centrist victory in Russia

Yesterday's papers claimed that "centrists", which include 4 out of the
6 parties which will be seated in Parliament next month will hove a solid
voting block and will for the first time displace the Communists as the
main block in the Duma.  According to the NYTimes, this means that many of
the free-market reforms which were held up during the previous 7 years
will finally be enacted.

Now call me cynical, but it seems to me that the major aim in this
election was to squash the Primakov/Luzhkov alliance at any cost.  This
meant making all the necessary alliances and concessions (including to the
"centrist" Union of Right Forces party of former premier Kiriyenko), but
what people voted for was the Chechnya policy and the "centrist" security
establishment of Putin, etc.  It seems like Russia is in a similar
situation as in the 20's, when the Stalinist center made the necessary
alliances to destroy its more principled opposition on both sides as it
consolidated absolute power.  The democracy fought for in 1991 is
dead and buried - Yavlinksy has just said as much.

-- 
Boris Stremlin
bc70219@binghamton.edu