The congress of Zakhar Prilepin’s new party is in Moscow. Critics are skeptical
A congress and presentation of the new party “For Truth” is taking place in Moscow today, the leader of which will be the writer Zakhar Prilepin, who was listed as a battalion commander in the Donbass, but returned to the capital after the tragic death of DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko.
“Defending the Motherland with arms in hand is the norm. Expansion – diplomatic, cultural, political, linguistic, and in extreme cases military – is the norm. We live in a world where today there are 42 wars. Everyone who assures us that in the 21st century problems need to be solved in a civilized manner, in fact, only wants our capitulation. We put one meaning into the concept of civilized: everything that contributes to the preservation, strengthening and expansion of Russian civilization is civilized,” military correspondent Alexander Kots, who was present at the congress, quotes Prilepin’s keynote speech.
Observers believe that the new force will try to repeat the experience of Dmitry Rogozin’s Rodina, which once had success with patriotic voters. Among the participants in today's event are actor Steven Seagal, musicians Vadim Samoilov and Yulia Chicherina, actor Ivan Okhlobystin, participants in the war in Donbass.
Political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov believes that repeating the success of Rodina with Prilepin’s new project may be a difficult task. He points out that critics are already “trolling” the new political force, abbreviating the name “as ZaPr - “constipation.”
“Secondly, an ideologically empty agenda, like “we are for the truth because we are for the truth.” Considering that the party wants to play on the field of the old “Motherland”, it is obvious that at the level of preparing the project, almost no work was done, everything was “on the knee”.
Glazyevsky-Rogozinsky’s “Comrade,” which later became “Motherland,” was a detailed right-wing nationalist project that played (and gained ratings) on the thin line between moderate and radical (the famous video with the watermelon rind during the height of anti-migrant sentiment).
Constipation is a radical project, but not right-wing, but rather left-national, closer to the National Bolsheviks than to the conventional right-wing populists (by the way, popular in Europe, such as the AfD). In the last elections, the same Prilepin played for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (part of the “Left Front”), and previously was a member of the NBP (even earlier in the “People” movement together with Navalny),” notes Grashchenkov.
Zakhar Prilepin's new party is holding a congress in Moscow. Critics are skeptical.