For fans of conspiracy theories and armchair analytics. On August 19, I posted a table titled “The Position of Russia’s Political Organizations on the Question of Recognizing the Independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.” The table showed that at that moment, the only political party that had clearly opposed recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was YABLOKO: recognition of Georgia’s territorial integrity while simultaneously granting its autonomous regions broad self-determination rights The rest either demanded recognition or just talked in circles. At the time, all the so-called liberals took the wishy-washy “neither yes nor no” position. And now? Now all the so-called liberals have come out condemning the decision to recognize them. For example, here is an extremely trashy statement from the UCF (United Civil Front): Medvedev’s decree recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia runs counter to the country’s interests And here is an extremely foolish statement from SPS (Union of Right Forces): The political party Union of Right Forces considers this course of events the most dangerous of all possible outcomes. and so on. Meanwhile, YABLOKO issued a statement in which it not only did not condemn the move, but reacted “with understanding”: Russia’s leadership must do everything possible to ensure that the decision to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia does not lead to increased tension in the region or to a further deterioration in Russia’s relations with its neighbors and the world as a whole. We understand that, given all the circumstances, it was ultimately difficult to expect any other reaction from Russia’s leadership to what happened. and the rest is written in the same realpolitik spirit of “further actions based on a sober assessment.” Personally, I like this statement much more, but that’s not the point. How does this happen? And can we conclude that before the recognition, YABLOKO was taking instructions from its American masters, while everyone else was taking theirs from the Kremlin? And after the recognition, YABLOKO’s masters became the Kremlin, while everyone else’s became the Americans. And did YABLOKO’s position really change because Grig. Alex. Yavl. (Grigory Alexeyevich Yavlinsky) is in the middle of negotiations? They say they’re preparing a post for him as director of the International Space Station, with unlimited access to the Hubble Space Telescope.