>USSR2 File: Kremlin threatens to seize British Petroleum’s Siberian gasfield project following confiscation of Shell’s Sakhalin-2 venture

>The Soviet Union’s original flirtation with pseudo-capitalism occured between 1921 and 1928. Comrade Lenin’s scheme successfully duped Western capitalists who forfeited their investments in Russia when that deception outlived its usefulness. “We have a great deal invested in Russia,” gushes the BP Global website, “in every sense. We’re producing and exploring for oil and gas, as well as blending, marketing, and selling fuels and lubricants.” Not if Comrade Czar Putin has anything to say about it . . .

Of all Western companies, the venerable Royal Dutch Shell, which recently forfeited its $20 billion Sakhalin-2 natural gas project to state-run Gazprom, should know better than to invest in the Not-So-Former Soviet Union. When the Soviet 11th Army invaded Azerbaijan in 1920, Shell’s stake in the Baku oilfields was seized.

BP under pressure on Kovykta
December 23, 2006

TNK-BP, the Anglo-Russian oil joint venture, is bracing itself for a full investigation within weeks into its licence agreement for a giant Siberian gasfield as the Kremlin tightens its grip on the country’s energy resources.

Russia has used environmental audits and regulatory threats to restore state dominance over oil and gas supplies. This week saw Gazprom take a controlling stake in Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin-2 project after months of pressure.

People familiar with the situation said Gazprom’s negotiations with TNK-BP were likely to follow a similar pattern to Shell’s prolonged battle with state officials and the Russian gas monopoly.

TNK-BP has already offered Gazprom majority control over the Kovykta gasfield, but has insisted that Gazprom should pay for its stake with cash or assets.

Russian authorities have already stepped up pressure on TNK-BP, accusing it of breaking a licence agreement on production levels. The prospect of losing the licence for Kovykta is likely to soften TNK-BP’s negotiating position.

Gazprom and TNK-BP have been talking about the joint development of the project for years but have not reached an agreement. Although TNK-BP has a licence to develop the field, expected to supply gas to Asian countries, it cannot do so without Gazprom agreeing to build an export pipeline for the field.

Gazprom, which has a monopoly over the pipeline network and gas exports, has been stalling negotiations for months. It says it has other priorities.

The authorities have decided to investigate the Kovykta licence because of TNK-BP’s alleged failure to meet its conditions.

Under the licensing agreement, TNK-BP was obliged to produce 9bn cubic metres of gas by the end of this year. TNK-BP has said it cannot produce anything near this amount of gas because it has nowhere to sell it.

“We could not burn this gas,” TNK-BP said.

The talks between Gazprom and TNK-BP have intensified in the past few months and it is understood TNK-BP has made Gazprom a more lucrative offer that includes participation in other gas projects.

Once Gazprom reaches a deal with TNK-BP, the threat to the licence is likely to disappear.

Alexander Medvedev, deputy chief executive of Gazprom, on Friday said Sakhalin-2 would not have encountered problems if Gazprom had been part of the project from the start.

The Kremlin’s Energy Imperialism and Communist Dialectics

In spite of the crypto-communist rollback of Boris Yeltsin’s New Economic Policy Version 2.0, Western rightists still have a very hard time believing that communists really believe in communism. They will often insist that the world’s surviving paleo-communist oligarchies (Cuba, China, et al.) are simply non-ideological power oligarchies with no means to outlive their charismatic leaders. Western rightists, though sincere in their commitment to social and fiscal conservativsm, are unable to wrap their minds around three crucial features of communism: 1) communist states follow the philosophy of dialectical materialism and thus advance by retreating, 2) communist states have repeatedly used pseudo-capitalist “reforms” in order to deceive the West, bolster their sluggish economies, improve their decrepit infrastructure, and strengthen communist control over a country, and 3) communist states are committed to the destruction of capitalist economies by corrupting Western financial institutions with dirty money, eroding confidence in the US dollar, and forcing the “bourgeois” nations into a state of dependency on the Communist Bloc. The last is evident in China-Mart’s cheap consumer goods; Gazprom’s energy imperialism vis-a-vis Western Europe and even Not-So-Former Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and currently Belarus; and Lukoil’s retail gas stations throughout Europe and the USA.

If you think communism is dead, then I’ve got some rope to sell you.

We urge unbelievers to read Edward Jay Epstein’s Deception (1989), Joseph Douglass’ Red Cocaine (1990), and Jeff Nyquist’s Origins of the Fourth World War (1999) for substantiating details. Epstein, in particular, provides a good overview of the dialectical zigs and zags that the Soviet “economy” has lurched through since 1917. These books and a dialectical chart are linked in this blogsite’s right column.

>USSR2 File: CPSU Chair Shenin issues appeal to Soviet people, insists March 1991 referendum preserved USSR; Zyuganov threatens Putin in letter

>By depriving the people of an opportunity to participate in honest and free elections and blocking the way for opposition to be involved in the political process, the authorities make it impossible to correct a course leading this country to a disaster. People deprived of the right to choose can simply lose confidence in the authorities and at some point take the fate of the country in its own hands. Like they once did in the past.
— Gennady Zyuganov, Chair, Communist Party of the Russian Federation; excerpt from letter to President Putin

In previous posts we have indicated that the first public announcement of Oleg Shenin’s candidacy for Russia’s 2008 presidential election occurred on August 19, 2006, the 15th anniversary of the “hardline” communist coup, in which Shenin participated and for which he was jailed in the early 1990s. In the appeal below Shenin, chair of the restored/continuing Communist Party of the Soviet Union, refers to a radio interview, apparently conducted eight months ago, in which he broached the subject of his candidacy. That interview would have taken place in or around April. In either case, the plans for the resurrection of the USSR, as stated in this blogsite’s banner, were formulated long before its collapse.

Comrade Shenin is pictured below with Le Kha Phieu, Secretary General of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam between 1997 and 2001. Shenin visited Vietnam in 2000. (We have also documented in previous blogs how pal Gennady Zyuganov secretly accompanied President Putin to the 2006 APEC summit in Hanoi and met communist officials.)

NEW-YEAR APPEAL TO THE SOVIET PEOPLE
December 26, 2006

Respected comrades!
Dear compatriots!

Although the living together people now of [otgorozheny] from each other by the artificial boundarys, which divided “independent variables and sovereign” of republic, Soviet people as the historical generality of people, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics legally continue to exist. Union agreement dated December 30, 1922, as the sums of national referendum dated March 17, 1991 no one abolished, and abolish cannot

All you, dear comrades, from the soul I congratulate on the offensive of new year!

From our main holidays new year in the Soviet time was always the holiday of glad expectations, hopes, which happen, the plans, which realize. We knew that if the leader of the party and government, supreme commander-in-chief said: “There will be also on our street holiday”, it means, so it will be.

Today Soviet people comes to the encounter of 2007 with ever more clear realization of the fact that in 15 years of its supremacy the counterrevolution destroyed the country, threw the Great Power under the feet of foreign monopolies, brought down it to the position of colony. This is – the grave crime, which does not have the period of remoteness. To answer for it for traitors it is necessary without fail and not once in the distant future, it is virtual, but in the very near future.

However, the chain of treacheries and crimes against its own people continues today. As soon as became is completely clear the rapid crash “of the party of authority”, “united Russia” – united in the sense of the corporate stealing of public wealth within the framework of the caste of high-ranking officials, [polittekhnologi] urgently created it for the change two more “valid” and “free”.

But are there between them fundamental differences? Certainly, no! “Russia”, to which they gave the name of valid it will be the same only in the plan “valid” distribution of surplus value depending on the size of capital, which consist of it terms. But that, which they called by free, exists and will remain such only by the force “of the freedom” of the stiffening of operation and oppression of hired labor. They all – the leeches, that suck out last vital juices in working people. As, however, and practically all registered by regime political parties, which the concerned by fight with the extremism President gathered in newly -[Ogareve] in the year before the parlimentary elections.

Only our general and friendly work on the return to authority to the hands of working class and peasants can give basis for the optimism with the look into the future. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union does not have more important task. It is obvious that everything depends on the course of events in Russia. The presidential elections of 2008 this is why will be last and only legal possibility for its peaceful solution.

Eight months ago I in the radio-interview publicly stated about the intention to advance my candidature on the post of the President RF on the forthcoming elections. This statement widely was discussed and met positive response in the overwhelming majority. I please your active support, the respected fellow citizens, and I certify, that it is ready to work with the complete return and to appear before the judgment of people for the unsatisfactory results of its administration.

It is completely obvious that the basic conditions of the fraternal unity of peoples, revival of the great fatherland, will be the complete voluntariness and the equality of rights of the reuniting themselves peoples, the socialist nature of development and the authority of the working in the form councils.

There are no doubts, that in the new year only our general efforts will allow people to arise from the elbows, they will be real step forward toward the social progress, authentic democracy – the Soviet regime on the example “Stalin” constitution of the USSR, by whom 70 years were recently carried out!

Chairman of Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Oleg Shenin

And from what source does the capitalist occupation of the USSR originate, according to presidential wanna-be Shenin? Lifting a page from one of fellow socialist Adolf Hitler’s speeches or those of the Jew-baiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Comrade Shenin identifies Zionism as the source of “post”-communist Russia’s woes: “Zionism now is a force of a class character, it is the vanguard of world imperialism. It did played in the past, plays now and wants to play in future considerable part in enslavement of peoples, in building up the “new world order” – the regime of superexploitation and genocide of the working people of all nationalities. It’s a fact. Karl Marx characterised class essence of Zionism as mercantilised one, as financial oligarchy and now we see this more and more.”

Concurrently, in a lengthy missive to President Vladimir Putin, Comrade Zyuganov–who heads the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, presently the Russian section of the restored CPSU–accuses Russia’s “party of power,” the crypto-Stalinist United Russia, of rolling back “democracy” and issues a veiled threat to overthrow the Putinist-Chekist-Surkovist-Gryzlovist regime. The letter below is published at the website of the CPSU’s North American propaganda office, the International Council of Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People.

Statement by the CPRF to President Putin

To Russian President Vladimir Putin,
A.A. Veshnyakov, the Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission,
V.D. Zorkin, the Chairman of the Constitutional Court,
V.M. Lebedev, the Chairman of the Supreme Court,
Yuri Chaika, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation;
To the Russian public

The practice of holding elections at various levels in Russia turns people’s voting into an open farce.

Broad public control over the 2003 parliamentary elections revealed dozens of gross violations of the election law. However, the judicial system of the Russian Federation, in a bid to please the executive bodies of state power and also under their pressure, has refused to consider even the most obvious manifestations of election fraud. The Strasbourg Court for Human Rights is considering our lawsuit on the grossest o these violations. It is extremely regrettable that justice should be sought outside Russia. However, the state of the Russian judicial system is such that we can hardly count on any kind of justice.

Elections to local legislatures were held in nine Russian regions on October 8, 2006. Their results are still in the spotlight of public attention. Once again they proved a sad fact: government structures use the election process in Russia as an object for manipulation.

