Editor's note: This is the third in a series of stories based on extensive analysis by The Moscow Times of the business presence on the federal and regional lists of candidates put forward by the major political parties for Sunday's parliamentary elections.
The Communists, who have always positioned themselves as the workers' party fighting the evils of capitalism, have filled about a quarter of their party list with businessmen, some of them millionaires.
An analysis of the 257 candidates on the Communists' list for the State Duma elections found that about 19 percent represent big national companies -- including five candidates linked to Yukos -- and about 5 percent represent regional businesses. This only includes those candidates vying for the 225 spots allocated on the basis of party lists, not those running in the 225 single-mandate districts.
All of the major parties have attracted representatives of business, who want to have their own voice in the Duma to help shape, or block, legislation that affects the interests of their industry.
Since companies want to put their people on the lists of parties with a high chance of getting candidates into the Duma, the Communist Party is a logical choice for business.
For the Communists, however, accepting high-profile capitalists into their ranks has made them vulnerable to attack and required them to do some explaining to their traditional electorate.
Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, in a brief interview in his office in late October, defended the decision to include business representatives on the party list by calling them "capable managers" who can contribute to Russia's development. He played down the apparent ideological inconsistency by saying that the party no longer opposes private property.
Zyuganov compared the party's compromise with capitalism to Lenin's adoption in 1921 of the New Economic Program, or NEP, a step back from communism aimed at allowing market forces to revive the economy.
The presence of business representatives on the Communist list may indeed reflect the party's attempt to move forward and come to terms with the ghosts of its Soviet past. It also reflects the realities of parliamentary politics in Russia today.
"A businessman on a party list means money," said Nikolai Petrov, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center. According to media reports, parties can sell good spots on their lists for $1.5 million to $2 million.
Pro-Kremlin United Russia and other rival parties have tried to use the Communists' inclusion of businessmen to discredit the party in the eyes of voters, with talk of "red oligarchs" and accusations that the party has sold out.
In response to these attacks, the party's deputy head, Ivan Melnikov, sent a letter to voters last weekend saying that the Communists would continue to support social reform and to work to protect the weakest layers of society. The business presence, he said, would not change the way the party votes on key social bills.
"These people [the businessmen elected on the Communist ticket] not only have always respected party discipline, but they have helped us work out our programs and bills, even those that were intended to support small and medium businesses. Their aim is to create a real and not a criminal kind of competition," Melnikov said.
But once in the Duma, businessmen are likely to form their own lobby groups and to show less loyalty to the party that helped get them elected.
The presence of businessmen on party lists, even for the Communists, is not new. In the last Duma election, in 1999, the Communist Party and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov's Fatherland-All Russia -- the two front-runners when the lists were formed -- gave 7 percent and 8 percent of their party lists, respectively, to business representatives.
This year's election has seen the trend intensify as big business has taken a more organized approach to have its direct representatives in the Duma.
Back in 1999, one of the most prominent business figures on the Communist list was long-time party backer Viktor Vidmanov, the president of the agro- industrial group Rosagropromstroi, which employs 700,000 people at 400 enterprises. Vidmanov, who refused the mandate in 1999, is running again this year.
Vidmanov, however, is facing some potential trouble. On Nov. 18, pro- Kremlin deputies in the Duma passed a resolution urging the Prosecutor General's Office to investigate alleged financial improprieties by him and his company.
Others on the list in 1999 included Igor Igoshin, director of the agro- industrial group Real-Agro, and Igor Annensky, chairman of the board at Alfa Bank. Both won seats: Igoshin was a member of the Duma's budget committee, and Annensky was deputy chairman of the committee on credit and financial markets. They are well-placed on the party list to win re- election.
Yukos also had its man on the Communist list in 1999: Alexei Kondaurov, an aide to the president of Yukos-Moskva, a major division within the oil company. Kondaurov did not make it into the Duma in 1999 but is in a better position this year, with the 13th spot on the Communists' federal list.
As on United Russia's list, the biggest block of business representatives on the Communist list is linked to oil companies. But while state-friendly LUKoil has at least five of its people on the pro-Kremlin party's list, it has no obvious candidates on the Communist list. Tyumen Oil Co., or TNK, also has shown a preference for United Russia, where it has five candidates versus two on the Communist list.
For Yukos, however, the ratio is flipped; it has two representatives on United Russia's list and five on the Communist list.
Five percent of the Communist list is made up of representatives of small and medium regional businesses, who tend not to occupy high spots on the list and therefore have little chance of getting through. Their purpose in running is to raise the profile of their firms.
One example is Sergei Ubrayev , running in the 10th spot on the Kuznetsk- Altai regional list. Ubrayev, from Barnaul, is chairman of the board of the Mikhailovsky Chemical factory. Another is Anatoly Buiny, No. 12 on the North Caucasus list, the CEO of Stavropolpromstroibank.