BTW people might, maybe, be interested in my take on why the KPRF has crashed and burned so spectacularly in the past few months. It has to do, I think, mainly with cooptation and self-discreditation.
1. The KPRF leadership (and ex-leadership) contains basically four groups of people: people who glorify the Brezhnev (sometimes Stalin) years, Social Democrats, nationalists, and simple opportunists. When Rodina, headed by former KPRF economist talking head Glazyev and nationalist Dmitry Rogozin, was formed--maybe by the Kremlin--that pulled away the Soc-Dem and the nationalist electorate. That (and negative TV coverage) is the reason the KPRF lost half of its Duma seats in the election.
2. The Kremlin has taken over the KPRF's slogans. The KPRF has historically run on a platform of nationalism, beating down the oligarchy and social justice--exactly the same slogans the Kremlin now uses! This has led a lot of the KPRF electorate to say "Why do we need the Communists? The real Communists are in the Kremlin!"
3. The KPRF flitered with the oligarchs and took money from, at least, Khodorkovsky. And they defended him. The "anti-oligarch" party defended Khodorkovsky. 'Nuff said.
4. The KPRF's position as an, ahem, "opposition party" is in serious doubt, as this article should make clear. Here, Zyuganov is appealing to Putin (!) to save his careerist bacon:
Zyuganov Briefs Putin on Party Split
By Francesca Mereu Staff Writer Embattled Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said Monday he had met with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin to discuss the situation surrounding his party after a breakaway faction split away from the party to hold a rival congress.
Speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio on Monday afternoon, Zyuganov, who has said he suspects the Kremlin of supporting the breakaway faction, said Putin had called him in to find out what had happened at his party's congress, held Saturday.
"I, [former presidential candidate Nikolai] Kharitonov and [Communist Party deputy chairman] Vladimir Kashin discussed with Putin what was going on with our party. The president promised he would look into the situation," Zyuganov said, without elaborating.
Kharitonov said the Communists were happy with the meeting. "The president understood that in front of him was the real leader of the party," he said.
(snip)
But Kharitonov said Monday that after speaking with Putin, Zyuganov had the impression that the Justice Ministry would "look carefully into the matter and there would not be any falsifications. The president understood that to behave that way with an opposition party could not be permitted," he said.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2004/07/06/011.html
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