<html> At 07/04/02 11:14 -0300, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite cite>-How do you think this will end up?? <x-tab>        </x-tab><x-tab>        </x-tab>Alexandre Fenelon</blockquote> Presumably the title got shortened and should have said purged from Russian parliament key positons. The article said the issue was: <blockquote type=cite cite>Zyuganov's attack followed this week's move by the pro-Kremlin centrist majority to strip Communists of leadership in seven commitees in the lower house, the State Duma. Zyuganov harshly assailed the move Friday, saying the Kremlin had broken its earlier promise to respect an earlier agreement on distribution of top Duma positions.</blockquote> Chris Doss will know the balance of forces better than me, but I presume that Putin feels stronger now that he has removed the oligarch's last access to the main media. He no longer needs the alliance with the Communists and is willing publicly to break that alliance. Zyuganov can appeal to some old fashioned sources of dissent, but Putin presumably counts on the Communists continuing to decline in their electoral popularity. They are probably unable to address the consumer interests of the middle voters, particularly at a time when the Russian economy has been expanding after the depth of the financial crisis at the end of the 90's and oil prices are high. In view of Putin's admiration of Tony Blair, it is probably his political forces that are expert in addressing consumer attitudes. Internationally the insecurity in the Middle East means that the USA and Europe will need Russia more rather than less, and Putin will get some contacts with these powers that are flattering to his image, while he can appear also something of a patriot. Meanwhile the alliance with the west protects him from too much international criticism about Chechnya, which Zyuganov did not highlight. As for a call for "massive" demonstrations on May 1st that has probably been anticipated as it will not be the first time that the party has called for massive demonstrations. Rather, they and the security forces probably just calculate that this is part of the skirmishing for the next elections . Presumably the Communists' access to the media is restricted by its domination by government forces. Chris Burford </html>