Chris Doss The Russia Journal --------------------------- Excerpt TITLE: PRESS CONFERENCE WITH CPRF LEADER GENNADY ZYUGANOV
[RIA NOVOSTI NEWS AGENCY, 10:30, APRIL 30, 2002] SOURCE: FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE (http://www.fednews.ru/)
Moderator: Good morning and welcome to our press conference. In May this year the Russian Communist Party marks three occasions: May 1, the Day of Spring, Peace and Labor; May 9, Victory Day and May 5. But this is not, as some of you might think May 5 Easter day. Let me just remind you that exactly 90 years ago, on May 5, the first issue of Lenin's newspaper Pravda came out. In the Soviet times May 5 was celebrated as Press Day. And an assessment of the political situation in the country on the eve of these holidays will be given by the guest of RIA Novosti's Press Club, chairman of the Popular Patriotic Union of Russia, chairman of the Communist Party of Russia, and leader of the CPRF faction at the State Duma, Gennady Zyuganov.
Zyuganov: Good day. We will mark yet another holiday in May, the birthday of Young Pioneers. It will be 80 years on May 19. There will be major events all over the country, including in the Red Square. Almost 2,000 children have expressed the wish to come to Red Square on that day, to have red scarves tied around their necks and to be sworn in as Young Pioneers.
And another correction. On May 5 we, too, will mark Easter because a third of our party members are believers. Freedom of conscience is guaranteed and it is the right of everyone to mark that holiday.
As for the situation in the country, in my view it continues to get worse. That is something seen with the naked eye. Citizens have looked to the Kremlin and Putin with some hope on the eve of his Address realizing that this Address was being delayed and expecting something new and interesting and significant for everyone. Unfortunately, it was the most boring, lackluster and the most liberal of addresses that have ever been delivered within the Kremlin walls.
The author probably hasn't bothered to read it attentively and did not take part in its preparation, he just intoned what was prepared for him by the grefs, chubaises and voloshins. And there was even not a single burst of applause as he delivered the Address. It's the first time that I heard an Address by the head of state where not a single passage evoked an interest among any groups in the audience in which at least three-quarters were those who in recent times have supported Putin's policy. True, we have seen a lot of hypocrisy afterwards. Those who called themselves Centrists waxed lyrical about individual passages although not a single passage proposed answers to the problems that the country faces.
We declared a long time ago that this course leads nowhere, that this road indicates further sell-off and destruction of the country. The Address contains three main guidelines: first, accelerated sale of agricultural land, immediate accession to the WTO without protecting our domestic producers and our domestic market and further dismemberment of natural monopolies. All these three plans amount to a crude violation of the mandate of the voters and citizens the majority of whom reject this course and this policy.
What I found the most depressing about this address is that it does not expressly address any of the social strata. You will not hear about the scientist, the worker, the teacher, the doctor or an interesting inventor. There is none of it there. The language does not seem to draw on the wealth of the vivid richness of the Russian language, nor the high-pitched emotions that exist in our country.
So, the holidays that lie ahead will certainly be marred by the overall situation in the country -- further criminalization and destruction of the economy, decline of production and the squashing of everything that is viable. The main slogans at these manifestations will be resignation of the Kasyanov government -- the ineffectual, good-for-nothing government. The second slogan will be: "Only bankrupts and idiots sell land". And the third slogan will be "No to the sale of natural monopolies as the basis of national unity". There will be many more concrete slogans, but I am sure that this manifestation of workers solidarity on May 1 will be the largest in recent years.
We will express our solidarity with all the working people who have now been reduced to abject poverty, with all those who teach, treat patients, push the frontiers of knowledge, with those who are guarding and defending their country. The Address spoke about the fight against corruption in the top echelons of power, but it did not say that the average policeman on the beat has a salary of 1,300 rubles, that people are leaving their jobs with the Interior Ministry bodies in droves and there is no replacement for them with qualified people capable of taking on crime. The Address does not say that a platoon commander has a salary of 1,400 rubles and that hundreds of thousands of them resign from the army leaving the army without a new crop of officers who would ensure our country's security in the future.
So, there will be slogans in support of our army and our gains and the loyalty to the ideals for which our father and grandfathers fought and who won the Victory in May 1945. I am sure that these manifestations will draw on the energy displayed by the workers in Voronezh. When they were told about new housing rates when a two-room apartment rate was 1,100-1,200 rubles a month whereas the average income is 1,500-2,000 rubles, they were not just amazed, they surrounded the city administration, forced it to make an official statement and the following day the City Council recalled the decisions. True, the governor again poked his finger as Kasyanov and Gref who were the initiators of these measures.
