#7 - JRL 7303
Moscow Times
August 27, 200
Glazyev 'Not Lost' for Communists
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer
The Communists and the left-leaning economist who formed his own bloc -- seemingly with Kremlin support -- downplayed their differences Tuesday, leaving open the possibility that they may go into the parliamentary elections together.
"There is no divorce between the Communists and me," Sergei Glazyev said in an interview at the Manezh exhibition hall, where more than two dozen parties are holding a five-day fair.
The Communists are expected to pose a strong challenge to pro-Kremlin parties in December elections to the State Duma, and hundreds of their supporters packed the hall Tuesday to hear party leader Gennady Zyuganov speak.
Glazyev, a member of the Communist faction in the Duma but not a member of the party, announced plans early this month to form his own bloc. He invited the Communists to join, but not lead, the bloc.
The Communists support the idea of a coalition, but they want to serve as the umbrella, as they did in 1999, when a bloc co-chaired by Zyuganov and Glazyev ran for Duma seats under the slogan "KPRF for victory." Speaking with journalists at the Manezh, Zyuganov said that to fight those in power "it is useless to go into the elections in two different blocs."
Leonid Ivanchenko, the party's deputy leader, said the Communists are ready to talk to Glazyev at any moment. "We don't consider him a lost person."
Ivanchenko said the Communists are ready to back candidates from Glazyev's bloc in districts where the Communists do not have their own candidates. And they like his choice of former Central Bank head Viktor Gerashchenko and General Georgy Shpak, the airborne troops commander, to help lead the bloc.
"We think they could be very useful," Ivanchenko said, adding that the Communists backed Gerashchenko when he was appointed to head the Central Bank under Yevgeny Primakov's government in 1998.
The Communists are much less comfortable with Dmitry Rogozin, the hawkish, Kremlin-allied chairman of the Duma international affairs committee, who was given the second place on the bloc's electoral list.
"He is too ambitious and I haven't heard anything positive concerning his job as a Duma deputy," Ivanchenko said.
In an article published Tuesday in Kommersant, Rogozin said the bloc will soon be joined by some 20 Duma deputies from People's Deputy, the faction he belonged to before leaving it in the hope of getting a post in the pro-Kremlin United Russia coalition.
Shpak, also speaking to Kommersant, said he joined Glazyev's bloc because he likes "the prominent personalities and the program" and also "its huge potential." Shpak announced plans earlier this summer to retire from the military when he turns 60 in September.
Gerashchenko said his experience would be an asset in the Duma. "I've worked for 43 years in the banking sector and I see that a lot of bills concerning this sector are very unprofessional," he was quoted by Kommersant as saying.
When announcing plans to form his bloc, Glazyev said he and Rogozin would be joined by Alexander Krutov, a Russian Orthodox fundamentalist. But he made no mention of him Tuesday.
Ivanchenko said the Communists are waiting for Glazyev to explain the composition of his bloc. "I've heard that there are so many small parties and organizations joining them, but most of their names are new for us." Kommersant lists 15 members of Glazyev's bloc.
Vladimir Pribylovsky, an analyst from the Panorama think tank, said the Communists and Glazyev are still bargaining. "On the one hand, Glazyev has decided to have his own group, and now he is trying to demonstrate to the voters that it is not the raskolnik [the dissenter], but the Communists are," he said.
Pribylovsky said Glazyev is trying to get the support of those members of the Communist Party who are ready to give him more than Zyuganov is. "Zyuganov is ready to give him the third or fourth place on the list, that's all," he said.
From the beginning, Glazyev's initiative has been seen as a Kremlin-supported attempt to take votes from the Communists.
Zyuganov said he advised Glazyev to be careful about linking himself to the Kremlin. "If they don't like his list, even if he gets 5 or 6 percent, they will arrange things so that the figure will be lowered to 4 percent. On the other hand, if they like his list, he will be given higher figures than he gets in reality."
A party needs to get at least 5 percent of the vote to win seats in the Duma based on its party list.
The question for the Kremlin might be whether Glazyev, by forming a bloc with people like Rogozin, is more likely to pull voters away from United Russia than from the Communists.
Izvestia cited unnamed Communist leaders as predicting that as soon as Glazyev's bloc begins to encroach on the pro-Kremlin party it will cease to exist.
n Former Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov announced Tuesday that he would run for the Duma on the Communist Party list.
In an interview with Interfax, Skuratov said "leftist ideas were always close to his heart but his previous work did not allow him to show this."
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