, however, worth a visit.
-
mention a settlement as today, as the kremlin forms town meant that the art of alone, 22,000 guns were pro- this was transformed became
early as 1146), at a point that the very core of Tula, and its gun-making flourished. duced in Tula , an impressive one of the city’s most glamor- More about Tula on
must have been of particular EPA gates are the starting points Initially, the iron work – number for the time. ous streets. www.rbth.rg.ru
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in this supplement
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golikova@rg.ru
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