| ESSENTIALS
Vicious dirty PR tactics allegedly made by some political
consultants close to the Kremlin indicate how seriously the regime
considers a possible communist alliance with some oligarchs. There
are certain rumors in the political establishment regarding these
undercurrents. According to rumor-mongers close to the presidential
administration, political leaflets that appeared in Moscow's subway
last week deliberately cast aspersions on leaders of several federal
parties known as United Russia's rivals. These steps were taken
to make sure that all these parties should suspect each other of
using dirty political tricks. The orders to launch the attack are
said to have come from the Kremlin itself.
HISTORY
Adobe Photoshop 8.0 software was used to make one of the leaflets
- showing Communist leader Gennadi Zyuganov and Yabloko leader
Grigory Yavlinsky
giving each other a hug. Their faces are somewhat distorted. "We
stand together!" the slogan on the leaflet reads. The second
leaflet depicts an apple with a price tag, the latter decorated
with the hammer and sickle. The third leaflet refers to the PR
campaign of the Union of Right-Wing Forces in support of small
business, with the slogan "Small business means millions
of jobs". The leaflet shows Boris Nemtsov embracing former
Duma member Boris Berezovsky. The vitriolic text assures the reader
that Berezovsky's return to Russia will create a great many new
jobs indeed.
ESSENTIALS
Rumors circulating in the lower house indicate that the left-wing
parties are afraid of the "information plotting" by
the Kremlin. Leonid Ivashov of the Military Power Union and Sergei
Glaziev of the Congress of Russian Communities are allegedly referred
to as an example. According to people close to the communist faction
of the State Duma, Gennadi Zyuganov refers to Ivashov and Glaziev
as "good cop and bad cop".
HISTORY
On May 19, Ivashov suggested that the left would do much better
if they formed two blocs for the election, a communist bloc and
a patriotic bloc. He drew this conclusion on the basis of polls
by ROMIR Monitoring. According to these findings, about 20% of
those polled support communist and socialist ideas, and almost
60% share patriotic values.
That same day Glaziev came up with the opposite idea and suggested
consolidation of the popular-patriotic camp. A working group should
be set up to draw up a common concept and a patriotic formula
that is comprehensible to all Russians. Glaziev attributed this
need to the fact that the People's Patriotic Union was a hierarchic
structure, while something quite different is needed for the election
coalition. Glaziev's idea is supposed to serve as an invitation
to small parties to come forward and form alliances with the left-wing
giants.
ESSENTIALS
Rumor-mongers claim that circles close to Zyuganov view Glaziev
and Ivashov as "the Kremlin's men". These circles believe
that Ivashov is after communist votes (acting on orders from the
Kremlin, needless to say), while Glaziev hopes to be put in charge
of the election campaign of the People's Patriotic Union. Once
again, in the Kremlin's interests.
WHO STANDS TO GAIN?
In fact, the suspicions of the Duma communists and the Kremlin's
involvement may be exaggerated. Most probably, PR agencies employed
by federal parties are just showing their clients what they can
do.
See also:
State Duma
Elections 2003
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