An entire system of election rigging has been formed. The use of the mass media, especially television, is its key element. A lion’s share of TV air time is allotted to the United Russia Party, its allies in the person of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and new pseudo-opposition parties. The fact of total domination of the ruling party in the media has been reported by numerous experts and has been reflected in reports by international observers. On the contrary, the opposition is still deprived of access to the electronic media despite statements by the Russian leadership. Moreover, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation has been the target of an incessant smear campaign which becomes particularly harsh during elections. The methods and style of famous TV anchorman Karaulov known as “karaulovshchina” has affected even local television channels which often turn election campaigning into a psychological war against candidates opposed to the authorities. As a result, the voter is denied access to truthful information about the activities and election platforms of opposition forces. He doesn’t have an opportunity to make a well-considered political choice.

The rude use of administrative resource for influencing the minds and opinion of citizens has been legalized. The practice of so-called “locomotives” – when high-ranking bureaucrats head party election rolls without an intention to work in legislative bodies has become legitimate. Consequently, we are dealing with unconcealed deceit of voters. Concurrently, it’s a signal for lower-ranking bodies of power to ensure the victory of a “right” political force.

Sergei Mironov, the Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (he also tops the regional register of candidates from the Party of Life in the Lipetsk region), demonstrably abused his powers. On October 7, when the election lull took effect, the newspaper “Lipetskaya Gazeta” – the printed publication of the regional administration and the Council of Deputies- published Mironov’s extensive interview.

The governor of the Jewish Autonomous Region, N. M. Volkov, used a Saturday before the elections for illegal media propaganda without ceremony. V.V. Yakimov, the mayor of Kamensk-Uralskiy, a city in the Sverdlovsk region, openly campaigned for United Russia on the day of vote.

Public servants, including teachers, doctors and municipal workers, come under powerful pressure to ensure the “victory” of such candidates and their party election rolls. They are used to ensure voter turnout and the “right” choice of candidates and parties. The practice of forcing social workers to convince old people in the need to vote for candidates selected by the authorities has been disgusting.

The economic and administrative pressure on village residents dependent on local authorities in life-support issues has turned into a disgraceful norm. They are simply forced to vote on orders for fear of reprisals. The biggest manipulations are registered in rural areas. The election turnout in the cities and villages of the Novgorod region stood at 23% and 50%, respectively. Twenty-three percent of city electors voted for United Russia and 26% for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In rural areas, 50% voted for United Russia and 11% for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The picture is almost the same in other regions.

Portable ballot boxes are another major source of election rigging. In some places, up to 10% of voters who cast their ballots turned out to be “sick or disabled” to personally come to polling stations. The figure was almost 16% in the Lipetsk region. There is no doubt that it’s the way to ensure the election turnout and the “necessary” result. In the Lipetsk region, imaginary success accompanied both branches of the “party of power”. The United Russia gained 42% of the vote while the little known “Party of Life” got 12%.

The scale of election fraud in the Republic of Tuva was so big that the electoral commission in Kyzyl was simply forced to declare the elections in four out of six one-seat constituencies as invalid.

In the Astrakhan region, a sequence of violations was complete with an incident involving representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) who were members of the district territorial commission. They ousted observers from other parties and blocked the vote count for two days. As a result, three sets of “authentic” protocols with various figures came into existence.

The situation is expected to get worse in the near future. The election legislation is being reshaped. The practice that discredited itself and was abandoned several years ago is hastily being reinstated.

Early voting has been allowed. A considerable segment of election procedures has in this way been taken out of public control. Voters become even more unprotected to the pressure exerted by employers. The basis for a new wave of manipulations is being created.

Electronic voting is being introduced. The example of the Novgorod region shows that it doesn’t quite fall into the framework of the election legislation. The systems of automatic processing of ballot-papers provide for the existence of these ballot papers at least. Electronic vote systems are widely being introduced. They exclude the use of any ballot-papers. Despite being simply too complicated for voters, electronic equipment makes any elections senseless because it is impossible to control or review the election results.

Bans on registration of unsuitable candidates and entire party election rolls and cancellation of registrations have become widespread. Many countries don’t have such practices at all. In Russia, a candidate or a party can be denied registration on 25 official grounds. There are five grounds for crossing out a candidate’s name from the list, four grounds for annulling registration and 30 grounds allowing courts to cancel the registration.

Attempts are being made to accuse opposition candidates of extremism and ban them from elections on this ground. Starting of this year, any criticism of the authorities can be interpreted as extremism if necessary.

With so many manipulations and the distortion of people’s will, citizens are losing interest in elections and stop believing any candidates. And what do they get in return? The Russian State Duma has simply cancelled column “against all candidates” in ballot-papers. It’s much simpler than restoring people’s confidence in the election system.

The purpose of all the latest election novelties is not to correct the existing situation. On the contrary, new opportunities for election rigging are being created.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation would like to call attention to the fact that the ruling grouping in Russia is consistently cracking down on universally-accepted democratic norms.

We call on all public and political forces of the country to join us in creating an effective system of control over regional and local elections, parliamentary elections in 2007 and presidential elections in 2008.

We insist that officials to whom we address this appeal explain their position publicly in terms set by the law.

We certainly understand that the sophisticated system of manipulation has been created conscientiously. It is designed to strengthen the rule of bureaucrats and ‘oligarchs”. At the same time, it would be useful for the country’s leadership to think about possible consequences of introducing such a system. The question is not just in the legitimacy of power based on fraud and lawlessness.

By depriving the people of an opportunity to participate in honest and free elections and blocking the way for opposition to be involved in the political process, the authorities make it impossible to correct a course leading this country to a disaster. People deprived of the right to choose can simply lose confidence in the authorities and at some point take the fate of the country in its own hands.

Like they once did in the past.

G. A. Zyuganov
Chairman of the Central Committee
Communist Party of the Russian Federation

Unimpeachable documentation such as that reproduced above demonstrates that Soviet communists still call the shots in Russia–otherwise Stalinists like Shenin and Zyuganov would have long since been executed. Be assured, communists still believe in communism! Chairman Shenin and pal Gennady are no exceptions.

>Latin America File: Venezuelan communists discuss President Chavez’s plan to unite Fifth Republic Movement and other leftist parties under one banner

>Finally, the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee declares the Communist Party of Venezuela in a State of Internal Discussion and in an Ideological and Political Mobilization, with the purpose of rendering our best contributions to the national debate triggered by President Hugo Chávez on Socialism, which is, for our organization, the central and most fundamental issue of the definition of Revolutionary Politics.
— Central Committee, Communist Party of Venezuela; Fourth Plenary Meeting, December 21, 2006

Emboldened by Comrade Chavez’s electoral victory earlier this month, the Communist Party of Venezuela consolidates its power, while the presidential Fifth Republic Movement exposes itself for the communist front that it is.

Venezuelan communists discuss Unified Socialist Party
Thursday, 28 December 2006

The Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela has called for the broadest possible internal discussion on the ongoing debate about Socialism and the building of the “Party of the Revolution”. For that purpose, the Central Committee has summoned extraordinarily the XIII National Congress of the Party. These are the salient points of the Public Statement released yesterday by the Central Committee during a press conference. Here is the full text of said Statement.

PUBLIC STATEMENT

The Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), assembled in Caracas on December 21st, 2006, has held a broad, deep and enlightening discussion on the proposal by President Hugo Chávez Frías, supreme leader of the Bolivarian Revolutionary process, regarding the construction of the Socialist Unified Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

1.- In this regard, the Central Committee of PCV ratifies its steady and unyielding historical commitment to the construction of the broadest possible unity of the democratic and revolutionary forces in our country, the continent and the World, in order to stop and liquidate US imperialism. We ratify also our commitment to the goals of justice, equality, solidarity, national independence, sovereignty and self-determination for our people, the liquidation of exploitation, the utter liberation of the oppressed classes, and the building of People’s Power as an expression of Revolutionary Democracy. It is within this framework that we at PCV understand the historical necessity of advancing towards the construction of the organic unity of all revolutionary men and women in our country.

2.- We salute the decision of all political organizations which have agreed to join PSUV, since every move towards the organic integration of progressive and revolutionary groups, regardless of its nature and character, is a step forward for the patriotic forces.

3.- We deem the proposal presented by President Chávez on December 15th, as a fundamental step towards the construction of an entity able to lead and command the Bolivarian Revolution. In agreement with the procedures of our internal democracy, this proposal has to be assessed and debated by the entire membership of our Party. For this purpose, the Central Committee has decided to summon the Extraordinary National Congress of the Party, which will assemble on March 3rd and 4th, 2007.

4.- Within the framework of the Extraordinary National Congress, all Cells, Local Committees and Regional Committees of our Party will debate the following topics:

a) the ideological foundations which the proposed new Party must have;
b) the conception of Socialism which we wish to build in Venezuela;
c) the class character which a revolutionary Party must have:
d) the organic structure of the Party;
e) the issue of collective leadership within the proposed United Party.

5.- Furthermore, the Fourth Plenary Meeting has decided to initiate an open, broad, deep, and democratic debate with all Parties and Movements with which we have been working together, for the purpose of taking on this subject collectively.

6.- The Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of PCV has also decided to convene the Fifth Plenary Meeting for January 13th and 14th, to review and approve the Basic Document on this subject that will be debated by all our members and organizations during the process leading up to the Extraordinary National Congress, and to approve the Rules of Order for the Conferences that will be held during that process by our Cells, Local Committees and Regional Committees, as well as for the National Congress itself.

Finally, the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee declares the Communist Party of Venezuela in a State of Internal Discussion and in an Ideological and Political Mobilization, with the purpose of rendering our best contributions to the national debate triggered by President Hugo Chávez on Socialism, which is, for our organization, the central and most fundamental issue of the definition of Revolutionary Politics.

Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela
Caracas, December 21st, 2006

Source: Tribuna Popular

>Feature: Iraqi judges uphold Hussein’s sentence: dictator must die within 30 days; Vatican lines up with Kremlin to condemn original decision

>On November 5 the Iraq Special Tribunal sentenced former President Saddam Hussein to death for crimes against humanity. On December 26 his appeal was rejected, requiring the implementation of the sentence within one month. No doubt, Saddam’s neo-communist buddies–Belarusian fuehrer Alexander Lukashenko, KGB/FSB potemkin politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, British socialist parliamentarian George Galloway, and professional globetrotting troublemaker Sean Penn–are disappointed by the verdict and will send cards and flowers to the doomed dictator.

The Kremlin Rushes to the Defense of Its Ba’athist Client

Russian politicians have lined up to plead for their Iraqi client’s worthless life. This is not surprising in view of the former Ba’athist regime’s important role in Moscow’s long-range strategic deception. “There is a clear conflict between the fact that Iraq is called a democratic state, on the one hand, and the court rendering such undemocratic decision on the other,” said ex-Komsomol member Boris Gryzlov, head of the pro-Kremlin, crypto-Stalinist United Russia party and speaker of the State Duma. “I can only give a completely negative assessment,” complained Zhirinovsky, who leads the misnamed Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, “especially when today the European Union consistently advocates for the abolition of death penalty. The union has accepted the verdict in a positive way, which further reveals absence of a common position on vital and sensitive matters.” Such “sympathy” is frankly hard to swallow in view of the gulag state that gave birth to these phoney Russian politicians and that lurks in the background of every Kremlin act and proclamation to this day.

