Category Archives: KPRF

One of the strange rituals of political campaigns is the wealth disclosure.  Not because I think that politicians shouldn’t declare their wealth when they run for office.  They should.  In full.  Even the offshores.  And their families too.  If there is a third cousin with a bank account, I, as a voter, wanna know.   Better to know how many different cookie jars his little puffy fingers are in before you stick him in charge of a state.  What makes it strange is that we know that politicians have access to all sorts of wealth and property yet we continue the charade.

Russia’s Central Electoral Commission released information on the income of Vladimir Zhirinovksy and Gennady Zyuganov. In the last four years, Zyuganov earned 3,445,291.61 rubles ($140,538.10).  According to Kommersant this includes his Duma rep salary, pension, and interest on deposits.  He has three bank accounts with a whopping 152,500 ..read more

Here are the official results TsIK (Central Electoral Commission) head Vladimir Churov gave at a press conference.

United Russia: 64.1% Communist Party of the Russian Federation: 11.6% Liberal Democratic Party: 8.2% Just Russia: 7.8% Agrarian Party of Russia: 2.3% Yabloko: 1.6% Civil Forces: 1.1% Union of Right Forces: 1.0% Patriots of Russia: 0.9% Party of Social Justice: 0.2% Democratic Party of Russia: 0.1%

The turnout of the election was 63% of registered voters.

According to VTsIOM, the 5th Duma break down might be as follows:

United Russia: 313 seats. Communist Party: 62 seats LDPR: 40 seats Just Russia: 35

In comparison to the composition of the 4th Duma, here are the gains and losses for each party when they enter the 5th Duma:

United Russia: +13 Communist Party : +15 LDPR: +11 Just Russia: +2

The fact that each party gained seats is because the 7 percent threshold cut the chaff from the wheat. When the percentages of the 4th and 5th Duma are compared, you get the following gains and losses.

United Russia: -1.9% Communist Party: -1.2% LDPR: +1.8% Just Russia: +.5%

Well, this breakdown ..read more

Putin must love it when a plan comes together. With around 85 percent of precincts reporting, United Russia has captured an albeit predictable landslide. The numbers break down as follows:

United Russia: 63.2 percent Communist Party: 11.7 percent Liberal Democratic Party: 8.4 percent Just Russia: 8 percent Other Parties: 8.7 percent

The percentage scraps leftover went to parties like Yabloko and Union of Right Forces who didn’t garner the needed 7 percent to make the cut. And while the losers will scream foul, the winner, United Russia, will be able to take their victory as a sign that the population supports their consolidation of power. For Russia’s fledgling liberal parties, the election engenders the old Leninist dictum: What is to be done?

The liberals will certainly try to postpone dealing with this question until after the Presidential Elections in March. But after that it seems ..read more

Responses to the Dissenter’s March continues. The Nation’s Katrina Vanden Huevel calls for a fight to press freedom in Russia. This comes amid news that Russian authorities shut down the Samara branch of Novaya gazeta two weeks ago. The police charged Novaya editors with using pirated software. You gotta love it when copyright infringement becomes a weapon of political repression.

Jonas Bernstein gives a tacit “yes” to the question of whether Sunday’s “crackdown” represents a wider wave of repression. Closing down newspapers, arresting and harassing political opposition–specifically SPS, Other Russia and Yabloko–are all part of something larger. But those in a real pinch according to Bernstein might just be Russia’s regional governors. The regions have taken Putin’s mixed message that United Russia needs to show leadership at the same time “all kinds of crooks” have wormed their way into its ranks, have taken this ..read more

Some old habits die hard. Eighty years after Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Bolshevik Party, the KPRF is still afraid of Trotskyists. The Moscow Times reports that Anatoly Baranov, the KPRF’s webmaster, has been hauled in front of the Party’s Central Control Commission and charged with stubbornly pushing “the Communist Party from the victorious Leninist path onto the false Trotskyist path of a rapid revolution, effectively carried out in the interests of the pro-Western bourgeoisie, rather than in the interests of the Russian people, and leading to the total occupation of Russia by NATO forces.” Baranov called the charges “schizophrenic raving.”

To quote Kyle’s mom, “What! What! What!?” Trotskyism? You gotta be fucking kidding me.

Yes, Trotskyism is alive and well in the KPRF. Now dubbed “neo-Trotskyism,” the followers of the shunned revolutionary appear to continue ..read more