Previous incarnations of this national-patriotic bloc had on the left pole the Zyuganovites and on it's Right pole, openly chauvinistic hard Right nationalist anti-semites like Pamyat.. Michael Pugliese
http://www.google.com/search?q=People's+Patriotic+Union+of+Russia+(PPUR)
http://www.therussianissues.com/stories/02/04/04/957/14484.html
>...The leader of the Duma left, Gennady Zyuganov, announced yesterday that the
People's Patriotic Union of Russia, which in fact comprises only the CPRF and a
portion of the Agrarian party...
http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/5558-11.cfm
#11
Vremya MN
October 24, 2001
PROMISING POLITICIANS ARE RECRUITED FROM AMONG PATRIOTS
Russia may have to live with the left patriots for a decade
Author: Elena Tokareva
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
GENNADY SEMIGIN, THE NEW LEADER OF THE PEOPLE'S PATRIOTIC UNION OF RUSSIA, IS CONSIDERED TO BE A PROMISING AND SENSIBLE POLITICIAN. HIS ACTIVITIES MARK THE START OF A NEW ERA FOR THE LEFT. THE RIGHT NO LONGER HAS A MONOPOLY ON REPRESENTING BUSINESS INTERESTS.
NEW POLITICIANS AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL DON'T COME ALONG EVERY DAY IN RUSSIA. ALAS, RECENTLY THEY HAVE BEEN LEFT-WING POLITICIANS ONLY. DOES THIS MEAN THAT RUSSIA IS ABOUT TO TAKE A TURN TO THE LEFT?
The First congress of Russian patriots has recently closed in Moscow. The People's Patriotic Union of Russia (PPUR), which the public usually associates with Gennadii Zyuganov, has met under this name. However, over the past year someone else has been chairman of the PPUR's executive committee. This is Gennady Semigin, a deputy Duma speaker; a person who has never been a member of the Communsit party, but who won a Duma seat on the electoral list of the Communist party.
Young Semigin, who is an outsider in the Communist camp, has a high goal - to rally orthodox communists and outright patriots along with civilized social democrats. This is the task the Kremlin sets for him. Although Semigin has to endure frenzied speeches of traditional patriots, who call for "hanging the clique of Gaidar and Chubais" and slicing the fat off "blood-sucking capitalists," he is a businessman who scraped together a vast fortune by means of a few clever transactions. Even though Semigin does not have an extended political biography, he does have more money, which enables him to buy the sympathies of the communists who have completely dominated the left wing for many years.
His rise proves there have been some changes in the camp of the left patriots. As far back as a year ago, the PPUR has provided a home for many communists, as well as harmless humanitarian theoreticians like Alexei Podberezkin and Stanislav Govorukhin. However, since the conflict within the patriotic community, business leaders have occupied their seats! This new patriotic stratum in the state knows exactly, unlike the humanitarians, what they want from the power. In the economic sense, they want the power to crush their numerous rivals, mainly foreign ones, who have been producing better and cheaper commodities than those produced in Russia. "Protect domestic producers" is the best-known slogan of patriots. Politically, they demand that the superiors of the PPUR suppress the expansion of the right into the government. Observing the animation among the patriots, one starts to understand why Gennady Semigin, who went into business in 1990 and who had the opportunity to join the right, actually discerned a niche for himself on the left of the political spectrum.
A former political instructor in the Armed Forces, with a great many degrees, including doctorates in various fields - from economics to political science - Semigin's staring point in politics was lobbying - he established a lobby group called the Congress of Russian Business Circles. Afterwards he produced the idea of a trilateral commission (trade unions, employers, and the government). In a word, he demonstrated his negotiation skills.
Thanks to Semigin the People's Patriotic Union has acquired staff economists. A former member of the Central economic-mathematical institute Sergei Glaziev, head of the Duma economic policy committee, has written an extensive report of how Russia should live in 2002, with figures and diagrams. At the moment the patriots have shining ideologists, who skillfully blend economics and geopolitics, such as Andrei Parshev, geopolitician Alexander Dugin. These experts prove that without assistance of the state, by means of the market methods alone, it is impossible to build a prosperous economy in Russia. Procuring grounds for the "climatic isolationism" makes the essence of their ideological work. The reason for Russia's economic and technological backwardness is explained by too large expenditures for heating the rooms. A talented "political economy for ministers" Why Russia is not America, by Andrei Parshev, is devoted to this very problem.
The federal budget is an accepted special concern of the patriots. However, the delirious idea of replenishing the budget prevails. For instance, new leader of the PPUR - economist Gennady Semigin - proposed at the First PPUR congress to introduce a 25% tax for acquiring items of luxury, and also replenish the state treasury by means of the exported funds. With assistance of Sergei Glaziev, Semigin calculated $88 billion of the money, which was removed abroad. The patriots intend to collect $44 billion in taxes alone. However, as the experience of contemporary Russia shows, never before has there been an opportunity to recover funds taken abroad.
However, one should not be too hard on the budget proposals of the patriots. They are not created to be implemented, but in order to appeal to workers. The patriots seem to have quite succeeded in this. Their rows have not only been replenished by means of the workers, who have been deprived of the wage, but also artisans and even small- scale and large-scale business. This contingent seems to feel uncertainty, it feels a constant threat on the part of officials, and these people pay "shadow taxes" to first- comers. Teachers and doctors, and the entire state sector must feel some liking for the patriots, because they connects deterioration in their living standards with the right.
New promising politicians must inevitably appear on such a rich ideological field. No wonder that Deputy Speaker of the Duma Gennady Yurievich Semigin, chairman of the NSPR's executive committee has made a political career within quite a short period of two years and for the time being he is the biggest rising politician.
An alarming temporizing moment has come for the patriots now. The retribution action in Afghanistan and, possibly, the next action in Iraq is straining their political activities considerably. If the West succeeds in at least temporarily suppressing the activities of Islamists and at the same time succeeds in helping Putin handle Chechen separatism, our anti-Western oriented patriots would have to continue playing the role of opposition. If the West experiences considerable difficulties in combating terrorism and gets stuck in Central Asia for a long time, red-letter days would come for the patriots, because they have been supporting the Islamic countries, in line with Vladimir Lenin's legacy.
In the present situation the issue of a shift to the left in Russian politics is directly dependent on victories on the anti- terrorist front. If the US becomes strong and kind once again, political positions of our patriots would become weak; if the US gives up this idea, for a decade Russia would inevitably have to live under the pressure of new patriots - with all the consequences that may entail.
(Translated by Andrei Ryabochkin)