Moscow Times - 05.21.2003

 

 

 

 

The Moscow Times

Radical Nationalist Party Loses Its Registration

By Nabi Abdullaev, Staff Writer 

The Justice Ministry has revoked the registration of the National Power Party of Russia, stripping the radical nationalist party whose leaders are openly anti-Semitic of its right to field candidates in regional and national elections. 

The ministry took the step Monday, citing the NDPR's failure to register branches in at least 45 Russian regions within the time period allowed by law.

No political motives were behind the decision, Deputy Justice Minister Yevgeny Sidorenko said Tuesday. "We just followed the letter of the law," he was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Stanislav Terekhov, one of the party's three co-chairmen, said he believes the ministry was acting on the orders of the presidential administration, which he said is worried about the NDPR's rise. 

"Last Saturday, we held a party conference that was attended by ministry officials. They were informed that we have registered 42 regional branches and the registration of 15 more is pending court decisions," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "Winning at least three cases was not a problem for us.

"The officials said nothing then. But people in the presidential administration, who have already decided the future elections, were worried and prodded the ministry to revoke our registration," Terekhov said. He said the NDPR would challenge the ministry's decision in court.

The NDPR, which was registered in September, has emerged as the main nationalist party. It claims 20,000 members in 72 regions. 

In January, the Justice Ministry issued a warning to the party after co-chairman Boris Mironov made anti-Semitic remarks. Under the law, two warnings are enough to demand a party be disbanded. Mironov served as press minister under former President Boris Yeltsin from December 1993 until September 1994. During his time in office, Izvestia and Moskovskiye Novosti newspapers led a campaign against him for his nationalist, anti-Semitic remarks.

The deputy head of the ministry's department on public and religious organizations, Alexei Zhafyarov, said by telephone Tuesday that the deadline for the NDPR to register its branches had expired on April 16. After a one-month grace period, a party has six months by law to register its branches. The ministry gave the NDPR an additional month to settle its cases in court, he said.

Zhafyarov said the NDPR was the third party to lose its registration after failing to set up enough branches in the regions.

Yury Korgunyuk, an expert on political parties at the Indem think tank, said the authorities use the law to bar parties that can threaten the existing balance of power in the elections.

"The Kremlin learns from its own experience with the Liberal Democratic Party, registered in 1993. It was a party of one man, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whom many regarded as a clown, and nobody believed in the party's future. Two years later, the LDPR swept 23 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections," Korgunyuk said. 

The Justice Ministry also was accused of being guided by political considerations in the case of Liberal Russia, which was denied registration until after Boris Berezovsky had been expelled from its ranks.