BBC on Zyuganov

["Owen Jones" <owen.jones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 The politics seem familiar.

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Zyuganov: compromising with communism

Zyuganov: watered-down communism

 Gennady Zyuganov has been the uncharismatic face of Russian communism since
it was reborn after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

 A middle-ranking official in the Soviet Communist Party, he helped create a
new party for Russia once Boris Yeltsin's ban on communism was lifted at the
end of 1992.

 Under his leadership the communists have for most of the ensuing period
been the main rivals to Russia's ruling establishment.

 Mr Zyuganov came second in the 1996 presidential election, winning 32% of
the vote in round one, and 40.3% in the runoff against Boris Yeltsin.

 He achieved this result despite his main rival's overwhelming advantage in
terms of campaign funds, and in the face of a bitter anti-communist
onslaught from the national media.

 However, critics have often questioned whether a more dynamic leader might
have brought the communists more success.

 The 55-year-old former Maths teacher from middle Russia lacks spontaneity
or oratorical flare, and appears self-conscious in the glare of publicity.

 He seems not to possess the political "killer instinct" to take battles
with government to their bitter end: Mr Zyuganov's party is a parliamentary
not a revolutionary movement, often seeking compromise rather than
confrontation.

 His published programme is also a far cry from anything that Lenin or
Stalin would recognise as communist.

 Mr Zyuganov calls for a "regulated market", in which the state would only
demand a controlling share in certain key sectors, such as energy, transport
and military industries.

 He opposes privatisation of agricultural land, but is content to see a
mixture of private, public and co-operative ownership of other property.

 And for today's Communist Party leadership the class struggle is less
important than the clash of civilisations.

 Mr Zyuganov says Russia has a "unique role as the pivot and fulcrum" of a
Eurasia that is destined forever to compete with the West.

 Soviet internationalism has also given way to Russian nationalism,
occasionally spilling over into anti-semitism.

 The most outspoken Russian communists have called for a quota to limit the
number of Jews in government, and accused Jewish ministers of genocide
against the Russian people.

 Mr Zyuganov condemned these remarks, but angered Israel by complaining
about the "problem" of Zionism in Russia, and the number of "non-Russian"
faces on national television.

 One of the reasons that the Russian media was vociferously anti-Communist
during the presidential election of 1996 stemmed from the fear that victory
for Mr Zyuganov would bring an attack on freedom of speech.

 He has at various times proposed censorship of foreign films and
advertisements, and measures to reduce the number of programmes showing
murder, money and pornography on television.

 However, in the 1999 parliamentary election pro-Kremlin media outlets were
less hostile to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF),
because Mr Zyuganov was seen as a less dangerous presidential challenger
than the centrist former prime minister, Yevgeny Primakov.

 Kremlin aides believe the result of the 1996 election shows that communists
no longer pose a threat to the ruling establishment, and that their strength
is steadily declining.

 It's true that many of their supporters are middle-aged or older, but in
recent elections communists have maintained a steady 20 to 30 per cent of
the vote.