KREMLIN-CREATED RIGHT CAUSE PARTY'S INTERNAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 003090

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/23/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PINR KDEM RS
SUBJECT: KREMLIN-CREATED RIGHT CAUSE PARTY'S INTERNAL
DIVISIONS HAMPER DEVELOPMENT

REF: A. 08 MOSCOW 3202

B. 08 MOSCOW 3355

C. MOSCOW 201

Classified By: Acting Deputy PolMinCouns David Kostelancik for reasons
1.4 (b, d)


1. (C) Summary: The triumvirate leadership of Right Cause has
been in conflict since its establishment, with all three
struggling to define the future of the party. Right Cause
Co-Chair Boris Titov remains doubtful about the viability of
his party in future elections, and confirmed that he is
considering leaving. Fellow Co-Chair Georgy Bovt expressed
disappointment with both Titov and Co-Chair Leonid Gozman,
admitting he too was considering leaving the party. While
Bovt and Titov agreed that maintaining the present leadership
structure of the party will not bring electoral success,
Gozman, in repeated media appearances, has made clear he will
resist any change to the present leadership. In the wake the
party's annual conference there have been no announcements of
a compromise on the issue, raising suspicious that the party
is at best treading water, at worst fading into irrelevance.

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Background
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2. (C) Right Cause was engineered by the Kremlin (Ref A,B)
from the remains of three liberal parties: the Union of Right
Forces (SPS),the Democratic Party of Russia and Civil Force.
Leonid Gozman was previously Acting Chairman of SPS and is
well known for his criticism of the government establishment
- specifically Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov. Boris Titov was
and remains Chairman of Business Russia. His focus is on
developing small and medium businesses, and he has little
time for Gozman's political activism. Georgy Bovt is a
respected political scientist who appears to have been added
to the leadership only to dilute the influence of Titov and
Gozman. In a September 24 meeting Right Cause Moscow Oblast
head Boris Nadezhdin commented that Bovt was brilliant, but
not politically ambitious. He is genuinely not interested in
competing to become head of the party. Nadezhdin went on to
say that Gozman, despite his ambition, could never rise to be
single party head. It is unfortunate but true, he commented,
that in today's Russia a man with a Jewish last name cannot
lead a national political party. Both Nadezhdin and Moscow
City Right Cause head Igor Trunov, in a September 18 meeting
with us, agreed that of the present party leaders only Titov
could take control. The last year has seen a succession of
attempts by Titov and Gozman to usurp the other's influence,
ending in an awkward stalemate.

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Titov's First Move: July Yabloko Merger Attempt
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3. (C) In the lead up to October 11 Moscow City Duma
elections Titov began negotiations with Yabloko Moscow head
Sergei Mitrokhin to combine party candidate lists. Titov
would head the Yabloko party list, and Mitrokhin would agree
to second place in exchange for Right Cause's support in the
campaign. Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on July 13 that in
order to join Yabloko's party list Titov would be required to
withdraw from Right Cause for the duration of the campaign.
Gozman went public with his belief that this would
effectively end the party. Mikhail Vinogradov, President of
the Eterburgskaya Politika Foundation, commented in the same
article that, even if the party survived, Titov would clearly
have established himself as head and would be able to muscle
out Gozman. Moskovskaya Gazeta reported on July 21 that
Gozman and Titov went to the offices of First Deputy Chief of
the Presidential Staff Vladislav Surkov to discuss election
strategies. Following this meeting talks with Yabloko broke
down and Right Cause decided not to enter a party list in the
Moscow elections.

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Kremlin Motives Noted
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4. (C) Public political analysis following the decision not
to combine with a Yabloko party list focused on a debate
within the Kremlin as to the party's viability in the 2011
Federal Duma elections and the future of Moscow Mayor Yuriy
Luzhkov. Moscow Carnegie Center's Andrey Ryabov commented
July 22 that Right Cause was unlikely to earn seats in Moscow
in 2009. A resounding defeat would have crippled the party
ahead of its Kremlin-defined goal: earning between five and

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six seats in the Federal Duma in the 2011/2012 election
cycle. Dmitriy Oreshkin of the Mercator Group commented
that, as a rightwing liberal urban party, Right Cause could
hardly have run in Moscow and maintained its image without
strongly opposing Mayor Luzhkov. Having made the decision to
keep Luzhkov on as mayor, the Kremlin decided only one
liberal opposition party -- Yabloko -- was necessary to run
in the City Duma elections (Note: Yabloko was prevented from
winning seats in the Duma through clear fraud. End Note.).
Yabloko, while often critical of city government, rarely
directs attacks at Luzhkov himself. On August 28 Kommersant
noted that Right Cause was the only party in Moscow which had
directly criticized Luzhkov. Titov and Nadezhdin decided to
run as independent candidates, but were denied registration
by the city electoral commission, which Luzhkov controls.

