Konstantin Kalachev - About the Communist Party

Political strategist Konstantin Kalachev writes in the Independent Gazeta publication:

“The fact is that traditionally both the Communist Party and Yabloko are trying to divide the elections, indicating violations. But this year, the slight activity of Yabloko is explained by the fact that the party itself, since it is outside the Duma consensus and does not support the national line, did not initially count on much. Her results were not a surprise to her. But the Communist Party is in consensus, in fact in the state mainstream, it really probably suggested something else. If not the regime of complete favor or partnership with EP, then at least the attitude from the authorities as a fellow traveler, and not to the enemy. The Communists, especially in the regions, can be sincerely outraged: they support their own, collect humanitarian convoys, etc., and in response they are pressed in the elections. The party’s leadership, perhaps, did not want to raise a big hype, but the lower -level activists are fighting just for specific voices, and hence the mandates, for career elevators. <...> .

Most parties have a vertical management, as the center will say, the Communist Party, oddly enough, will be the most democratic party regarding the intra -party life. This is the principle of democratic centralism: so far the decision has not been made and officially announced, there may be any discussion. So, if the Presidium of the Central Committee did not forbid to criticize the past elections, then the regions do this. It was they who caught specific violations and lost specific mandates, and not the leadership of the Central Committee. <...>.

The leadership is now truly worried about the presidential campaign, namely, the role that the party will go to March. So it is important to maintain both the asset and the support of voters, and they need to show that the Communist Party is an opposition party number one, which wages the struggle for honest elections. ”