Yes, that is true. But local authorities have no right to follow that criminal path depriving citizens of their apartments and their livelihood. And one of the main slogans will be "No to this reform of utilities sector" which effectively deprives half the country of the fairly decent dwellings that they got from the Soviet government.
We will hold these events in an organized fashion. Representatives of all the neighboring regions and dozens of cities will come to Moscow with their own slogans, their posters. True, I yesterday sent an official letter to Putin and to the security ministers. Some provocateurs ensconced in the Kremlin -- the Voloshin team -- decided to present us with some gifts. On the previous occasion they had their own columns march just behind our columns in order to provoke clashes. We managed to separate them. This time they decided to allow Moscow trade unions to stage their events on Red Square. We have applied for Red Square many times but in reply we were told by the Kremlin that this square is only for state holidays and not intended for political manifestations.
Well, this time around they decided to depart from this principle and to allow the trade unions to hold their processions in Red Square. We see this as a provocation because the reaction of the other side may be unpredictable. I officially contacted the Kremlin yesterday, the security and interior ministers, asking them to take exhaustive measures and prevent such provocations.
On the whole, we are confident all this will be done in an organized way, and I invite you to join us.
Your questions, please.
Q: Gennady Andreyevich, it seems you are correcting Marxism. You are talking about respect for the feelings of believers. As we know, Marxism rejected this. Does not this mean that one way or another the Communists will move toward social democracy?
Zyuganov: What is your name?
Q: Marina.
Zyuganov: Marina, my dear, I did not really thought you had such poor knowledge of Marxism. After all you were taught in a Soviet school, and I thought you were supposed to study this subject more thoroughly. The main idea of Marxism is dialectics. Marxism considers any idea in dynamics. By the way, shortly after coming to power the Bolsheviks pursued a tough policy against believers, but they deviated from this policy in 1919. There was a special decision to this end, and it did not prevent people living in rural areas from observing various religious holidays and rites.
I myself am from a village in the Oryol region and I can assure you that you can go there and ask any older-timer -- no one has ever been prevented in our region from observing religious holidays or conducting rites.
As for our party, considering the situation and the wishes of people, the overall situation, has made appropriate amendments to its charter in order to guarantee every person the freedom of conscience. This guarantee is ensured by the will of the party and our real actions. So study Marxism better.
Q: What about social democracy?
Zyuganov: As for social democracy, we have explained to you many times that social democracy has very many hues. It's largely a West European phenomenon. It does not exist either in America or Asia or Africa. Social democracy has big differences. I know social democracy in Sweden, Spain, Austria and Germany, and it differs in all of these countries.
As for our party, we have thoroughly studied their political practices, we have assumed a lot of good and useful things from them and have been using them effectively, we actively cooperate with this wing of political movements. We think that social democracy, especially in Europe, has been lately acting subserviently with regard to the adventurist policy of Mr. Bush and the party of war that has come to power. As a result, it has suffered an utter defeat recently. At first in Italy, then in Spain, Austria, now in France. They have lost local elections in Belgium and Denmark, if I am not mistaken.
This is a very disturbing symptom and an alarming signal to the whole social democracy. Either it expresses the interests of its voters and working people, defend their social rights, or it will try to fit into the globalization policy, American style, in exchange for a very tough nationalist, and sometimes even more far-right policy. What is happening in France now is a challenge and response to the lack of will among socialists and social democrats who have offered their full support to Bush's adventurist policy, a conspicuously far-right policy and bellicose, which has never been characteristic of real social democracy.
We live in Russia, we have our own conditions and rules here. We study thoroughly the experience of not only Europe but also Asia, China, Japan and other countries. Since we are a Eurasian country, we will act in accordance with the general tendencies that exist in Eurasia. We must take into account European experience but never forget that we are a Eurasian power and border on all centers of power and culture, be it Europe, the Arab world, China, Japan or the US. Hence the political behavior of our party and others who live in Russia.
Q: Can we expect any decision in the near future by the CPRF leadership with regard to Gennady Seleznyov, and if he is expelled from the Communist Party, can we say that this will begin a split in the party?
Zyuganov: There is no and there will be no split. All those who have been trying over the last 10 years to break up the Communist Party have failed and will fail. We have a clear-cut and well-argumented ideology. Ours is a party of people who think along the same line. They have adopted their program and charter and they have observing them. Those who do not observe the program or the charter will inevitably suffer a defeat and have to leave the party.
One of the characteristic features of a party that it must act as a one organism and obey the will of the elected bodies. Otherwise it's not a political organization.
As for Gennady Nikolayevich, the plenum adopted a very balanced and reasonable decision. It confirmed that the current policy of the Kremlin, Putin and Kasyanov is not consistent with our ideological and political goals and the will of our voters. Over the past year, the State Duma adopted laws and decisions that do not at all serve the interests of 30-50 million of citizens who vote for us at different levels and in different elections. Not a single decision was adopted.