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Titov's Second Move -- Take the Question to the People
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5. (C) Titov's second attempt to take control of the party
came in a September 25 call for a party congress to
reconsider leadership within the party. He argued in a
Kommersant editorial October 1 that the present leadership
structure was only damaging the party. As Oreshkin had
noted, it appears Surkov chose the co-chairs of Right Cause
specifically because they have divergent agendas. From its
creation the party had been unable to take a precise
political stance, and therefore unable to launch a broad
election platform at the local or national level. Gozman has
pushed the party toward political activism, while Titov
viewed this as a distraction from the real appeal of the
party to business owners and entrepreneurs. Gozman and Titov
have aired these disagreements publicly in interviews to
national newspapers. Yevgeniy Minchenko, director of the
International Institute of Political Expertise, commented in
Nezavisimaya Gazeta on October 1 that the triumvirate system
was not working for the party, and Titov was correct in
stating that it must change. Gozman countered that, based on
his July attempt to merge with Yabloko, Titov may not have
the political savvy to manage relationships within the
Kremlin as party head. Gozman has, until now, been
successful in preventing a party congress, and with it a de
facto vote of confidence on his role as pre-eminent party
leader.

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Gozman's Counter: Associating Right Cause with Solidarity
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6. (C) In an interview with Vremya Novosti on October 1,
Gozman was unable to defend Titov's assertion that the
co-chair arrangement was crippling the party. Instead, he
argued that agreements were made in the context of the
collapse of SPS which, although awkward, should be honored
through the Federal Duma elections of 2011. This view was
certainly based on a belief that his only chance to be
elected in two years will come as a party co-chair. Many
read Titov's announcement on the Right Cause website
September 28 that "I am close to the positions of Yabloko",
to mean that he is for government reform, but against direct
political activism. Realizing that a party congress might be
unavoidable, Gozman moved in the opposite direction. In a
clear attempt to rally the former SPS base within the party,
Gozman took a leading role in championing Solidarity's report
on corruption in the Luzhkov government, "Luzhkov: Results."
Gozman, Nedezhdin and Trunov all took front row seats at an
October 18 opposition conference as Boris Nemtsov and other
Solidarity leaders spoke at length about the need to directly
challenge the present regime. Since that time he has
regularly attended Solidarity conferences and protests.
While these actions are unlikely to increase Gozman's chances
of being elected to head Right Cause, they may well undermine
Titov's claim to leadership and forestall a party vote on the
issue.

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Bovt Weighs In
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7. (C) In an October 5 meeting Bovt made clear that he is
very disappointed with Titov's decision to call for
leadership elections, and equally disappointed with Gozman's
decision to resist them publicly. Such "airing of dirty
laundry" is bad for the party. While he thought that a party
congress might well confirm Titov as head of the party, Bovt
called him a weak politician who demanded unquestioned
loyalty. During a November 16 press conference, Bovt stated

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that while there were certainly philosophical and political
differences between Gozman and Titov, it was also true that
the two cannot stand each other personally. In his view, the
party leadership cannot continue in its present state. Bovt
said he is more pessimistic about Right Cause, and politics
in general, now than six months ago. He is considering
leaving the party, and predicted that electing a single
leader would lead to a split in Right Cause.

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Titov's Ultimatum
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8. (C) Titov began our December 11 meeting by stating that he
would not be positive about Right Cause. The Kremlin
Administration's central role in the formation of the party
and the competing interests of its three co-chairs,
guaranteed that it cannot be an effective critic of the
government. He felt that Right Cause could not be a
mechanism for demanding reform, but the party was uniquely
placed to work with the government by providing constructive
criticism, which represented the interests of middle class
Russians. Titov felt that there was still a possibility of
cooperation with Yabloko, though not while Gozman remained a
member of the leadership. If Gozman and Bovt would allow him
to pursue an agenda of cooperation with the government toward
shared goals, then Right Cause might have a future as a
party. If not, Titov told us, he plans to leave.

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Comment
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9. (C) After a year of jostling for power, it has become
clear that Right Cause cannot remain a viable contender in
the 2011 federal elections with its present leadership
structure. Titov made clear he is now prepared to leave the
party rather than continue a fight to lead it. This will
lead to a split, wherein members who support Titov's agenda
of cooperation with government follow him to a new -- or
another existing -- party, and Gozman and other former SPS
members move toward the Solidarity movement and more
outspoken criticism of the Administration. This outcome may
well have been the original goal of the Kremlin when it
created the party.
Rubin