The Vatican Opposses Hussein’s Death Sentence, Ignores Past Application of Capital Punishment to “Heretics”

More surprisingly but, nevertheless, in complete harmony with modern Catholic social teaching, on November 6 the Vatican joined the Kremlin in announcing its opposition to the original sentence of death passed by the Iraq Special Tribunal against Hussein. “For me, punishing a crime with another crime, which is what killing for vindication is, would mean that we are still at the point of demanding an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” opined Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace. “Unfortunately, Iraq is one of the few countries that have not yet made the civilized choice of abolishing the death penalty.” Fr. Michele Simone, deputy director of the Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica, told Vatican Radio: “Certainly, the situation in Iraq will not be resolved by this death sentence. Many Catholics, myself included, are against the death penalty as a matter of principle.”

Saddam is a murderous megalomaniac who, like all other dictators, has persistently defied the God of heaven and earth. Dictators deserve to die. The Vatican’s position on the Hussein verdict, moreover, unintentionally opens a can of worms with respect to the Catholic Church’s past application of the death penalty and her ambivalent attitude toward communism.

Apparently, the good cardinal and the compassionate Jesuit mentioned above have conveniently forgotten the many centuries during which the State Church of Rome, leaning on the brutal code of the Emperor Justinian rather than being restrained by “modern Catholic social teaching,” did not hesitate to hand over “heretics” and Jews to the civil authorities (who were invariably Catholic at that time) for torture and capital punishment and, in so doing, wash her hands of their blood. This is plainly admitted in the Catholic Encyclopedia, under the article “Heresy.” The Church of Rome does not apologize under accusations of cruelty in applying the Code of Justinian to religious dissenters:

The Church’s legislation on heresy and heretics is often reproached with cruelty and intolerance. Intolerant it is: in fact its raison d’être is intolerance of doctrines subversive of the faith. But such intolerance is essential to all that is, or moves, or lives, for tolerance of destructive elements within the organism amounts to suicide. Heretical sects are subject to the same law: they live or die in the measure they apply or neglect it. The charge of cruelty is also easy to meet. All repressive measures cause suffering or inconvenience of some sort: it is their nature. But they are not therefore cruel. The father who chastises his guilty son is just and may be tender-hearted.

A copy of Justinian’s code can be found here.

The Vatican’s co-religionists in the Nazi-occupied Independent State of Croatia, it should be noted, had no scruples about applying a neo-Justinian ethic to thousands of Orthodox Christians and Jews, notwithstanding official policies rejecting forcible conversion. Oh, but of course, these are all inconvenient details of history or, worse still, even communist propaganda that are best swept under the rug of religious revisionism in order to advance the Catholic Church’s rapprochement with the “separated brethren” she once burned as heretics.

The statements of the Kremlin and the Vatican are telling with respect to the Hussein verdict: Where capital punishment serves the interest of totalitarian governments–political or religious–it will be applied unmercifully. Where the unpleasant details of history stand in the way of unity and convergence, the same governments denounce capital punishment.

The Second Vatican Council: Catholicism’s Perestroika Deception

Both the Kremlin and the Vatican have implemented a perestroika, or restructuring, deception. We have documented the former at length at this blogsite. In the 1990s new parties, businesses, and institutions appeared on the scene in “post”-communist Russia, but the same Soviet technocrats, “ex”-KGB officers, and “ex”-CPSU members filled key posts in these entities. Thirty years before, new committees appeared on the scene in the “post”-Inquisition Vatican–such as the Pontifical Councils for Promoting Christian Unity and Inter-religious Dialogue–but there was no repudiation of previous councils that vilified the “separated brethren,” such as Constance, where Jan Hus was condemned to be burned.

The geopolitical strategies of Moscow and Rome have now merged in support of the other. Gulag and stake are no longer the accepted means of reeducating counter-revolutionaries and converting the lost. Hence, the communist hierarchy has turned to the ballot box (to wit Latin America’s Red Axis), while the Catholic hierarchy has embraced inter-denominational evangelism (to wit Billy Graham, Luis Palau, et. al.) and ecumenical anti-abortion platforms.

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which implemented “modern Catholic social teaching” on a widespread basis, promoted the following false notions among the “separated brethren” (Protestants, Orthodox, and other Christian sects): 1) the Church of Rome has changed, although her Magisterium continues to encapsulate the Tridentine formulas, and 2) the Church of Rome is a powerful bastion and reliable ally against communism and secularism. The teachings of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Doubleday, 1995) support the former assertion, while the public commitment of the popes to a red-tinged, United Nations-directed “new world order” supports the latter assertion. The bishops of Rome advance communism under the red slogan of “economic and social justice.” In 2004, Karol Wojtyla urged Catholics and the world to strengthen the UN and embrace the globalist-communist “new international order”:

It must be acknowledged, however, that the United Nations Organization, even with limitations and delays due in great part to the failures of its members, has made a notable contribution to the promotion of respect for human dignity, the freedom of peoples and the requirements of development, thus preparing the cultural and institutional soil for the building of peace.

The activity of national Governments will be greatly encouraged by the realization that the ideals of the United Nations have become widely diffused, particularly through the practical gestures of solidarity and peace made by the many individuals also involved in Non-Governmental Organizations and in Movements for human rights.

This represents a significant incentive for a reform which would enable the United Nations Organization to function effectively for the pursuit of its own stated ends, which remain valid: “humanity today is in a new and more difficult phase of its genuine development. It needs a greater degree of international ordering”. States must consider this objective as a clear moral and political obligation which calls for prudence and determination.

Here I would repeat the words of encouragement which I spoke in 1995: “The United Nations Organization needs to rise more and more above the cold status of an administrative institution and to become a moral centre where all the nations of the world feel at home and develop a shared awareness of being, as it were, a family of nations”.

During his 2005 Christmas message Joe Ratzinger reiterated the Vatican’s plea for an accommodation with globalism-communism:

Men and women of today, humanity come of age yet often still so frail in mind and will, let the Child of Bethlehem take you by the hand! Do not fear; put your trust in him! The life-giving power of his light is an incentive for building a new world order based on just ethical and economic relationships. May his love guide every people on earth and strengthen their common consciousness of being a “family” called to foster relationships of trust and mutual support. A united humanity will be able to confront the many troubling problems of the present time: from the menace of terrorism to the humiliating poverty in which millions of human beings live, from the proliferation of weapons to the pandemics and the environmental destruction which threatens the future of our planet.

Both the Kremlin and the Vatican have promoted their own restructuring deception because, in reality, neither the CPSU (which still exists as we have proved here) nor the Catholic Church will compromise its core beliefs in order to win the unconvinced to its cause. We don’t expect to make friends pointing out these troubling ideological convergences. However, the following Scripture comes to mind: “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16).

The Catholic-Communist Convergence, Nicaragua’s Neo-Sandinista Government, and the West’s Evolutionary Epistemology

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
— Psalm 11:3

The much-maligned author Avro Manhattan documented the ominous synthesis of Catholicism and communism two decades ago in The Vatican-Moscow-Washington Alliance. At the regional level, Catholicism’s accommodation with communism is nowhere more evident that in “ex”-communist dictator Daniel Ortega’s recent electoral victory in Nicaragua. Comandante Ortega has allegedly humbled himself before the papal hierarchy. As tokens of sincerity, this “born again” murderer married his long-time “girlfriend” and supported a new comprehensive anti-abortion law passed by the outgoing government. On November 12 Comandante Ortega and other politicians attended a Mass performed at the National Cathedral by Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes, who offered the following sermon: “They must cast off the uniforms of their respective teams and put on the jersey of the Nicaraguan national team.” Brenes then got to the point by insisting that the defeated candidates and their parties work “as a team” with Nicaragua’s neo-communist government, the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

The ostensibly anti-communist American Catholics at Tradition, Family and Property, who maintain Lula Watch, would no doubt be appalled. In view of the North-South schism among Catholics and notwithstanding the protests of those who defend the supposed “monolithic” nature of Catholicism, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that a profound, irreconcilable ideological-theological schism exists in that organization.

Your resident blogger, a former atheist/humanist/evolutionist, is not shocked that Catholicism should embrace communist economic theory and world government when the papal hierarchy is committed, at least unofficially, to the myth of cosmological/biological evolution. Evolution serves as the epistemological worldview for communism. This is evident by reading many communist documents or visiting communist websites, such as that of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA, which peddles the anti-creationist diatribe The Science of Evolution and The Myth of Creationism.

Until 150 years ago, prior to the rise and spread of Darwinism, which was heartily embraced by communism’s founder Karl Marx, the literal truth of a six-day creation was accepted throughout Western Civilization. Upon the foundation of creation rested the Bible’s teaching regarding personal redemption in Jesus Christ (the “Second Adam,” according to 1 Corinthians 15:45, 47), the existence of Christian churches, morality, and the West’s legal system. Like many Protestant sects, however, the Catholic Church now subscribes to the heresy of “theistic evolution/progressive creation” and rejects God’s testimony in Holy Scripture and the numerous scientific factors that limit the age of the universe, the earth, and mankind to less than ten millennia. Professedly anti-communist, neither the Catholic Church nor its offspring, the Protestant sects, can successfully wage war against atheistical international socialism when Christians deny the historicity of the Bible’s foundation–Genesis.

The foundations have been destroyed. The West decays. Communism advances.

>Communist Bloc Military Updates: New Russian fighter-bomber operational, Leningrad’s early warning radar on combat duty, "Satan" ICBM test launched

>KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn warned in New Lies for Old (1984) that the staged collapse of communism in Eastern Europe would obviate any apparent necessity to retain NATO as Western Europe’s defense apparatus. He writes: “The disappearance of the Warsaw Pact would have little effect on the coordination of the communist bloc, but the dissolution of NATO could well mean the departure of American forces from the European continent and a closer realignment with a ‘liberalized’ Soviet bloc” (page 341).

Golitsyn’s first observation is prescient since the Warsaw Pact has been replaced by two Eurasian/Trans-Asian neo-communist military pacts, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. His second observation is partly accurate in that, while NATO itself has not been dissolved, its ability to repel a Russian preemptive attack against Western Europe and North America has been severely compromised through the admission of “post”/crypto-communist states into the North Atlantic alliance: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

To prove our point, in days ahead we will be continuing our “Red World” series on communist states with new, in-depth profiles of the Not-So-Former Soviet Bloc countries in Eastern Europe. We have already profiled the Not-So-Former Soviet republics, including the Baltic states, and noted that the political parties, national parliaments, and executive offices in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are controlled by “ex”-communists and/or manipulated by the Russian Federation’s Federal Security Service/Foreign Intelligence Service. In those profiles we have also examined the Russian military presence in many of the “post”-Soviet republics.

As the articles below indicate, the neo-Soviet military machine is readying itself for a preemptive strike against the communist-infiltrated NATO countries. In the second article, note that Russian officials still refer to St. Petersburg as Leningrad. These developments follow in the wake of the expansion to 25 kilometers of the special border zone between Russia and Scandinavia. This widening of the internal buffer area along Russia’s western periphery was accompanied by the posting of minefield signs that disturbed Norwegian officials in October.