On the Labor Code, our voters demanded that an eight-hour working day be preserved, labor unions have rights and guarantee the protection of citizens and working people. However all this has been abolished. As far as land is concerned, in my view an absolutely criminal decision has been adopted. Benefits, they have been taken away even from officers, and they are about to do the same to others, which has never been done in Russia and must not be done.
So Gennady Nikolayevich will have to look around and make his choice. If, as chairman, he continued to embody Putin's Address and implement it quite successfully, he will act contrary to voters' mandate and the principles of the political organization of which he is a member.
We hope and think that Gennady Nikolayevich is a reasonable, experienced and knowledgeable person and that he understands that if he loses the support of these tens of millions of people, he will never get another support. In the center and at the right end of the political spectrum, and the center has long shifted to the right end, there is no center anymore, it's very crowded there, he will have to compete with raikovs, nemtsovs, khakamadas and all the others. The outcome will be the same as in the case of Rybkin, if not worse. So I hope that he still has time to think everything over and make a balanced decision.
Q: I have two questions if you don't mind. First, you said your principal motto tomorrow will be the resignation of the Kasyanov government. Whom would you like to see in the place of his government? And is it possible that your wish may come true?...
Zyuganov: The only government in the last 10 years, a coalition government, basically a government of trust, was the government of Primakov, Maslyukov, Khodyrev and I would also include Gerashchenko because that position was also included when we were working out the common approach to taking the country out of its crisis. We believe that they have demonstrated that this is the most effective government. It pulled the country back from the brink of an abyss, it ensured industrial growth of almost 24 percent, it increased the currency reserves from 7 billion to almost 30 billion. In short, it has proved its worth.
That government refused to hound Prosecutor General Skuratov, it did not listen to the directions of the Family on various issues, it refused to sell off the remaining property that the state still had and it refused to encourage export of capital. They cut the export of capital by almost four times and that money remained in the country. Naturally, the oligarchy, the mafia and the "Family" didn't like it, so, he was booted out within eight months without any explanation of the reasons.
But we think it is high time to form a government of popular trust. For this purpose an early election might be held. And such a government could be formed on the basis of the majority in the Duma.
It is odd when Luzhkov, Shoigu and Shaimiyev get together and start berating their government and praising their president. It's ridiculous to claim that the President had overlooked something and had once again been set up. Nobody is setting anyone up. It is one team, a right-wing, ultra-liberal team which is pushing along the same course. Doesn't Putin know that Chubais has fixed salaries of 200-300 dollars (sic) to his satraps who are selling off energy systems and robbing the population in the regions. He knows it very well. Not even the President of the United States has such a high salary. Why did he give them such salaries? So as to make old women, teachers, doctors, businessmen and industries pay through their noses for electricity.
What will be the main present from the government for May 1 tomorrow? Energy tariffs will go up 20 percent. Have you seen a government act in this way in any normal country? You haven't. But this government thinks nothing of acting in this way.
So, the government... Putin knows. The Duma passed a resolution three times to sack the energy gangster. No reaction. He already has presidential ambitions. Look at Karaulov's program, the last one. Look at it attentively. Why is it being done? For just one purpose: to put us under this mafia and not to allow anyone to raise his head. How can production develop if energy tariffs grow by 20-30 percent every 3-4 months.
So, it is not mainly about the government. The government is in the pay of Chubais and the Family, it is at their beck and call.
Last time when there was a no-confidence move in the government a year ago, Kasyanov was sitting in his office and Voloshin was standing guard at the door to prevent him going to the Duma and reporting to it, although it was his constitutional duty to present himself before the Duma and to report. So, we are for a government that can work effectively.
By the way, there are many such workers. Let him take half a dozen governors who are demonstrating in these conditions that they are able to work, form an effective government and I assure you, they will find a way out of the situation. But as it is, he keeps crooks in this government. Why is Khristenko in the government? He has ruined the forestry industry. He has sold off our forests on the cheap. It is high time to put him on trial and find out why this is happening.
Putin in my presence pressed the button and told Khristenko: "Don't abolish the Forestry Directorate, it has existed for 200 years. This is way of life, a mode of governing. You can't put a forester on the forest edge so that he should tend to the forest from outside. A person should study many years before taking on this job. And this one listens and says, yes. The following day he called in all the main foresters, those who had devoted 30 years to this work and told them that they were all fired.
So, we want it to be a competent and effective government. It can be formed quickly. But he is not forming any government, it's the same old team. Not a single person has been fired from amongst those who were ruining the country together with Yeltsin....