Moscow – Russia's liberal opposition has "Orange scenarios" up its sleeve, one of the leaders of the ruling United Russia party said on Saturday, September 17, in reference to the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine and similar liberal movements in other former Soviet republics.
"Today all opposition forces have come together against United Russia under the slogan of a radical change to the course," United Russia quoted Andrei Isayev, a top figure in the party and a member of the State Duma, as saying at a conference of United Russia’s Center for Conservative Social Policy.
The Communist Party and the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) have "accepted the number two roles" as the likeliest result of December’s parliamentary elections, Isayev said. On the other hand, the liberal opposition is dangerous because "it ultimately advocates abandoning the course toward sovereign democracy," he said.
He claimed that liberal groups had run out of all their resources of legitimately entering decision-making politics and that, for this reason, "their principal objective will be to delegitimatize the elections as such."
"The aim of these actions is to imbue a considerable part of society with pre-revolutionary sentiments, to prevent the Duma from existing for its whole term, and to replay the ‘Orange’ scenarios that have been tested out in post-Soviet space," he said.
He claimed that as a pro-welfare state party United Russia is willing to have dialogue with the Communists and as a pro-market economy group it is open to dialogue with liberals.
