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17.11.2005
Jurkans Janis Quits Politics |
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| Simon Araloff, AIA European section | ||||
One of leading politicians of the Latvian Republic for the last 15 years, the long-termed leader of the "People's Harmony Party" (TSP), Jurkans Janis was born in August, 31, 1946 in the city of Riga. Half Latvian (on his father's side), half Pole, he speaks Latvian, Russian, Polish and English fluently. He graduated the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the Latvian State University (1974), receiving a degree in philology. He is married, has two sons and lives in small town of Garkalnes Pagasts, near Riga. In 1974 he started to teach philology at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the Latvian State University. In 1981 he changed his professional direction and began working at the Factory of Decorative Art in Riga. In 1989, after formation of the Latvian popular front (Latvijas Tautas Fronte - LTF), he left his work for a political career. Exactly a year later, on May 22 1990, Jurkans Janis became the first Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs. At that time Latvia was still one of the republics of the Soviet Union. He remained at this post for two and a half years until November 10, 1992. He remained a minister in independent Latvia for a short period - a year and some months, and resigned. The reasons for his resignation - sharp disagreement with the position of the official Latvian authorities concerning the status of the Russian-speaking minority, and his excessively obvious pro- Moscow orientation. He became president of the "Supporting Fund for Latvia", and in 1993 created his own "People's Harmony Party" (TSP), whose main political goal was reaching full integration of the Russian-speaking minority into the Latvian society. During the same year active support from the Russian-speaking electorate ensured that Jurkans Janis, as head of TSP, became a member of the Latvian parliament, where he still remains. In 1998, on the threshold of parliamentary elections, declining support from a disappointed electorate forced him to form an alliance with radical leftist politicians, such as Tatiana Zhdanok ("Equality" movement) and Alfreds Rubiks (Latvia's Socialist Party). Rubiks, a former first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Latvia, served 6 years in a Latvian prison for supporting the Moscow putsch, which failed in August 1991. In 1998, together with those radicals, Jurkans Janis created a new political association, named "For human rights in united Latvia" (Russian abbreviation "ZaPCHEL", Latvian - PCTVL). Until March 2003 he was the leader of the association's parliamentary faction. Sharp disagreements with his political partners made him declare that the association is "incapacitated". He left the union, and again headed the TSP. In the Latvian parliament’s 8-th convocation, TSP holds 9 of a total of 100 mandates. Relations with the Russian leadership constitute a special chapter in Jurkans`s political biography. Despite of his former vigorous activity in the ranks of the Latvian Popular Front, unlike the majority of his ex-colleagues, it is impossible to characterize him as an anti-Russian oriented politician. On the contrary, after the declaration of independence of Latvia in the summer of 1991, Jurkans openly supported the strengthening of ties with Russia and even became a supporter of an official Kremlin position concerning the Russian-speaking minority in the country. For that reason he lost his post at the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Already at that time, his frankly pro-Russian position allowed some Latvian political commentators, and some of Jurkans`s political opponents to suspect him of confidential relations with the KGB, and the Russian special services. It is well known, that at the end of the 1980s the KGB started to infiltrate its “agents of influence” into the Baltic political formations "designed" for long-term use, especially in the case of independence of the Baltic republics. Jurkans, in the opinion of the Latvian commentators, could be one such agents. After creation of TSP, he supported rather close mutual relations with Moscow, which gradually and noticeably intensified after the formation of "ZaPCHEL" (1998) and after Putin`s coming to power (1999). In September 2002, during preparations for parliamentary elections in Latvia, Jurkans`s influential patrons in Moscow organized a personal meeting with the Russian president for him, during which Jurkans was promised complete support (including financial) for his political ambitions. Among his patrons are persons from the highest echelons of the Russian authority: the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Russian State Duma - Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy head of presidential administration - Vladislav Surkov, head of the Department on Affairs of Compatriots Abroad - Alexey Sitnin. Besides them also the Russian Union of Industrialists and Businessmen, the Council on the External and Defensive Policy as well as the Commercial and Industrial Chamber of the Russian Federation took part in supporting the "ZaPCHEL" association. In view of such close relations between Jurkans and Moscow, many Latvian commentators have perceived the unexpected split of "ZaPCHEL" in 2003, as a result of an order from the Kremlin to dissociate from the overly radical politicians, Zhdanok and Rubiks. Indirect confirmation of this assumption may be found in a sudden desire by Jurkans to enter the government and to stand for the European Parliament from TSP. This was impossible if he stayed in tandem with left wing radicals. Thus the assumption, according to which, in 2003, the Kremlin tried to use Jurkans and his party to create an "intelligent" pro-Russian lobby in the European Parliament seems quite logical. Subsequently the situation changed radically. Confidential Russian sources claim that the Kremlin, disappointed by Jurkans and his party’s inability to become a part of the Latvian government, ceased to support TSP after the presidential elections in Russia, in the spring of 2004. The Russians decided to switch - to back the radical politician Zhdanok, whose views more closely correspond to the Russian’s current confrontational policy towards the Baltic states. As a result, in the elections of June 2004, Tatiana Zhdanok became a representative of the Russian-speaking community of Latvia to the European Parliament. Meanwhile, in March, 2005. Jurkans suffered a new loss. His party failed to overcome a 5 percent electoral barrier during the elections to the Riga city parliament. Previously TSP had a significant influence in this body. At this point, everyone assumed, that the political career of Jurkans Janis is in a slump. Internal contradictions in TSP and loss of political and financial support for the party from Russia made it practically nonviable. Janis Urbanovics was named new head of the center left National Harmony Party after a party congress vote on November, 5. Jurkans, the previous long-time leader, stepped down from the position to show his displeasure with the so-called “business project” merger of his party with New Center, a break-away faction appealing to the same electorate. And this week Jurkans Janis decided to quit. Against this background the success achieved in the last elections to the Riga city parliament by the new political association of "Russian patriots" "Native land" ("Dzimtene") seems sweeping. Businessman Yuri Zhuravlev and the previously mentioned leader of the Socialist party Alfred Rubiks lead "Dzimtene". This tandem, plus Tatiana Zhdanok, are the politicians the Kremlin counts on today in its struggle for influence in the Baltic region. Related items: The Battle for "The Fourth Power" (06.09.2005) The Baltic Countries - The Monthly Review (31.05.2005 ) 
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