Russia before the Duma elections

This is the second of two articles by Peter Symon, General Secretary of 
the Communist Party of Australia, who recently made a short visit to 
Moscow. The article is in two parts. The first is an interview with Ivan 
Melnikov, Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of 
the Russian Federation, made on September 8. The second part covers the 
report given by the Chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian 
Federation, Gennadi Zuganov, to the Party's Sixth Congress on September 4. 
(The first article appeared in The Guardian of September 22, 
1999.)

Peter Symon: In view of the short time available for this interview, 
perhaps you could give some general outline of the present position.

Ivan Melnikov: First of all I would like to give you something of the 
big picture. The situation in Russia is made up of many events but the 
situation is not getting any better in either the economy, in politics or 
socially.

All political forces realise that the situation cannot be saved without a 
radical change in the direction of events but the various forces have 
different ideas about how to change direction.

It is realised that in regard to the Presidential powers — the 
Constitutional powers given to the President — the President and those who 
support the President, do not allow the situation to be changed at present. 
That is why all hopes are directed to the coming elections.

There is a possibility that Yeltsin will decided that the two elections for 
the Duma [due on December 19 this year] and the Presidential elections [due 
in June 2000] could be run together.

However, I think that this is only a slim possibility.

There are some indications that the West thinks that the Yeltsin regime has 
exhausted itself and they want to accelerate the Presidential elections. 
This is indicated by articles in some of the overseas publications in the 
last 10 days.

PS: What are the political forces now at work in the Russian 
Federation?

IM: There have been some unpredicted events. Recently a new front 
calling itself "Fatherland — all Russia" has been formed with Primakov and 
Luzhkov [the Mayor of Moscow] at its head. We did not welcome the fact that 
Primakov joined this movement.

People trust him and at the present time he is keeping that trust. But we 
thought that he should not tie himself to any block and that he could 
affect the situation better if he stayed above connections and helped to 
build cooperation between various of the political forces.

He could have acted as a compromise figure maybe by leading some sort of 
National Council.

The "Fatherland — all Russia" organisation is a very complex grouping. 
When it first started it could have been regarded as a centrist movement 
but it is drifting to the right with figures gathering around Luzhkov.

Its drift to the right is indicated in the difference between their first 
and second list of candidates for the Duma elections. This indicates that 
it is being influenced more and more by people who are near to Yeltsin.

Some have decided not to become involved with this group because of this 
right drift.

We have to differentiate among the people who are in this movement, 
however.

On the one hand, we have some common views with this group on how to get 
out of the crisis, but on other questions there are differences.

We think that this group will end up being supported by Guzinsky [one of 
the big capitalists to have emerged in Russia — PS] and will get between 
20-23 percent of the vote.

The other main groups are the Communist Party of the Russian Federation 
with 31-32 per cent and "Yabloko" with 12-14 per cent.

Zhirinovsky [nationalist] may not achieve the five per cent barrier but I 
think he will be supported by some reactionary circles as he has become 
something of an ideological front for Yeltsin.

There are a number of other groups — "Our House Russia" and the "Union of 
Right Forces" — which will find it hard to overcome the five percent 
barrier.

There is also an attempt to knock together a "Governor's bloc" made up of 
some of the regional governors. Berezovsky [reputed to be the richest man 
in Russia — PS] is behind this move but so far it has not been successful.

PS: Would you say something about the Agrarian Party.

IM: The Agrarian Party has split and it will not contest the elections 
as a separate Party. The split was partly over personalities and, more 
seriously, over the question of land.

The CPRF has been blocking attempts to pass legislation which has the aim 
of privatising agricultural land. Some members of the Agrarian Party are 
owners of quite big blocks of land or are tied up with dairy factories and 
other processing plants.

It is from this group that some decided to break away from their alliance 
with the CPRF and to join the Primakov-Luzhkov group.

However other leaders of the Agrarian Party are maintaining their 
participation in and support for the CPRF electoral bloc. The leaders of 
the Agrarian Industrial Union have also decided to maintain their 
cooperation with the CPRF.

PS: Who do you think are the likely Presidential candidates?

IM: This is a difficult question at this stage. There appears to be 
some sort of an agreement between Primakov and Luzhkov but it is not clear 
which will be the Presidential candidate. One or the other.

Comrade Zuganov, of course, Putin, the present Prime Minister, perhaps. But 
it is not clear yet. There will be other candidates but no others seem to 
have much chance of success.

PS: How will the CPRF conduct its campaign?

IM: There are legal and organisational aspects to our campaign.

The developments in the Agrarian Party prevented us from presenting 
ourselves as a bloc but, if we look at the essence of things, we are 
uniting with a number of other organisations which are close to our 
position.

For example, out of the first 18 candidates on our list only seven are 
members of the Party.

