Zyuganov demands investigation into provocations

The Communist Party demands that the authorities investigate provocations against the party, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said at a RIA Novosti press conference.

Among the provocations of the past days, Zyuganov named the convocation of an alternative plenum and a party congress, and the blackout in the hall where the congress was held, and also disruption to the underground.

"During our congress in the Izmailovo concert hall, there was a sudden power cut, the congress sat in the darkness for seven hours, and this is shameful!" Zyuganov explained.

"They tried to force us to leave the hall, saying that it was mined, but one day before the session, we had brought security guards - our people guarded every button," Zyuganov said.

Moreover, he added, another provocation took place on Saturday - disruption to the underground on the Izmailovo line.

The Communist leader assessed all these events as "a well planned operation that completely failed."

Zyuganov added that the official demand to investigate all these provocations had been forwarded to the prosecutor's office.

As for participants in the so-called "alternative" congress of the party, Zyuganov said that they did not represent anyone.

Zyuganov did not rule out that five State Duma deputies of the Communist faction who had attended the "alternative" session might be excluded from the parliamentary faction.

As for the situation in the People's Patriotic Union of Russia (NPSR), Zyuganov said, "Gennady Semigin does not represent anybody there and has no right to exclude anybody." "All the NPSR leaders work with us, and the future of the union will be determined later this year," concluded Gennady Zyuganov.

Communist representatives sent all the documents about the tenth congress of the party held on Saturday to the justice ministry, Valery Rashkin, secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, said at a RIA Novosti pressconference.

"The documents include the line-up of the party's top, and also delegates who attended the congress," he specified.

"The justice ministry has accepted all the documents, and made no complaints about them," noted Rashkin.

He added that participants in the "alternative" congress headed by Vladimir Tikhonov had provided no documents. Therefore, Tikhonov had been excluded from the party, Rashkin said.

As for the tenth session of the Communist Party, Rashkin said that delegates from 85 regions (out of the 89) had taken part in it. Notably, 250 out of 316 delegates attended the forum headed by Zyuganov.

"Of course, the justice ministry will not solve our debates - we have already been judged by the masses and primary party organisations," Rashkin said adding that 100% of the primary party organisations had supported Gennady Zyuganov.