Is Russia's Communist Party at War with itself?

To have his social and economic program realized, Sergey Glazyev is ready to make a block with anyone
The second column of patriots is finally taking form. A new coalition of left patriotic forces will be formed irrespective of a decision passed by the Communist Party leadership, Sergey Glazyev, the leader of the Russian Communities Congress and a co-chairman of Russia's People Patriotic Union said at a press-conference on August 11.  

According to Sergey Glazyev, creation of this block may be announced at the beginning of the next week. He said that in addition to the Communist Party the coalition may also include the Labor Party, the Democratic Party and other parties and organizations that have been already sent an appeal to set-up an election block for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in December. Sergey Glazyev hopes to get a response to his appeal within 10 days. 

Since the start of spring this year, Sergey Glazyev has attempted to form a block of left patriotic forces. However, this idea has yet to be supported by the Communist Party leadership. Gennady Zyuganov and Co. are still insisting that the creation of such a coalition is possible only under the banner of the RF Communist Party. The Communist Party will pay a heavy price if it does not join other parties on the left, Sergey Glazyev repeats again and again. In his last publication, Sergey Glazyev explained that the left forces may fail during the parliamentary elections because of the reluctance of the Communist Party to give up the ambitions.

Sergey Glazyev says that judging by the political arithmetic, when a party is isolated like the Communist Party in Russia, it will hardly win over 100 mandates in the State Duma. "At the same time, the number of our potential supporters allows us to hope for majority of seats in case of a coalition of people's patriotic forces is created and a convincing election campaign is carried out. If creation of this coalition is frustrated, many of our supporters will either give up participation in the elections or vote against all candidates, or give votes to some fake party put forward by our opponents. It is obvious that the party of power will go to the elections in several columns: it is already known that the United Russia, the People's Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) and the Party of Life will participate in the elections. These structures will play on patriotic motives and scare the electorate with a "communist revenge".  In fact, the self-isolation of the Communist Party will let these parties make a political trick and deceive millions of voters.

This can be prevented only with the creation of a coalition of the people's patriotic forces. This should be an electoral block. If this attempt fails, the coalition can be created in the form of united electoral associations using the same program for work with different groups of voters. This will save many electors from more political blackmail and deception; this will bring more of our supporters to the Duma. This is the only way out of the deadlock where the people's patriotic forces are being kept down."

Being a pragmatic person, Sergey Glazyev doesn't want to be in an open conflict with Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov.  He supposes that the main problem of it is the fact that Gennady Zyuganov is now particularly anxious about recommendations of political technologists who tell him it is undesirable to break up the communist electorate. "Our main problem is that some leaders of the Communist party won't shoulder the problem of block creation," Sergey Glazyev explains. At that, he once again emphasizes that he has no "political discrepancies with Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov; some discrepancies only concern the strategy of the election campaign." What is more, Sergey Glazyev says that "majority of the Communist party members support the increase of the party influence. The political position of the party is not determined yet. In any case, an election block is to be formed."

As it turned out, Gennady Zyuganov doesn't accept any ultimatums or appeals; the Communist leader told journalists how he saw the situation. He thinks that it is the Presidential Administration with Alexander Voloshin and Vladislav Surkov at head that pushes Sergey Glazyev for creation of an alternative left patriotic block. The Communist party leader says: "Leaders of 20 patriotic organizations have already singed an appeal for the creation of a wide political union around the Communist party on the eve of the forthcoming parliamentary elections. A unified electoral roll is being formed now. As for Sergey Glazyev, he must choose for himself in which electoral block he will participate. He is aware of the propositions of the Communist party." Gennady Zyuganov mentioned that some time ago Sergey Glazyev was a member of Yegor Gaidar's democratic government and later he participated in parliamentary elections in the structure of the Russian Communities Congress together with Dmitry Rogozin and General Alexander Lebed. The Communist party leader warns that "all quickly formed political columns appear to mislead the communist electorate."
 
The statement of Gennady Zyuganov means that the communist leader is increasing the stakes. What he says mostly refers not to Sergey Glazyev but to Voloshin and Surkov.

Unlike Zyuganov, Glazyev has made a decision. To have his social and economic program realized, he is ready to create a block with almost any group. It is interesting that the Kremlin is in fact ready to support him. The authorities quickly perceived the attitude of the society and added it to its arsenal. Have a look at newspaper headlines that mention a pre-revolutionary situation in the country, speak about oligarchs and their enormous fortunes, about the poor population, and so on. Struggle with poverty is one of the top-priority tasks for the nearest years. At least, this is what the Russian president said in his last state of the nation address.

What does it mean? It means that the next structure of the Duma will be the left forces, where social guarantees and protection of human rights will be the key issues. At least, these ideas will be declared. In this case, energetic Sergey Glazyev may be useful for President Putin.