Su-34 Fullback fighter takes to the skies
19/12/2006

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti defense commentator Viktor Litovkin) – The inauguration of two brand-new Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers last week at Yeltsovka airfield, in Novosibirsk, was an event on a par with the great achievements of the past that people were once proud of but have long ago forgotten, such as the opening of new railways, power stations, or steel mills.

The official ceremony, attended by Russian Air Force Commander General of the Army Vladimir Mikhailov, Sukhoi CEO Mikhail Pogosyan and Fyodor Zhdanov, his counterpart at NAPO (the Chkalov Novosibirsk aircraft producing association), the Fullback’s producer, was a major landmark for the military as well as for the aircraft industry. This is because, as Mikhailov acknowledged, these two aircraft are the first new fighter jets to enter into service in Russia since 1992. Other planes have only been modernized.

The Su-34’s performance is well-known: its takeoff weight of 39 metric tons; maximum speed of 1,900 km/h near the ceiling and 1,400 km/h near the ground; operational range of 4,000 km without refueling and unlimited range with in-flight refueling (IFR); 30mm built-in cannon and bombs and missiles of all kinds; all-weapon, all-weather day-and-night capability against any, including pinpoint, surface targets; and a host of other features make it a truly formidable machine. The use of advanced munitions, with satellite-guided bombs that successfully completed tests last summer, makes the new aircraft uniquely useful in counterterrorist as well as conventional warfare.

The new fighter-bombers will be powered by high-thrust Salyut AL-31F-M1 engines. Salyut CEO Yury Yeliseyev has promised that his company will raise the engine’s already increased thrust and turnaround time (750 hours) to 14 metric tons and 1,000 hours in the near future.

Though the newly launched Su-34s are marked 01 and 02, they are in fact the latest in a test series of 10 aircraft. Others have been withdrawn by the designer as a basis for further upgrades. Fullback chief designer Rollan Martirosov told RIA Novosti that the current version has gone through three major upgrades: in 1999, 2004, and earlier this year.

The newly operational tactical aircraft has been called a “wireless flying computer,” meaning that it is very easy to install and uninstall programs without major changes to the hardware except for weapons and controlling electronics. The chief designer says the scope of upgrades that can be done in the field includes even the installation of innovative thrust-vectoring engines. The plane will not need a new power plant anytime soon, the designer says, because the Fullbacks are expected to perform well enough with the existing engines. However, you never know: the Su-34 will be in service for at least 30-40 years.

Right now, the 01 and 02 are heading for the Pilot Training Center in Lipetsk and the Air Force Test Center in Akhtubinsk, Astrakhan Region, where test pilots will try them out in various conditions to write combat instruction manuals, Mikhailov said.

Under a three-year contract between the Russian Air Force and NAPO, the latter will make two more Su-34s next year and then ten aircraft in each of the following two years. NAPO was considering radical re-equipment and staffing efforts to cope with the Russian order (150 new engineers next year, 450 in 2008 and 400 in 2009) and subsequent exports, Zhdanov told RIA Novosti.

Russian Air Force Commander Vladimir Mikhailov promised the new multi-role fighter-bombers would not be exported until the first Russian Fullback-armed air division was formed. He also said 200 such aircraft would be in operation with the Russian Air Force by 2020. Meanwhile, some of the older Su-24 Fencers, which the Fullbacks are meant to replace, will be upgraded regularly.

Russia puts new early-warning radar station on combat duty
22/12/2006

LEKHTUSI (Leningrad Region), December 22 (RIA Novosti) – A new early-warning radar has become operational in northwest Russia’s Leningrad Region, to fill a gap in national radar coverage that had existed for seven years, the defense minister said Friday.

“By putting this radar on combat duty, we have closed the gap in Russia’s radar coverage [of its borders] that existed for the last seven years,” said Sergei Ivanov.

The coverage gap appeared after the closure of an obsolete Dnestr-M radar in the Latvian town of Skrunde, 150 km from the ex-Soviet Baltic country’s capital Riga, in 1998.

Russia leases ground-based radar stations in Baranovichi, Belarus; Sevastopol and Mukachevo in Ukraine; Balkhash in Kazakhstan; and Gabala in Azerbaijan. It also has radars on its own territory in Murmansk (arctic northwest), Pechora (northwest Urals), and Irkutsk (east Siberia).

Ivanov said the new Voronezh radar in Lekhtusi, Leningrad Region, will be used not only for missile early warning purposes, but also as part of a comprehensive missile and air defense network.

The Voronezh radar has capabilities similar to its predecessors, the Dnepr and Daryal, which are currently deployed outside Russia, but uses less energy and meets current environmental standards. It has extensive radar coverage of a territory spreading from the North Pole to northern Africa.

Under the program for the development of Russia’s Space Forces, another Voronezh-type radar is being built in the Krasnodar Territory in southwest Russia, the defense minister said. Construction of the new radar is expected to be completed in 2007.

Ivanov also said Russia will stop using radars in ex-Soviet republics in the future, and will deploy early-warning arrays only on its own territory.

Russia’s Missile Forces successfully launch SS-18 Satan ICBM
21/12/2006

MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces have conducted a successful test launch of an RS-20V Voyevoda (NATO codename SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missile, the forces’ press office said Thursday.

The launch was made at 11:20 a.m. Moscow time (8:20 a.m. GMT), a spokesman said, adding that the missile, launched from Orenburg in the south Urals, successfully hit hypothetical targets on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The launch was made to test the RS-20V’s flight and technical characteristics to extend the service life of the R-36M2 missile systems to 20 years, the spokesman said.

“Before the launch, the missile had been in operation for 19 years,” he said.

He said the RS-20V was a modernized version of the RS-20B.

The RS-20V Voyevoda was developed in Ukraine’s design bureau Yuzhnoye. In 1988, the system, equipped with this missile, was adopted by the Missile Forces. The missile has a maxium flight range of 11,000 kilometers (6,840 miles) and a launch weight of 211 metric tons.

>USSR2 File: Red Youth Vanguard plans strategy for 2007-2008 political season, supports candidacy of CPSU leader Shenin; expresses solidarity with Cuba

>On December 17, 2006 the Central Committee of the Red Youth Vanguard (AKM), the youth section of the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union, convened to strategize for the upcoming 2007-2008 political season in Russia. AKM representatives from 15 regions in Russia, as well as Belarus and Ukraine, attended the Central Committee plenum. At that time AKM, as indicated in the document below, resolved: 1) to support CSPU chair Oleg Shenin’s candidacy in the March 2008 presidential election, 2) to promote the candidacies of Soviet communists for the December 2007 State Duma election, and in general 3) to mobilize and unite Russian leftists under the ideology of Marxism-Leninism and the banner of the restored CPSU, with the purpose of overthrowing the Putinist-Chekist-Surkovist-Gryzlovist regime.

The day before, AKM participated in the anti-Putin March of Dissent, which brought together 1,500 agitators from that organization, as well as the Union of Communist Youth of the Russian Federation (SKM, the youth section of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, itself the Russian section of the restored CPSU), the “banned” National Bolshevik Party, and liberal outfits like former chess master Gerry Kasparov’s United Civil Front and former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov’s People’s Democratic Union. Police detained “several dozen” protestors, as the link above, from Novosti, reports.

Per AKM documents published since the restoration of the CPSU in February 2004, Soviet communists are currently engaged in operations that will raise the party’s profile in advance of the red coup that will dislodge the potemkin pseudo-capitalist regime in the Kremlin. The March of Dissent is but one component in that publicity campaign.

In Moscow took place the current plenum of TsK [AKM]

17 December in Moscow took place the extended plenum of central committee [AKM]. In its work participated the representatives of 15 regions of Russia, delegates from Belorussia and Ukraine. The plenum of TsK [AKM] examined the questions, connected with the current activity of organization. In the consideration participated the members of TsK [AKM] Vasiliy [Kuzmin] (Moscow), Denis Victor ([Ulyanovsk]), Andrey [Korablev] (Tyumen’), Alexander [Iskrintsev] (Yakutiya), Sergey [Udaltsov] (Moscow), Victor Pavlov (Karelia), Dmitriy [Kudrenok] (Belorussia), novel [Katkov] (Moscow), Mikhail [Adamovich] (Belorussia), Alexander [Shalimov] (Moscow), and also the guests of plenum.

On the sums of the consideration of the current political situation in Russia and union republics of TsK [AKM] were made the following decisions:

1. To determine as the basic directions of work [AKM] to the nearest period:

– assistance to creation and to the development of different structures of people self-guidance

– councils, committees and T.d., the active work of the representatives OF [AKM] in the structures indicated;

– strengthening contacts with the working teams, the independent trade unions, and also conducting different political actions together with the workers;

– human rights activity, fight against the political repressions, the protection of political prisoners;

– conducting wide protest campaign with the requirements of nationalization and investigation of illegal privatized transactions;

– conducting the actions in defense of the social rights of citizens (ZhKKh, formation, medicine).

2. To continue the process of conversion [AKM] from the youth organization into the political motion. To actively develop contacts with the union organizations, and also to turn to the nearest allies ([SKM], [RKSMb] and others) with the proposal about the association into the united organization. In the union republics to act conformably to local political situation.

3. To take active part in electoral campaign of 2007-2008. Form of participation in the selections to determine in first half of 2007.

4. To contribute to the formation of wide oppositional coalition for the participation in the Presidential elections RF to in 2008 and fight for the domination in this coalition of the representatives of left-wing forces.

The plenum of TsK [AKM] decreed to conduct the eighth congress OF [AKM] in the fall of 2007 . Plenum stopped the authorities of the member Alexander’s TsK [AKM] [Minakova] (Ukraine). Also plenum accepted resolution in the support of socialist Cuba. The documents, accepted at the plenum of TsK [AKM], will be published soon.

Press- service [AKM]

>Breaking News: Saparmurat Niyazov, "ex"-communist dictator of Turkmenistan, dies; Putin affirms Russian friendship, warns of CSTO intervention

>The people of Turkmenistan . . . will remain committed to the political course of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi.
— Official statement of Turkmen Government, December 21, 2006

The political course of Comrade “Turkmenbashi,” of course, is neo-communism. Following President Niyazov’s death, Comrade Czar Putin subtly affirmed his intent to keep Turkmenistan within Moscow’s orbit: “We have known Saparmurat Atayevich as a friend of Russia. It was thanks to his efforts that a solid foundation of multi-sided Russian-Turkmen cooperation had been laid down . . . [I]t is in the interests of the people of Russia and Turkmenistan to continue strengthen our partnership.” The Hindu reports:

Meanwhile, head of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation of former Soviet states warned of a “potential aggravation of the situation” in Turkmenistan and said the defence pact could intervene. Russian analysts said Turkmenistan was likely to become a battleground for fierce struggle among Russia, the U.S., Europe and China for control over its vast gas reserves.

Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov will lead the Russian delegation at Comrade Turkmenbashi’s funeral. The report of President Niyazov’s death below is from state-run Novosti. See our December 14 “Red World” entry for Turkmenistan, updated several blogs below.

