MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's Communist Party expelled the parliament speaker Tuesday from its faction in the lower house, the latest of the party's efforts to distance itself from Gennady Seleznyov after he refused to step down.
Selezynov, along with cultural committee chief Nikolai Gubenko and Svetlana Goryacheva, head of the State Duma's committee on women, families and youth, were all voted out of the party last month after refusing to give up their posts.
In a closed meeting Tuesday, the party voted Selezynov and the two others out of the parliament faction. The vote count wasn't disclosed.
"The decision was not easy, it was painful, and several faction members voted against it," said party chief Gennady Zyuganov.
Selezynov has said he will remain in his post and not join another party.
The Communist Party has found itself increasingly divided since losing its once-dominant position in the Duma to centrists loyal to President Vladimir Putin.