The leader of the Russian Communist Party Gennadiy Zyuganov has admitted that the Communists can no longer attract voters the way they used to, Russian television said reporting on the latest plenum of the party outside Moscow. The plenum said that the party had lost over two-thirds of its supporters in the past five years and in a report which he read out from the rostrum, Zyuganov criticized himself for this. The report also noted that "the presidium was half-empty today. There were only four people in it, including Zyuganov". The following is an excerpt from a report by Russian external TV service NTV Mir on 23 October:
[Presenter] The Communists can no longer influence voters the way they used to. The leader of the Communist Party admitted this today at a plenum of the party's Central Committee which is under way, as usual, in Moscow Region. Instead of the traditional disputes within the party on whether they should persevere with Lenin's cause, this time round they are seeking to shape their attitude to the presidential reforms of the political system. It is not ruled out that they will propose their own, alternative programme for forming the State Duma and for electing governors. Our correspondent Nikita Anisimov reports live now. Nikita, what is happening at the plenum? What statements have been made?
[Correspondent] The plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party opened just over three hours ago. The main event at the plenum is a report by party leader Gennadiy Zyuganov which is called a report on the situation in the country. It consists of 20 pages of small print, and Gennadiy Zyuganov read it all out from the rostrum. It may seem strange but it contains criticism. Gennadiy Zyuganov criticized himself.
The Communists admitted today that five years ago they had 80 per cent of voters, 80 per cent of left-wing voters were firmly backing them. But now, five years on, they discovered that they have lost over two-thirds of their voters who are gradually moving over to the Motherland bloc, the Party of Pensioners, the Agrarian party which is (?similar) to the communists, and the Communists now have only about 10 or 15 per cent of these voters. And we clearly saw this at the plenum today.
The point is that, as some members of the party's Central Committee in the hall told us, about one-third of the Central Committee members at today's plenum are newcomers, i.e. a third of 130-140 members who came here today are young party members who were only recently elected, after the Izmaylovo congress. May I remind you that at that congress the party split into two. The presidium was half-empty today. There were only four people in it, including Zyuganov. And after this internal party criticism Gennadiy Zyuganov focused, naturally, on external criticism. He, of course, criticized the government, the president and said that the Communist party is flatly against Putin's latest legislative initiatives.
[Zyuganov, interviewed in the street] There will be no support for this programme, neither from the local authorities nor from the people, and not from various parties or social strata. Moreover, it interferes with federative relations, which will be very detrimental. And at the same time it is being given the right to disband all local legislative bodies. They propose twice and if there is no support, out you go. It never used to be like this before.
[Passage omitted: speculation by the correspondent]
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