Turkmen TV reports Niyazov’s death at 66 – Russian Embassy
21/12/2006

MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) – A state TV channel in Turkmenistan has broadcast a statement on the death of President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov, praising the authoritarian leader’s achievements, the Russian Embassy said Thursday.

The announcement, which included a government statement, said Niyazov died of a cardiac arrest at 1:10 a.m. local time (8:10 p.m. GMT Wednesday) at the age of 66.

The embassy official said over the phone that the TV channel showed Niyazov’s portrait in a black frame as the statement was read out.

“The television channel is recounting the president’s biography and what he has done for Turkmenistan and the international community,” the Russian diplomat said.

The TV broadcast included an official statement from the Turkmen government, the State Security Council and parliamentarians.

“The people of Turkmenistan … will remain committed to the political course of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi,” the statement said.

Niyazov ruled the energy-rich ex-Soviet Central Asian republic for 21 years with an iron fist and created a personality cult styling himself as Turkmenbashi, or head of the Turkmen people.

The late president had been suffering from heart problems for several years. In 1997 he underwent heart bypass surgery in Germany. Since then, German cardiologists had traveled to Turkmenistan regularly to treat the leader.

Leaders of the opposition, who have been living abroad to avoid prosecution, have said they might meet in the next few days to discuss the situation following the president’s death.

Khudaiberdy Orazov, a former deputy prime minister and chairman of the Vatan movement, said he had already spoken with other opposition leaders over the phone.

>Red World: Russian Federation: Primary Coordinating Center of Continuing World Revolution; crypto-Stalinist United Russia dominates Duma

>Pictured here: Oleg Shenin, Stalinist, August 1991 coup plotter, chair of restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union (2004), past chair of Union of Communist Parties-CPSU (continuing CPSU, 1993-2004), co-founder with Gennady Zyuganov of Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (later Communist Party of the Russian Federation); 2008 Russian Federation presidential candidate.

After many months of research we have resumed our “Red World” list of communist states. We have now posted information on all 15 republics of the Not-So-Former Soviet Union, otherwise known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. For previous country lists see the following months in our archives: Africa, March; Asia, May; and Western Europe, July.

Russian Federation
Constituent republic of USSR: December 29, 1922-December 12, 1991
Previous name: Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR): November 7, 1917-December 12, 1991
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU; primary coordinating center of continuing world revolution and communist deception
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Neo-communist re-renewal: Constitutional crisis, 1993
Covert communist government of “post”-communist Russia:
1) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (restored CPSU): 2004-present
2) Union of Communist Parties-Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU; continuing CPSU): 1993-2004
3) Communist Party of the Soviet Union, self-banned (false discontinuity): 1991-1993
Putative government of “post”-communist Russia:
1) United Russia (crypto-communist but officially “centrist”; absorbs socialist Agrarian Party of Russia) forms largest bloc in Duma with support of Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (KGB/FSB-controlled false opposition) and Just Russia-Fatherland, Pensioners, Life (socialist, “ex”-CPRF leaders); Communist Party of the Russian Federation (“ex”-CPSU leader) in “opposition”: 2008-present
2) United Russia (crypto-communist but officially “centrist”) forms largest bloc in Duma with support of Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (KGB/FSB-controlled false opposition), Just Russia-Fatherland, Pensioners, Life (“ex”-CPRF leaders; merger of Rodina, Russian Party of Life, Russian Pensioners’ Party, People’s Party of the Russian Federation, and United Socialist Party of Russia), and Agrarian Party of Russia (socialist); Communist Party of the Russian Federation (“ex”-CPSU leader) in “opposition”: 2007-2008
3) United Russia (crypto-communist but officially “centrist”; merger of Unity Party of Russia (“ex”-CPSU leader), Fatherland-All Russia Party (“ex”-CPSU leader), Whole Russia Party (“ex”-CPSU leader), and Our Home Is Russia (“ex”-CPSU leader)) forms largest bloc in Duma, with following parties in opposition: Communist Party of the Russian Federation (“ex”-CPSU leader), Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (KGB/FSB-controlled false opposition), and Rodina (Motherland-National Patriotic Union, “ex”-CPRF leaders): 2003-2007
4) Communist Party of the Russian Federation (“ex”-CPSU leader) and Agrarian Party of Russia (CPRF rural wing) form largest bloc in Duma, with following parties in opposition: Unity Party of Russia (“ex”-CPSU leader), Fatherland-All Russia (“ex”-CPSU leader), Union of Right Forces (“ex”-CPSU/ex-Soviet apparatchik leaders), Yabloko (ex-Soviet apparatchik), Zhirinovsky Bloc (KGB/FSB-controlled false opposition), and Our Home Is Russia (“ex”-CPSU leader): 1999-2003
5) Communist Party of the Russian Federation (“ex”-CPSU leader) and Agrarian Party of Russia (CPRF rural wing) forms largest bloc in Duma, with following parties in opposition: Our Home Is Russia (“ex”-CPSU leader), Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (KGB/FSB-controlled false opposition), Yabloko (ex-Soviet apparatchik), and Democratic Choice of Russia (“ex”-CPSU leader, formerly Russia’s Choice): 1995-1999
6) Communist Party of the Russian Federation (“ex”-CPSU leader) and Agrarian Party of Russia (CPRF rural wing) form largest bloc in Duma, with following parties in opposition: Russia’s Choice (“ex”-CPSU leader), Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (KGB/FSB-controlled false opposition), Yabloko (ex-Soviet apparatchik), Women of Russia, Party of Russian Unity and Accord, and Democratic Party of Russia (“ex”-CPSU leader, formerly Democratic Russia): 1993-1995
7) Communist Party of the Russian Federation, “banned,” putative successor of CPSU: 1991-1993
8) Communist Party of the Soviet Union, including Democratic Platform (internal faction also known as Democratic Russia): 1990-1991
9) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), sole legal party: 1952-1990
10) All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), sole legal party: 1925-1952
11) Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), sole legal party: 1918-1925
12) Bolshevik Faction of Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, sole legal party: 1917-1918
13) St. Petersburg Soviet of Worker’s Delegates, failed socialist government dominated by Menshevik Faction of Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party: 1905
Communist Bloc memberships: Union (or United State) of Russia and Belarus, Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) Group (informal), Organization of the Islamic Conference
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party of Russia (consultative)
Ethnic Russian composition: 79.8%
Presidents of “post”-communist Russia:
1) Dmitry Medvedev (Komsomol, pro-United Russia; legal consultant to St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak and Deputy Mayor Vladimir Putin; Gazprom CEO): May 7, 2008-present
2) Vladimir Putin (“ex”-CPSU, “non-member” head of United Russia; KGB First Chief Directorate, posted to East Germany; Deputy Mayor, Saint Petersburg; senior positions, Yeltin’s second administration; Director, Federal Security Service): December 31, 1999-May 7, 2000 (acting), May 7, 2000-May 7, 2008
3) Boris Yeltsin (“ex”-CPSU, Democratic Russia (Democratic Platform of CPSU), “nonpartisan”): July 10, 1991-December 31, 1999
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Russia:
1) Vladimir Putin (“ex”-CPSU, “non-member” head of United Russia; KGB First Chief Directorate, posted to East Germany; Deputy Mayor, Saint Petersburg; senior positions, Yeltin’s second administration; Director, Federal Security Service): May 8, 2008-present
2) Viktor Zubkov (“ex”-CPSU, “nonpartisan”): September 14, 2007-May 7, 2008, May 7-8, 2008 (acting)
3) Mikhail Fradkov (ex-Soviet apparatchik; “nonpartisan”): March 5, 2004-September 14, 2007
4) Viktor Khristenko (“nonpartisan”): February 24-March 5, 2004 (acting)
5) Mikhail Kasyanov (Section Head, Department of Foreign Economic Relations, State Planning Committee, RSFSR; “nonpartisan”; Yeltsin clan): May 7, 2000-February 24, 2004
6) Vladimir Putin (“ex”-CPSU, “non-member” head of United Russia; KGB First Chief Directorate, posted to East Germany; Deputy Mayor, Saint Petersburg; senior positions, Yeltin’s second administration; Director, Federal Security Service): August 8, 1999-May 7, 2000
7) Sergei Stepashin (“ex”-CPSU, Komsomol, Yabloko; Director, FSB; Yeltsin clan): May 12-August 9, 1999
8) Yevgeny Primakov (“ex”-CPSU, “nonpartisan”; Pravda journalist; ex-Soviet apparatchik; First Deputy Chair, KGB; Director, SVR): September 11, 1998-May 12, 1999
9) Viktor Chernomyrdin (“ex”-CPSU, Our Home Is Russia): August 23-September 11, 1998
10) Sergei Kiriyenko (Komsomol; Union of Right Forces): March 23-August 23, 1998
11) Boris Yeltsin (“ex”-CPSU, “nonpartisan”): March 23, 1998 (acting)
12) Viktor Chernomyrdin (“ex”-CPSU, Our Home Is Russia): December 14, 1992-March 23,1998
13) Yegor Gaidar (“ex”-CPSU, Russia’s Choice, Democratic Choice of Russia, Union of Right Forces): June 15-December 14, 1992 (acting)
14) Boris Yeltsin (“ex”-CPSU; “nonpartisan”): November 6, 1991-June 15, 1992
State Duma Chairs of “post”-communist Russia:
1) Boris Gryzlov (Komsomol, United Russia): December 29, 2003-present
2) Gennady Seleznyov (“ex”-CPSU, CPRF): January 17, 1996-December 29, 2003
3) Ivan Rybkin (“ex”-CPSU, Socialist Workers’ Party, Agrarian Party of Russia, CPRF): January 14, 1994-January 17, 1996
Parliament of “post”-communist Russia: Bicameral Federal Assembly, consisting of 450-member State Duma, or lower house, and appointed, “nonpartisan,” 176-member Federation Council, or upper house
Soviet-era parliament: Congress of Soviets; provisional parliament until constitutional crisis of 1993; dominated by “banned” Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic/Communist Party of the Russian Federation

Pictured here: Fellow communists Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin ham it up for the sleepwalking West.

Dominant factions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in “post”-communist Russia:

1) Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF): The CPRF was established in June 1990 as the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (CPRSFSR), or the Russian section of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The founders of the CPRSFSR were delegates to the CPSU’s 28th Congress who opposed reforms and represented a number of regional organizations of the CPSU and its central governing body. This working body was known as the Initiative Movement of Communists of the RSFSR. On June 19 and 20, 1990, the Initiative Movement assembled in what became the constituent congress of the CPRSFSR. The instigators of the assembly were Oleg Shenin, Gennady Zyuganov, I.K. Polozkov, and V.A. Kuptsov.

