vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #151 / Special reports / Reading article...

A new political party will attempt to improve the economy of the Russian Far East — and give a voice to the thousands of legal ethnic immigrants living here.

Sergei Loktionov, a Primorye businessman who chairs the Far Eastern Party of Reform, says the the region’s economy is collapsing due to uninformed leaders. He says the party will put intelligent candidates up for election armed with accurate information. To create reform, the party has founded an ecnomics center, with lawyers, economists and politicians researching ways to attack problems.

“In Primorye, we have a collapse of agriculture, and our large industries are failing,” said Loktionov. “We are studying which crops are best for this area and how to save our factories.” The party is also working on public-housing reform and the improvement of the fishing industry.

Loktionov insists the Far Eastern Party of Reform is not simply an oppositional movement.

“I am not opposed to [Gov.] Yevgeny Nazdratenko as a person,” he says. “But we have a very difficult situation here now, for example with the energy crisis.”

Although the party’s name may suggest a separatist leaning — a platform associated with Nazdratenko — Loktionov says that couldn’t be further from reality.

“We’re completely against the idea of separatism,” he says. “What, we don’t have enough problems to think about right now? Without Russia, the Far East is nothing.”

In fact, one of the party’s main goals is to unite the peoples of Russia, particularly the diverse residents of the Far East.

To that end, representatives of the Armenian, Korean and Tartar communities have established the Council of Nationalities, open to any group interested in joining.

“In the United States, you have many nationalities, so you’ve been discussing [the problems] for a long time. We are just starting, but I believe a normal society should live that way.”

Loktionov says the council members will discuss everything from economic reform to how to eradicate discrimination.

The party has over 5,000 members across the region, with representative offices in Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Partizansk, Khabarovsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and other Far Eastern cities. It plans to present candidates for the legislative elections slated to be held in Primorye this December.