Russian left seeks unity after anti-Putin protests

A group of leftist leaders announced the creation of a social democratic movement in Russia on Thursday to try to turn three months of street protests into a lasting political challenge to Vladimir Putin. Far-left leader Sergei Udaltsov and two centre-left members of parliament hope to harness opposition to the prime minister and prevent the protest movement dying following his election to a six-year term as president.
"Our aim is to come to power in a civilised way," Gennady Gudkov, a senior parliamentary deputy with the centre-left Just Russia party, told a news conference. "We propose creating a social organisation uniting the left in Russia ... and our historic task is to make sure a united left-wing party exists in Russia," he said, offering co-operation with "all leftist forces".
He and fellow Just Russia deputy Ilya Ponomaryov, who were joined by economist Mikhail Delyagin, said the movement would focus initially on fighting corruption and reducing poverty. It faces a tough task uniting the left. The Communist Party, Russia's largest left-wing group after finishing second in a parliamentary election on December 4, has not responded to the call to unite and has kept its distance from the protests.
Liberal protest leaders such as former parliamentary deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov say the movement is not for them. The leaders also face a battle to unite left-wing groups split by ideological differences and personal rivalries since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
"If you are looking at the political shape of the left, the situation is desperate," said Boris Kagarlitsky, a Marxist theoretician and socialist who heads the Moscow Institute of Globalisation Studies and Social Movements. "There is a high degree of fragmentation, there is no unity of action and no common project." They also face other attempts to capture the leftist vote. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed on Wednesday reviving a social democratic party he led from 2001 until 2004 although it had little success.