President Boris Yeltsin’s “anti-communist” decree of November 6, 1991 terminated the public activities of the CPRSFSR. The republican governments of the Soviet Union, with the exception of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, also temporarily “banned” their respective communist parties. The government of the RSFSR “dissolved” the Central Committee of the CPRSFSR and “seized” the party’s property. In response, Russian communists divided into two camps: those that started forming new communist parties and others who asserted the right to reorganize the CPRSFSR. The latter camp appealed to the Constitutional Court of RSFSR, denying the constitutionality of President Yeltsin’s decree. — On August 23, 1992 the Constitutional Court of the “new” Russian Federation affirmed the right of Russian communists to operate in legal parties. In November a 62-member organizing committee issued a call to communists to attend the 2nd Congress of the CPRSFSR, now known as the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). The chair of the Organizing Committee was Kuptsov. Other members of the Organizing Committee were V.I. Zorkaltsev, A.V. Kruchkov, I.P. Osadtchiy, S.N. Petrov, G.I. Skliar, and B. Slavin. Several groups participated in the new congress, including leaders of the Central Committees of the supposedly defunct CPSU and CPRSFSR, as well as defectors from the Socialist Workers’ Party, including Ivan Rybkin, who became deputy chair of the CPRF CC.

On February 13, 1993 the party congress declared the resumption of CPRF activities and elected Gennady Zyuganov as its leader. The CPRF registered with the Russian Federation Ministry of Justice on March 24. Since then, the party has presented itself as the legal successor of the old CPSU. This is a deception. The CPRF is merely the Russian section of the restored/continuing CPSU.

Pictured here: A report published only at the CPRF website revealed that Gennady accompanied Vladimir to the 2006 APEC Summit in Hanoi, where the CPRF leader met Vietnamese communists

Prior to the December 2003 parliamentary election, the CPRF was embroiled in accusations that Russia’s business oligarchy was attempting to “privatize” the party by offering cash contributions and by fielding businessmen to run on the CPRF ticket: “The leader of Russia’s Communist Party (KPRF) Gennady Zyuganov stated yesterday, speaking to voters in the town of Elets (Lipetsk region), that KPRF has no ties with Boris Berezovsky or the chief of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky.” The report went on to state: “In late September Mikhail Khodorkovsky stated Yukos is not financing any political parties, while at the same time remarked that every person has the right to ‘have his own political views, defend them and support political parties.’ He said he is sponsoring SPS and Yabloko with his own money. He didn’t mention KPRF, however, former Yukos’ chairman Sergey Muravlenko and a counselor of Yukos-Moscow Aleksey Kondaurov have been included in the KPRF’s election list” (Russika Izvestia, October 17, 2003).

Without question, the attempt to “privatize” the CPRF–as well as produce its political offspring Rodina, consisting of disillusioned “ex”-CPRF members–was itself a communist strategy so as to hand an electoral victory to the Russian “Right,” also dominated by “ex”-communists and “ex”-KGB/FSB types. In doing so, the communists were able to provide a pretext for the CPSU, which was reorganized in the following spring, to rally Russians against the “Western/Zionist/Masonic-backed” bourgeois elements occupying the Kremlin.

Pictured here: Communist-turned- capitalist-turned-repentant-leftist, jailbird Mike Khodorkovsky

In early 2004, Pravda reported, the leadership of the CPRF, including Zyuganov, considered sponsoring jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky—Menatep Bank Group founder and Yukos CEO—as a candidate in the March presidential election. On October 25, 2003, the Federal Security Service had arrested Khodorkovsky on his private jet in Novosibirsk, while the “Komsomol capitalist” was en route to a remote Yukos production centre in East Siberia. While he was cooling his heels in the same correctional facility that held Shenin from 1991 to 1994, Khodorkovsky expressed remorse over his fling with capitalism, advocating a broad left coalition, including liberals, communists, and Rodina, to oppose the Putinist-Chekist regime. The Moscow Times reported on August 2, 2005: “Jailed oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky warned in his first missive since he received a nine-year prison sentence that unless the current authoritarian regime made way for a leftist, social-democratic alternative, huge upheaval was inevitable.” Khodorkovsky confidently affirmed in one of his letters from prison: “The leftists will win anyway. They’ll win democratically in full accordance with the free will of the majority of the electorate . . . with or without elections. The turn to the left will take place. The post-Soviet authoritarian project in Russia has exhausted its resources.”

Here we see the shallow and purposely deceptive nature of Russia’s post-Soviet “capitalists.” Much as Latin America’s “ex”-communist-terrorists have taken over the region through the ballot box, the restored CPSU intends to do the same, creating an aura of legitimacy that it lacked in the past. In October 2005 Yabloko’s Grigory Yavlinksky and Nikita Belykh, referred to “the political heirs of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who appeared and continue to appear on the scene under different names, but have always represented de facto a united bureaucratic nomenclature belonging to the same clan” (Yabloko website). United, indeed. The Soviet communists have never abandoned their totalitarian project nor their intention to export Leninist revolution overseas.

According to the party’s own information, the CPRF has 580,000 members in 2,362 local and 17,500 primary organizations, and attracts more than 18,000 new members each year. In addition to being the largest component of the restored CPSU and, before that, the Union of Communist Parties-CPSU, the CPRF holds membership in the International Communist Seminar, which is hosted by the Workers’ Party of Belgium.

2) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Shenin, 2001): Apparently founded in 2001 as a split from the UCP-CPSU, this party operates under the leadership of Oleg Shenin. The relationship of this party vis-à-vis the restored CPSU (Shenin, 2004) is unclear. We presume that its operations were reabsorbed by the UCP-CPSU before or during the 2004 congress that restored the CPSU in the proper sense.

3) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Shenin, 2004): Founded in 2004 by 12 of the 14 constituent parties of the UCP-CPSU, this party constitutes the restored CPSU in the proper sense and may rightly be called the legitimate heir of the old CPSU and, hence, the restored architect of Moscow’s long-range strategic deception.

4) Communist Party of the Union (of Russia and Belarus) (CPU): Founded in 2000, this party operates under the leadership of Oleg Shenin and represents an attempt to consolidate the activities of communists in the Union State of Russia and Belarus. The operations of the CPU appear to have been rolled into those of the restored CPSU (Shenin, 2004).

5) People’s Patriotic Union of Russia (NPSR): Founded in 1996, this left-communist nationalist alliance was dominated by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and operated under the leadership of Gennady Zyuganov. As of January 2009 the NPSR appears to have been defunct for some time.

6) Russian Communist Workers’ Party-Revolutionary Party of Communists (RCWP-RPC): Founded in 2001 by a merger of the Russian Communist Workers’ Party and the Russian Party of Communists, this “banned” party operates under the leadership of Viktor Tiulkin and Anatolii Kriuchkov. Although the RCWP-RPC associates with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Shenin, 2001), and International Communist Seminar, it apparently declined to join the restored CPSU in 2004.

7) Russian Communist Party-Communist Party of the Soviet Union (RCP-CPSU): Founded in 1991 as the Union of Communists, this party operates under the leadership of Aleksei Prigarin and associates with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

8) Union of Communist Parties-Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU): Founded in 1993, the UCP-CPSU represents the continuing CPSU and may rightly be called the CPSU “in camouflage” and, hence, the continuing architect of Moscow’s long-range strategic deception. In 2004 the UCP-CPSU transformed itself into the restored CPSU. In the 1995 parliamentary election, the UCP-CPSU, presenting itself as the Communist-Workers’ Russia-For the Soviet Union bloc won 1 seat and 4.5% of the popular vote.

Minor factions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in “post”-communist Russia:
1) Bolshevik Platform of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: Founded in 1991, this CPSU faction operates under the leadership of Tatyana Khabarova.
2) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Miroshnik): Founded in 2000 as a split from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Lenin-Stalin), this CPSU faction operates under the leadership of Vladimir Koryakin.
3) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) (KPSS(B)): Founded in 2002, this CPSU faction operates under the leadership of Timur Khachaturov.
4) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Lenin-Stalin) (KPSS(LS)): Founded in 1999 as a split from the Russian Communist Workers’ Party, this CPSU faction operates under the leadership of Viktor Anpilov.
5) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Skvortsov): Founded in 1992, this CPSU faction operates under the leadership of Sergei Skvortsov.
6) Working Russia: This communist party operates under the leadership of Viktor Anpilov. Its relationship to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Lenin-Stalin), also led by Anpilov, is not clear.

Other communist parties of “post”-communist Russia:
1) Agrarian Party of Russia (APR): Founded in 1993, the APR is the rural wing of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) and operated under the leadership of Mikhail Lapshin until 2004, when Vladimir Plotnikov assumed that role. Lapshin was President of the Altai Republic in the Russian Federation from 2002 until his death in 2006. In the RF State Duma election of December 1993, the APR won 37 seats and 8.0% of the popular vote. Between 1994 and 1996 APR member Ivan Rybkin was speaker of the Duma. Another APR member Nikolay Kharitonov ran as a presidential candidate for the CPRF in the 2004 presidential election and won 13.7% of the popular vote, coming second after Vladimir Putin. Communist-oriented agrarian parties can be found in a number of “ex”-Soviet republics. In 2008 the APR was absorbed by United Russia.
2) All-Union Communist Party Bolsheviks (VKPB): Founded in 1991, the VKPB operates under the leadership of Nina Andreeva and associates with the International Communist Seminar.
3) All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): Founded in 1995 as a split from the All-Union Communist Party Bolsheviks, this party operates under the leadership of Aleksandr Lapin.
4) Communist Party of the Republic of Tatarstan: Founded in 1991, this party associates with the UCP-CPSU.
5) Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Tikhonov): Following the July 4, 2004 congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Tikhonov, governor of the Ivanovo Region, endeavored to establish a new party under that name. The Russian Federation Ministry of Justice ruled in favor of the CPRF faction controlled by Gennady Zyuganov and outlawed Tikhonov’s faction.
6) Communists of St. Petersburg: This left socialist party was founded in 2003.
7) Communists of Working Russia (KTP): This party was founded in 2002 by Working Russia, operates under the leadership of Viktor Anpilov, and associates with the International Communist Seminar.
8) Federation of Anarcho-Communists (FAK): This party was founded in 2003.
9) Group of Proletarian Revolutionaries Collectivists (GPRK): This party is left communist in ideology.
10) International Communist Union (IKS): Founded in 2000, this party is left communist in ideology.
11) Internationalist Workers’ Party (MezhRP): Founded in 1994 this Trotskyist party associates with the International Workers’ League (Fourth International).
12) Marxist Circle of St. Petersburg: This party is radical left in ideology.
13) Marxist Labor Party (MRP): Founded in 1990, this party is left communist in ideology.
14) Marxist Labor Party (Bolsheviks) (MRP(B)): Founded in 2001, this left communist party split from the Marxist Labor Party.
15) Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist Platform of the Communist Movement: Founded in 1998, this party operates under the leadership of Teimuraz Avaliani.
16) Marxist Platform: This party operates under the leadership of Viktor Isaichikov.
17) New Communist Party (NKP): Founded in 2002, this left socialist party operates under the leadership of Andrei Brezhnev, grandson of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
18) New Revolutionary Alternative (NRA): Founded in 1996 this party is radical left in ideology.
19) Organization Committee for the Foundation of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Leninist): This party was founded in 2002.
20) Party for Unity and Peace (PME): Founded in 1996, this left nationalist party operates under the leadership of Sazhi Umalatova.
21) Party of Labor Solidarity (PTS): Founded in 2004, this left socialist party split from the Russian Party of Labor (RPT).
22) Party of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (PDP): Founded in 1990, this party operates under the leadership of Grigory Isaev.
23) People’s Communist Movement (NKD): Founded in 1998, this party operates under the leadership of Leonid Petrovsky.
24) Political Social Organization “Worker” (OPOR): Founded in 1992, this radical left party operates under the leadership of Boris Ihlov.
25) Regional Party of Communists (RPK): Founded in 1999 as a split from the Russian Party of Communists and based in St. Petersburg, this party operates under the leadership of Yevgeny Kozlov.
26) Revolutionary Alternative: Founded in 2003, this radical left party operates under the leadership of leader Alexei Shepovalov.
27) Revolutionary Workers’ Party (Biets): Operating under the leadership of Sergei Biets, this Trotskyist party split from the other Revolutionary Worker’s Party in 2003.
28) Revolutionary Workers’ Party (Doronenko): Operating under the leadership of Mikhail Doronenko, this Trotskyist party split from the other Revolutionary Worker’s Party in 2003.
29) Russian Maoist Party (RMP): Founded in 2000, this party operates under the leadership of Dar Zhutayev and associates with the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (Maoist).
30) Russian Movement for New Socialism (RDNS): This left socialist alliance was founded in 1996 and operates under the leadership of Oleg Sokolov and Yuri Petrov.
31) Russian Party of Labor (RPT): This left socialist party was founded in 2002 and operates under the leadership of Oleg Shein, who is not to be confused with Oleg Shenin, leader of the UCP-CPSU and restored CPSU.
32) Russian Workers’ Party (RRP): Founded in 1994 as a split from the Russian Communist Workers’ Party, this party operates under the leadership of Mikhail Popov and associates with the International Communist Seminar.
33) Socialist Resistance: Founded in 1993, this Trotskyist party associates with the Committee for a Workers’ International.
34) Socialist Workers’ Party (SPT): Founded in 1991 by Ivan Rybkin, who later joined the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, this left socialist party operates under the leadership of Aleksandr Maltsev.
35) Union of Marxists: This radical left party was founded in 1999.
36) United Workers’ Front (OFT): This radical left, ex-Stalinist party was founded in 1989 and operates under the leadership of Vladimir Stradimov.
37) Workers’ Democracy: Founded in 1990, this Trotskyist party was formerly known as the Revolutionary Workers’ Party (RRP). Its current leaders are Alexei Petrov and Sergei Marsky, and it associates with the International Marxist Tendency.

