The conflict over the TV Center station is back in the public eye. Politicians, officials, journalists, businessmen, lawyers, cultural figures and citizens are all expressing their opinions on the matter. In other words, the TV Center question is one of those on which it's essential to hold and publicly express an opinion because not to have an opinion is in itself a stance. At least for those who are seriously involved in politics, this is a justified appraisal.

However, there is a strange contrast between the active public debate over the TVC events and the delay shown by the liberal-right politicians in expressing an opinion. They aspire to be the most European and the most liberal, so it is by definition contradictory for them to stay silent.

The French enlightenment philosophers proclaimed that the individual has an inalienable right to free speech and declared their readiness to protect it at the cost of their lives. They asserted the right to expression of any point of view, not just their own. This enlightenment principle has long been shared by all true democracies and liberals.

Russian politicians of liberal-right inclination used to speak out in defense of free speech. I don't doubt that they will do so again. But they do so very selectively. Why?

Russian liberals have displayed inconsistency in asserting liberal principles throughout Yeltsin's rule, both in economics and politics. For example, what is liberalism in economics? In the classical understanding, it is a tendency of economic thought and corresponding politics based on the adequacy of the market as a mechanism of free competition to ensure macroeconomic stability, and refuting the regulatory role of the government. That is the theory. In practice, Anatoly Chubais and his supporters actively used state leverage in the corridor parceling-out of state property. This was far from leading to the creation of a middle class – the foundation of democracy. The reformers blessed us with oligarchs. Only Pyotr Aven, who entered the Yegor Gaidar government at the dawn of the reforms, admitted much later that "the reforms just discredited liberalism, which the reformers were using as a cover."

The same people go on discrediting liberalism even today. In the face of the clear bureaucratic arbitrariness over TVC's fate, they are still not risking a public statement of their position. Why not?

Our liberals are having another clash with liberalism. They are currently concerned with getting into power. Not by chance have figures like Sergei Kiriyenko resolved this problem successfully. In promoting Kiriyenko, President Vladimir Putin could not fail to consider his position on the more topical issues, including the reaction of SPS and its leader to the conflict over TVC.