26.03.09

Gennadi Zyuganov is in good odor with the Kremlin: his study has a direct line to the president, his protege is included in the Presidential Personnel Pool. The CPRF in its turn is required to do the authorities a favor and stop encouraging protests in Russia.

Communist Nikolai Kharitonov said at the plenary meeting of the Duma yesterday that direct lines to the president would the installed in offices of all leaders of parliamentary factions. Sources in the lower house of the parliament say that only CPRF leader Gennadi Zyuganov could count on it. Boris Gryzlov already had a direct line to the president as Duma Chairman. As for leaders of the Fair Russia and LDPR faction, they were still waiting. Zyuganov meanwhile had one other direct line installed in his office, this one connecting the Communist Party leader with the premier.

The powers-that-be have been pampering the CPRF lately, a source close to the Presidential Administration admitted "... because unlike certain other politicians, Communists do not use the crisis under way for self-promotion." In February, Zyuganov was given airtime on federal TV networks (he held forth on economic policy). Communist Oleg Denisenko recommended by the CPRF leader was included in the Presidential Personnel Pool. Some other CPRF members may appear there as well. (What candidates the LDPR and Fair Russia nominated were turned down.) Nikolai Vinogradov, a Communist of long standing, was reappointed as the governor of Vladimir earlier this month. Presidential draft law on staff rotation in upper echelons of political parties was amended when Zyuganov objected...

Sources in the CPRF faction say that the Communist Party is paying the Kremlin in kind. The CPRF already reneged on its promise (threat, actually) to complain to Strasbourg against the outcome of the federal parliamentary campaign. What really counts, however, is that the CPRF refrains from encouraging protests and strikes.

According to political scientist Mikhail Tulsky, the CPRF has been pursuing a smart policy indeed: all anti-government initiatives from the ranks are either torpedoed right away or soft-pedalled and emasculated beyond recognition. Sources in the Duma admit that whenever Communists show an inclination to back a protest, a minute shake of the head in the upper echelons of state power is sufficient to stifle the impulse.

The Duma meanwhile resolved to make an appeal to law enforcement agencies to compile information on sponsors of the movements and forces organizing protests in Primorie (the CPRF among them). Sergei Obukhov of the Central Committee of the CPRF said when approached for comments that far from being pampered, "... the Communist Party is being actively harried into putting an end to protest rallies in the country and keeping silence in the Duma."

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Source: "Vedomosti"