Pictured here: Over-the-edge KGB/FSB politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Pro-Putin parties of “post”-communist Russian Federation:

1) Just Russia-Motherland, Pensioners, Life: Also known as Fair Russia, this party was founded in 2006 as a merger of Rodina, the Russian Party of Life, and the Russian Pensioners’ Party. Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Federation Council of Russia, is the party’s chairman. Just Russia holds membership in the Socialist International. Since the original merger that produced the party, the People’s Party of the Russian Federation and the United Socialist Party of Russia also merged into Just Russia. In May 2007 Mironov proposed a merger between his party and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in order to create a new “unified socialist party.” However, CPRF Chairman Gennady Zyuganov rejected the proposal, claiming that Just Russia is not a true left-wing party but, rather, a support group for the Putinist regime. As of January 2009 Just Russia is represented in the State Duma.

2) Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR): The misnamed Liberal Democratic Party of Russia is “nationalist” in its ideology. The LDPR was founded on December 13, 1989 as the Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union, and was the first “non”-communist party to register with Soviet authorities after President Mikhail Gorbachev implemented his political “reforms.” After serving in the Soviet Army in Georgia, LDPR founder Vladimir Zhirinovsky worked in the Western Europe Section of the Soviet Peace Committee’s International Department. He obtained a law degree from Moscow State University in 1977 and later worked for the Mir Publishing House as a legal consultant (Rusnet, February 12, 2003). Zhirinovsky, who is known for his outrageous behavior and comments, is a suspected KGB/FSB agent. Rusnet comments:

Zhirinovsky’s mercurial politics and the LDPR’s murky antecedents led to wide speculation about possible KGB connections. In 1995, investigative journalist Alexander Zhylin, citing an ex-KGB staff official, Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Valentinov, reported that the LDPR had grown out of a Gorbachev-era KGB plan to “implant a convincing and persistent illusion in the public’s mind that no alternative to the country’s chief political leader existed.”

According to Valentinov, only a few people within Russia’s special services had access to information on the LDPR’s finances. Some ultranationalists shared these suspicions. In January 1994, Dmitry Vasiliev – leader of the nationalist group Pamyat, which itself has been accused of having financial and other ties with the security organs – denounced the LDPR as “a wind-up toy of the government.”

In the early 1990s the reformist Mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak asserted that Zhirinovsky’s “Liberal Democratic Party” was a KGB creation. “I have trustworthy facts, known to only a handful of people today, concerning the origins of Zhirinovsky’s party,” Sobchak stated in the January 12, 1994 issue of Literaturnaya Gazeta and then attributed a quote to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev: “We must ourselves set up the first alternative party, making sure that it will be controllable.” The Associated Press reported Gorbachev’s reaction through spokesman Vladimir Polyakov: “It’s simply not true. Neither Gorbachev nor the Politburo gave such an order.” By this point, Gorbachev was now involved in overseas propagandizing for communism through his foundation and spin-off projects like Global Green.

In 1991 and 1992 Union of Right Forces founder Anatoly Chubais was advisor to Mayor Sobchak. At the same time former KGB Lieutenant-Colonel Vladimir Putin was working in the mayor’s office. Sobchak died in 2000, some suspect by poisoning, taking to his grave any additional information that he might have known regarding the origin of the LDPR.

In 2003, after many years of denying his Jewish ancestry, Zhirinovsky acknowledged his father’s Jewish identity. On a private visit to Israel in June 2006, Zhirinovsky paid his first visit to the grave of his father, Wolf Isakovich Eidelshtein, who is buried in a Tel Aviv suburb.

As of January 2009 the LDPR–which has affiliates in Belarus, Lithuania, Transnistria, and Uzbekistan–is represented in the State Duma. LDPR deputies seldom vote against the Kremlin.

3) Right Cause: This liberal democratic political party was founded on November 16, 2008 as a merger of the Union of Right Forces, Civilian (or Citizens’) Power, and the Democratic Party of Russia (DPR). The DPR was founded in early 1990 from elements of Democratic Russia, an internal faction of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, also known as the Democratic Platform of the CPSU. While it claims to be a pro-business party in favor of human rights, its adversaries accuse Right Cause of being “too close” to Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev to be a real opposition force. According to some critics, in fact, the party is essentially directed by the Kremlin. Leonid Gozman is the leader of Right Cause.

Pictured here: Sergei Glazyev, one of several founders of the potemkin Rodina party that bolted from the CPRF and enabled United Russia to dominate the Duma in 2003.

4) Rodina (Motherland-National Patriotic Union): Rodina was a short-lived, left-nationalist party founded in advance of the State Duma election of 2003. The founders of Rodina are Dmitry Rogozin, Sergei Glazyev (ex-Soviet apparatchik, “ex”-CPRF), Sergey Baburin (Deputy, Supreme Soviet, RSFSR; voted against dissolution of USSR), Viktor Gerashchenko (Chair, USSR State Bank; Chair, Central Bank of the Russian Federation), Georgy Shpak (Colonel General, Russian Federation Airborne Forces; Governor, Ryazan Oblast), and Valentin Varennikov (“ex”-CPRF; Commander, Soviet Third Army; Deputy Head, Soviet General Staff).

Two Rodina founders, Baburin and Varennikov, served in the Soviet Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Baburin later joined the anti-Yeltsin opposition during the constitutional crisis of 1993. Baburin counts French nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen and Bosnian Serb nationalist Radovan Karadžić among his personal friends.

Similarly, General Varennikov was the Soviet Defence Minister’s personal representative in Kabul during the 1980s. He negotiated with the United Nations mission on Soviet troop withdrawal from 1988 to 1989. General Varennikov was named Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces and Soviet Deputy Minister of Defense in 1989. Along with the Gang of Eight, which included Shenin, Varrenikov was jailed as an August 1991 coup plotter. The Russian Federation Supreme Court acquitted him in 1994. He was elected on the CPRF ticket to the State Duma in 1995. In March 1997 Varennikov attended the Third Congress of the Peoples of the USSR, the purpose of which was to agitate for the reestablishment of the Soviet Union. In attendance at the Minsk conference were also President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Shenin, Zyuganov, and many other Soviet communist leaders.

According to some political observers, Rogozin and Glazyev established Rodina on behalf of the Kremlin to draw votes away from the CPRF and bolster United Russia. They contend that most Rodina supporters had become disillusioned with the CPRF after its leadership allegedly accepted bribes from leading Russian oligarchs in 2003.

Rodina, like Pamyat and the Russian Party, can trace its ancestry to the KGB-spawned far right organizations of the 1960s and 1970s. For example, Marshall Chuikov, hero of the Battle of Stalingrad, was honorary president of the All-Russian Association of Rodina (Motherland) Societies, which promoted the preservation of historical monuments throughout Russia. The Rodina societies served as cells for the Russian Party, which Russian authors Vladimir Solovyov and Elena Klepikova refer to as “Andropov’s illegitimate offspring” (Yuri Andropov: A Secret Passage into the Kremlin, 1983).

In October 2006 Rodina merged with the Russian Party of Life and the Russian Pensioners’ Party to form Just Russia under the leadership of Sergei Mironov.

Pictured here: Anatoly Chubais, capitalist-communist, CEO of United Energy System, which owns 96% of Russia’s energy grid; sister-in-law married to Putin’s ideologist, Vladislav Surkov.

5) Union of Right Forces: The Union of Right Forces (SPS) was founded in 1999 as a merger of Democratic Choice of Russia (previously known as Russia’s Choice), Democratic Party of Russia (DPR), and other “liberal, free-market” parties associated with the “Young Reformers” of the early 1990s. Co-founders include Anatoly Chubais (“ex”-CPSU), Yegor Gaidar (“ex”-CPSU), and Boris Nemtsov (ex-Soviet apparatchik).

Chubais was advisor to Mayor Anatoly Sobchak of St Petersburg between 1991 and 1992.

During the early days of perestroika Gaider was editor of Communist, the old CPSU ideological journal. In 1991 and 1992 he was Minister of Economic Development in the Yeltsin administration. During that time he implemented “post”-communist Russia’s market reforms. Former acting prime minister Gaidar founded Democratic Choice of Russia, originally known as Russia’s Choice, in 1994. While lecturing in Dublin on November 24, 2006 Gaidar was poisoned one day after FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko died of radiation poisoning in London. Russian doctors have confirmed that his illness was brought about by an unknown man-made poison. His daughter Maria is a political activist who has protested against the Chekist regime in the Kremlin.

From 1985 to 1990 Nemtsov worked as a senior scientist at the Gorky Radio-Physics Research Institute.

In 2008 the SPS merged with Civilian Power and the Democratic Party of Russia to form Right Cause. Incidentally, the DPR was founded by Nikolai Travkin from elements of Democratic Russia, an internal faction of the CPSU, also known as the Democratic Platform of the CPSU.

