Seleznyov is the speaker of the Duma (the lower house of parliament -- Russia has a two-tiered parliamentary system, the upper house being composed of regional leades).
He was a KPRF member. When the current Duma was elected, the KPRF -- which is the most popular and best organized party in Russia -- was given several Dume committees in which its members were placed. In April, the government told many of them to step down, presumably in an attempt to further centralize power in teh Kremlin (the KPRF is the largest opposition force). The KPRF naturally made a fuss about this and told Seleznyov and a number of remaining committee heads they had to step down as an act of protest or be expelled from the Party.
Whether this us good or vad depends on your point of view. From Putin's point of view, it is good, because it means the KPRF has now split. Presumably, Seleznyov and the people around him will either join the centrists or try to start up some other left-wing organization (which, come to think of it, would probably be a good thing -- the KPRF doesn't do much except oppose whatever comes out of the Kremlin and has little to no new ideas). From the point of view of the KPRF, of course it's very bad.
>From the point of view of Russian democracy, it is of course a bad thing for
the most popular party to get stripped of its power, even if Zyuganov does
seem to choke off any new ideas.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal
Kevub Robert Dean said:
So is this good or bad? What did Seleznyov do exactly?
- --- "ChrisD(RJ)" <chrisd at russiajournal.com> wrote:
> Russia's Communist Party expels speaker from
> parliament faction
> 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.