[Editor’s note: we’re pleased to feature this translation of an exclusive article from Boris Sokolov, a Russian historian, political columnist, critic and literary scholar, doctor of philological sciences, candidate of historical sciences. Sokolov was recently in the media and interviewed by Grigory Pasko after he was unfairly dismissed from his position at the University as well as cut from the newspaper following an article he wrote questioning government claims about the war in Georgia.]

Is the “Right Cause” right?

Boris Sokolov

I do not agree with Kirill Benediktov, who asserts that the party “Right Cause” is obviously being created for internal (Russian) use, and not for international PR», inasmuch as «The Kremlin has decided to “save” what was left of the SPS after its downfall precisely because it had become evident: it will not be possible to melt the vanishing identity of the Russian rightists in the kettle of the “party of all the people” even with all the discernible advantages of such an assimilation. The struggle with the SPS, which occupied in the years 2003-2007 a critical position in relation to the power, has led to a situation where the most intransigent rightists left for street politics, for extremism and “dissenters’ marches”, merely adding to the Kremlin’s headaches».