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Valeria Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya (Template:Lang-ru; born May 17, 1950, Baranavichy, Belarus) is a Russian politician, Soviet dissident, the founder and the chairwoman of the "Democratic Union" party, and a member of the editorial board of The New Times. She is considered among the most liberal of Russia's politicians.

Political activism

Soviet Union

Novodvorskaya has been active in the Soviet dissidents movement since her youth, and first imprisoned by the Soviet authorities on 1969 for distributing leaflets that criticized the Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia (Prague Spring). The leaflets included her poetry: "Thank you, the Communist Party for our bitterness and despair, for our shameful silence, thank you the Party!". Novodvorskaya was only 19 at this time. She was arrested, imprisoned and tortured in a Soviet psychiatric hospital. She described her experiences there in her book Beyond Despair.

Post-Soviet Russia

Novodvorskaya is openly critical of Russian government policies, including Chechen Wars, domestic policies of Vladimir Putin, and the alleged rebirth of Soviet propaganda in Russia.

In an interview with Echo Moskvy, in which she was discussing the 2008 South Ossetia War, Novodvorskaya opined that Shamil Basayev was a democrat, given his support of Boris Yeltsin during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, and his participation in the government of Aslan Maskhadov in 1997, who had appointed Basayev Deputy Premier of the Ichkerian government.However, Basayev has been transformed to a terrorist by the Russian governemntal policies in Chechnya, according to her. In response, Alexey Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of the radio station, pulled the recording and transcripts of the program from the Echo Moskvy website. She later accused Venedictov of censorship and slander, and suggested that the decision to remove the interview may have been due to Gazprom, a state-owned company, being a controlling shareholder in Echo Moskvy.. Venedictov asserted this to be his own decision and confirmed that Novodvorskaya was banned from the station until the end of 2008.

While in some works Novodvorskaya self-identifies as democratic and liberal polititian, in her other works she rejects assotioation with democratic and liberal ideas, calling herself and her allies successors to White Russian tradition.

Novodvorskaya openly supported appartheid in South Africa, as well as discrimination of Russian-speaking minorities in Baltiс states.

Novodvorskaya has also stated that human rights are not usiversal and should be reverved for "good people", while people like or Kim Il-sung should have no rights.

Awards

Novodvorskaya received the Starovoytova award "for contribution to the defense of human rights and strengthening democracy in Russia". She said at the ceremony that "we are not in opposition to, but in confrontation with, the present regime".

Notes

1. (also mentioned, Gleb Yakunin and Konstantin Borovoi) Arbatov, Alexei. Military Reform in Russia,International Security, Vol. 22, No. 4
2. Barron, John (1975). KGB - The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents. London: Corgi Books. ISBN 0-552-09890-6. p. 55 in Russian edition (ISBN 0-911971-29-7)
3. Газета «Новый взгляд» N46 от 28 августа 1993г.. Democtratic Union website
4. Комсомольская правда (9.2.2007)
5. Валерия Новодворская на радио "Эхо Москвы" 29 августа 2008 г., radio interview, August 29, 2008, on "Moscow Echo" (Echo Moskvy)
6. Aslan Maskhadov: Five Steps into History, Prague Watchdog, retrieved November 13, 2008.
7. Template:Ru icon Novodvorskaya, Valeriya. "Валерия Новодворская на радио "Эхо Москвы" 29 августа 2008 г." Democratic Union. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
8. Template:Ru icon "Новодворскую изгнали с "Эха Москвы" за восхваление Басаева". Lenta.ru. 1 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-16. at WebCite
9. Template:Ru icon Novodvorskaya, Valeriya (31 August 2008). "EchoMSK : Заявление Валерии Новодворской". Echo Moskvy. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
10. ""The radio that saddles"". Novaya Gazeta. 24 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-16. at WebCite
11. Валерия Новодворская. "Над пропастью во лжи"
12. ^ Газета "Новый взгляд" N46 от 28 августа 1993г.
13. Anna Politkovskaya (2007) A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia, Random House, ISBN 978-1-4000-6682-7, page 38.

Her books

• Valeriya Novodvorskaya. Beyond despair. .Moscow, Novosti. 1993 Валерия Новодворская. По ту сторону отчаяния. Template:Ru icon

See also

• Larisa Arap

External links

• The Democratic Union
• Opinions on grani.ru (Russian)
• «It can very soon come to pogroms», interview with Novodvorskaya, Jewish Observer, 21/40. November 2002

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