Other candidates include the Governors of several regions, an actress, a 
leader of the organisation of Blind Persons, the Vice-President of the 
Russian Academy of Sciences and the President of the Russian Medical 
Association and candidates of the Agrarian Industrial Union.

PS: What about the other communist parties?

IM: There is an illusion. There are only two communist parties, the 
CPRF and the Communist Workers' Party led by Tulkin. [This party has its 
main influence in Leningrad — PS.] Others claiming to be parties are very 
small.

We had serious talks with Anpilov but he advanced unacceptable conditions. 
Some of his policy demands may be appropriate in the years ahead but at the 
present time we are actually going through the stage of a national 
liberation struggle.

PS: How does the electoral system actually work?

IM: The Duma is made up of 450 representatives. Of these, 225 are 
elected from Party lists and the other 225 are elected in single member 
constituencies.

So each voter has two votes — one for the Party list and the other for an 
individual candidate in his or her local electorate.

Only those parties which gain more than five per cent of the vote win any 
representation in the Duma.

The 225 representatives elected from the Party lists are determined, after 
eliminating the Parties which received less than five per cent, by the 
percentage of votes won by the remaining parties.

Those elected in the single member constituencies are chosen by a first-
past-the-post method of voting.

The candidates of the CPRF and others we will support for the single member 
electorates will be known after September 20. We are proposing a 
coordinating committee and widespread consultation with others to decide 
these candidates.

The time for the interview did not permit other questions.

Emergency measures

In his report given to the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of the 
Russian Federation, the Party's Chairman Gennadi Zuganov said that Russia's 
vital interests demand a number of emergency measures.

Zuganov called for Constitutional reform, the essence of which is to 
increase the responsibility of power before the people. The Constitution 
must become at last the basis of political stability and a barrier to 
authoritarian and separatist tendencies.

We will provide every citizen with security and well-being for the future. 
We will pay debts and wages, pensions, stipends and family assistance and 
will introduce the indexation of these payments.

We will provide light and heating to every household, hot food and 
textbooks for every school child and medicine for every hospital and 
polyclinic said Zuganov.

The CPRF would stop the destruction of the countryside and realise the 
program for the resurrection of the countryside worked out by the Agrarian 
Industrial Union and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

We will not allow the sale of land used for agricultural production. 

He said that the Party will change laws to exclude the possibility of 
buying and thieving votes and the penetration of criminals into power 
structures.

Gennadi Zuganov said that nobody will be allowed to fan social, 
nationalistic and religious hatred in our society nor allow the violation 
of freedom of speech.

We will suppress criminality especially organised crime. We will provide 
law enforcement organisations with all the necessary means to fight 
criminal bodies and will bring to court all the cases against high-level 
crooks who pump stolen money into foreign banks.

One of the main tasks of people's power will be to investigate the stealing 
of the finances of the people and the state in especially large amounts.

We will restore the authority of the family and the holiness of domestic 
peace, honouring women as mothers and as workers.

Provisions for mothers and children, the support of big families, help to 
orphans and invalids will again become priorities in state policies.

Zuganov said that the Party would protect the traditions and customs of all 
people, their language, culture and beliefs. These will be defended by the 
state. National hatred which has been promoted by the government will be 
put an end to immediately. 

The Party would work to remove all the barriers which prevent the 
integration of Russia, Belo-Russia and the Ukraine into a single united 
state. We will unite all the fraternal people under the sky of a common 
Motherland, he said.

A final point was the restoration of the defence of the country. "The army, 
once again, will become the people's favourite", said Zuganov.

He added some points about the political forces. "On the right are two 
parties of `have-beens' — the `Union of Right Forces' and `Our House 
Russia'.

"The are made up of completely bankrupt politicians who have a reputation 
as traitors and destroyers. The `Union of Right Forces' — Chubais and 
Kirienko — represent the interests of the comprador bourgeoisie and their 
overseas supporters.

"`Our House Russia' is a political cover for oil and gas barons who have 
enriched themselves tremendously."

About the "Fatherland — all Russia" bloc, he said it is a new bloc which 
wants to become a party of power. It is an exotic union of Moscow bosses.

Lacking a wide social base they are trying to increase it at the expense of 
the personal standing of well-known political leaders, said Zuganov, 
alluding to Yevgenny Primakov. Such leaders can suffer from being in such 
company.

"Yabloko" is trying to hide behind social-democratic slogans and its openly 
pro-American position. Calling itself a democratic opposition they are 
trying to persuade voters that the root of all present troubles lies in 
personal deficiencies of the "reformers" but that the course of reforms is 
correct and only needs a bit of correction.

The Duma elections are taking place on a backdrop of rapidly declining 
living standards. Recently published figures indicate that the real income 
of the population has shrunk by one quarter compared with last year.

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