Russian Communist leader Gennadiy Zyuganov has articulated his attitude towards possible alliances in the December 2003 parliamentary elections. All the indications are the appeal is addressed to exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovskiy, who suggested in an article published by Russian heavyweight broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 20 November that Communists and liberals should stand against the Kremlin together. Having rejected siding up with "plunderers of the country" and "disfavoured oligarchs", Zyuganov, however, did not mention Berezovskiy directly and made it clear that negotiations are possible with those who possess sufficient resources and are going to render specific assistance to the Communists. The following is the text of Zyuganov's statement published by Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 21 November:
As preparations for the federal election campaigns of 2003 and 2004 are moving ahead, the CPRF [Communist Party of the Russian Federation] and the people's patriotic forces have recently received all kinds of proposals of alliances and coalitions. When we created the People's Patriotic Union of Russia [NPSR] back in 1996, we declared our readiness for a broad alliance with all patriotic forces, with all those who did not take part in the ruining of the state, the pilferage of its national wealth, and the destruction of its economic and defence potential.
Only we presented society with a real socioeconomic programme for extracting the country from crisis, an alternative draft budget that could have given an impetus to the development of the production sector and guaranteed the population's survival, proposals to set up a union of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine and regarding ways to settle the conflict in Chechnya. It is no accident that, according to all-Russia public opinion polls, 70-90 per cent of the population backs the proposals offered by the CPRF for a nationwide referendum - those regarding land, nationalization of natural rent and key defence sectors, a guaranteed subsistence level for all citizens, and limitation of tariffs for municipal and housing services and electricity.
It is obvious that public sentiments have inadvertently shifted to the left. Even disfavoured oligarchs admit that the CPRF is currently the sole democratic and opposition force in Russian society preventing the country's slide towards a police state. In essence, they have become convinced of the high probability of the CPRF's and the people's patriotic forces' victory in the 2003-2004 federal elections. For this very reason some plunderers of the country are feverishly trying to put on patriotic masks in order to conceal their participation in the robbery of Russia and to cover up their dealings in Chechnya, Georgia, and the Baltic states, which run counter to national security interests.
We can clearly see certain forces' efforts to link some or other politician hated by the people to the image of the Communist Party and the people's patriotic forces. And we will not let anyone to distract society's attention from the CPRF's momentous initiatives and programme provisions and shift it to meaningless intrigues surrounding lofty statements by disfavoured oligarchs.
Time and again attempts are made to impose on us terms and conditions for the formation of electoral alliances, which would bring the CPRF under more or less obvious, but nonetheless strict control by forces that are foreign and alien to Russia. We are aware of these plans. And we are going to nip them in the bud resolutely. Our terms for alliances, including electoral ones, are simple:
1. An alliance is conceivable only with those who do not prattle about politics for the sake of self-advertisement, but are capable of actions serving the well-being of the entire people and Russia's national and state interests and are taking such actions.
2. The main criterion is: Do potential allies approve the CPRF's proposals offered for a nationwide referendum and are they ready to support them - yes or no?
3. Who are those who offer their alliances to the CPRF: Who are they, what resources do they possess, what specific assistance are they going to render the CPRF and the NPSR, and, in particular, are they ready to cooperate with us in the future Duma?
4. Whether we will find a particular ally acceptable will also depend on what he HAS ALREADY done in practice to support the CPRF and the people's patriotic forces.
5. An alliance is conceivable solely with those forces whose own demands do not run counter to the Communist Party's key objectives.
6. We advocate openness of any alliances free from hush-hush dealings. Alliance relations should be transparent for the country and for vast groups of voters.
7. No preliminary conditions can be voiced to the CPRF.
The CPRF and the people's patriotic forces are aware that the current extremely difficult socioeconomic situation in the country and new geopolitical betrayals of Russia's interests stemming from the Kremlin's actual agreement to NATO enlargement through accession of republics that formerly belonged to the USSR require political will and unity of action from all citizens with statesmanlike and patriotic mentality. We are ready for this kind of dialogue and cooperation, but not with plunderers of this country wearing patriotic masks in order to continue robbery and pilferage of national wealth and to ruin the Russian state.
[signed] Gennadiy Zyuganov, chairman of the CPRF Central Committee, chairman of the NPSR. [dated] 20 November 2002.