Pictured here: Mikhail Gorbachev and Putin; in 2001 Pravda reported: “Gorbachev said he supports Putin on major issues and will continue supporting him in the future.”

6) Union of Social Democrats/Social Democratic Party of Russia (USD/SDPR): The Social Democratic Party of Russia (SDPR) was founded on November 26, 2001 by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president and a key player in Moscow’s Leninist cabal and perestroika deception. The SDPR is a coalition of several social democratic parties and boasts approximately 12,000 members, but no seats in the State Duma. Gorbachev resigned as party leader in May 2004 over a disagreement with party chair Konstantin Titov who had insisted, over Gorbachev’s protest, on a deal with the pro-Kremlin United Russia party in the previous year’s parliamentary election. Titov, in turn, tendered his resignation at the third party convention on September 4, 2004.

The convention elected a new chair, Vladimir Kishenin, formerly leader of the Party of Social Justice, who was endorsed by Titov. Presenting himself, Kishenin admitted that he studied at a KGB college between 1972 and 1975. Kishenin obtained his previous post as a trusted representative for President Vladimir Putin during the March 2004 presidential election through the intervention of Vladislav Surkov, deputy director of the president’s administration and Putin’s chief ideologist. In an earlier incarnation, the old CPSU was known as the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

The SDPR was “banned” in 2007 due to low party membership and reorganized as the Union of Social Democrats (USD). The USD and SDPR hold consultative status in the Socialist International and, thus, provide an effective means by which Soviet communists like Gorbachev can manipulate the world socialist movement.

Pictured here: Boris Gryzlov addresses United Russia’s annual conference on December 2, 2006, in Yekaterinburg. Putin subsequently became the party’s “non-member” leader. United Russia maintains a foreign liaison office in Israel through a deal with the ruling Kadima party.

7) United Russia: The ideology of the crypto-Stalinist United Russia (ER) party is “centrist.” It was founded on December 1, 2001 as a merger of four pro-Putin parties: Unity Party of Russia (Sergei Shoigu, “ex”-CPSU), Fatherland-All Russia Party (Yuri Luzhkov, “ex”-CPSU), Whole Russia Party (Mintimer Shaimiev, “ex”-CPSU, Republic of Tatarstan President), and Our Home Is Russia (Viktor Chernomyrdin, “ex”-CPSU). In 2008 the Agrarian Party of Russia, once allied with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, merged into ER.

Shoigu has directed Russia’s civil defense programs since the “collapse” of the Soviet Union. He was appointed Deputy Chief of the State Architecture and Construction Committee of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic in 1990, Head of the Russian Rescue Corps in 1991, and Chair of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergency Situations, and Disasters in November 1991. Shoigu obtained his current position in January 1994. He was awarded the rank of major general in October of that year. Shoigu is married to the niece of the wife of Oleg Shenin, August 1991 coup plotter, chair of the restored/continuing CPSU, and 2008 presidential candidate.

Luzhkov joined the CPSU in 1968, was appointed to the Moscow City Council in 1977, entered the Executive Branch of the Moscow City Government in 1987, and was appointed by President Boris Yeltsin as Mayor of Moscow, a post he has held since 1992.

Shaimiev headed Tatarstan’s regional communist party until 1990. Since signing a power-sharing agreement with the federal authorities in February 1994, Shaimiev has become a dependable ally of Moscow. In 2002 the supposedly “ex”-communist Shaimiev opposed calls to ban the Communist Party of the Russian Federation:

I am convinced that the majority of citizens will not support this. In conditions of progressing to a multiparty system in Russia, those who do not like the communistic ideas of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation should not use an interdiction to eliminate the party, which has a steady electorate and rating. Even in the advanced democratic countries, the activity of Communist Parties where they exist is not forbidden. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation did not break any laws so as to forbid its activity (Interfax, April 3).

Chernomyrdin founded Our Home Is Russia (NDR) in 1995 as a liberal, centrist political movement for the purpose of rallying technocrats and reformist to the Yeltsin administration. Initially, the Agrarian Party of Russia and Russia’s Democratic Choice expressed an interest in cooperating with the NDR.

In 2000 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty observed that neo-Stalinists and members of the Komsomol joined Shoigu’s pro-Putin Unity Party, which was the chief predecessor of United Russia.

Yet a recent tactical alliance between the communists and Unity, which re-elected communist Gennady Seleznyev as Duma speaker, was not well received by the SPS. And the SPS’s indignation over the authorities’ treatment of missing RFE/RL journalist Andrei Babitsky represents another area of disagreement.

On the other side of the political spectrum, a group of young leftists see in Putin a modern –– and a moderate — autocrat like Stalin. They are trying to set up a youth organization for Unity on the basis of their own experiences in the communist youth organization.

Malyarov told RFE/RL that Putin reaches out to a very wide audience, and that his pledge to bring law, order, and stability to Russia is the reason his organization will support the acting president. That, he says, is also why two Komsomol members have joined Unity’s youth organization.

“It’s not about Putin being an ideal for communists today. We’re realists, we understand in what world we’re working. And even if we do think that the destruction of the economic system that existed in the Soviet Union was not judicious, we understand that it is impossible and probably not advisable to aim for a return to the past. From our point of view, there are now certain priority tasks, with the first among them assuring [Russia’s] territorial integrity, providing for law and order, and fighting corruption.”

For Malyarov, Putin’s ambiguous program is the reason why he can fit any niche on the left or right. Malyarov says that he fully supports Putin, even though in December’s elections he ran on an extreme-left list that used an image of Stalin as an emblem. He claims there is nothing contradictory in admiring both Stalin and Putin because they both defend a strong state — even if their methods are different.

Carnegie analyst Petrov says the Stalinists’ moving closer to Unity is logical. He points out that the communist regime was not very ideological during the last years of the Soviet Union. The idea that dominated that period, he adds, was that of Russia as a strong power — just the one the neo-Stalinists say they find in Unity today (Johnson’s Russia List, February 17, 2000).

Pictured here: Gryzlov welcomes Venezuela’s communist dictator Hugo Chavez during the latter’s visit to Russia in July 2006.

In 2000 Boris Gryzlov, who was then head of the Unity Party, accepted an invitation to speak at the national convention of the Republican Party of the USA. Writing for World Net Daily, Toby Westerman reported: “Gryzlov also assisted Putin in forming an alliance with the Communists after the newly elected Duma began its first session. The Unity-Communist alliance immediately re-elected the Communist Gennady Seleznev to the post of speaker, and today the alliance effectively controls the Duma” (August 1, 2000). The Moscow News, Westerman noted, referred to Unity as “an association of CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) … hacks.”

In October 2002 Grigory Yavlinsky, head of Yabloko, described the Unity Party and its successor United Russia in the following terms: “The people from Unity hooked up with the RF Communist Party, or rather with the previous version of the latter, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which really was a single party in the country. In this sense, and in many others, the Unity is an affiliate of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in terms of structure and its artificial way foundation” (Yabloko website).

In October 2003 the Kremlin sponsored an official celebration of the 85th anniversary of the Communist Youth League (Komsomol). President Putin and the speakers of both houses of parliament addressed attendees. A day before the celebration, United Russia displayed a huge banner congratulating the Komsomol across the street from the State Duma (Carnegie Moscow Center, October 30, 2003).

In 2003 The Christian Science Monitor noted the ideological similarities between United Russia and the CPRF:

United Russia’s tactic is to seduce the communists’ traditional constituency by appearing more like the old Soviet Communist Party than the KPRF does. The pro-Kremlin party has stolen the Communists’ anti-big business slogans, its posters feature Soviet-era icons like dictator Joseph Stalin and cosmonaut Yury Gagarin, and its attack ads slam the KPRF for including rich businessmen among its candidates.

Pictured here: ER general secretary Valery Bogomolov and Chinese Vice-Premier of China Huang Ju.

In July 2004 party general secretary Valery Bogomolov led a United Russia delegation to China, where he signed a cooperation protocol with the Communist Party of China. According to the International Department of the CPC Central Committee: “Bogomolov praised the efforts made by the Chinese people, under the leadership of the CPC, in economic and social development.” The current leader of the party’s parliamentary faction is State Duma Speaker Gryzlov, who held membership in the old CPSU Komsomol and, as noted above, later guided United Russia’s main predecessor, Unity. In response to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s 2006 resolution condemning communism, Gryzlov labeled the PACE statement “a waste of energy and time” and a “crusade against ghosts of the past.”

Pictured here: Surkov and Putin.

The party’s chief ideologist is Vladislav Surkov, Aide to the President and Deputy Chief of Presidential Administration. Although he was only 27 years old in 1991, when the Soviet Union was dismantled, we strongly suspect that Surkov is “ex”-Komsomol or a secret communist since he was a co-founder of the Menatep Bank, along with jailed “Komsomol capitalist” Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Leonid Nevzlin, who fled Putin’s anti-Yukos purge to Israel where he now holds citizenship. Former Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov asserted in 2006 that Surkov once served on the staff of Russian military intelligence (GRU). Writing for Russia Profile, journalist Yelena Rykovtseva reports: “Observers ascribed the idea of creating a new party to Kremlin ideologist Vladislav Surkov, although this credit was given mainly on the basis of inertia: Surkov is traditionally the Kremlin insider responsible for party building. It was he who created United Russia as the party of power, and he who created Rodina as an alternative to the Communists.”

In a 2004 interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, Surkov expressed antipathy toward the West: “They consider the nearly bloodless collapse of the Soviet Union their own achievement and seek to continue their victorious crusade. Their objective is to destroy Russia and to populate its vast expanses with numerous, ineffective quasi-states.“ Writing in The Moscow Times, Yulia Latynina reports: “At the recent Nashi convention on Lake Seliger in the Tver region, folks had a field day mocking the liberal media. King of PR and deputy chief of staff Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov himself did some of the trashing. He told the attentive Nashi kids how he hoped to cultivate a new Komsomol (The Moscow Times, July 27, 2005).

In February 2006 Surkov delivered a lengthy treatise at a United Russia seminar in which he advocated Russia’s “sovereign democracy.” This ideology embraces:

1. The integration of Russia into international markets
2. The nationalization of Russia’s strategic resources, including and especially energy
3. The elimination of the single-mandate electoral system in favor of party lists to marginalize smaller parties
4. The ratification of the Kremlin appointment of regional governors
5. Identification of Yeltsin-era oligarchs, leftist and ultranationalist opposition groups, Islamic and Chechen terrorists, and foreign powers as “enemies of the people”

Surkov defined United Russia’s role in the following manner:

If we want our society to be democratic, to possess sovereignty and be an actor in world politics, we must develop our democracy, and here fundamental human rights are part of the strengthening the structure of civil society. I see the [United Russia] party first of all as an instrument of civil society, as an instrument of societal participation in political life and in power…a self-regulating and non-commercial organization of a completely different kind…an institute of civil society, a self-organization of citizens. United Russia’s goal is not just to win in 2007, but to think about what everyone should be doing to guarantee the domination of the party for the next 10–15 years.

Surkov, moreover, might very well be personally acquainted with restored/continuing CPSU chair Oleg Shenin since his fellow Unity/United Russia comrade Sergei Shoigu is related to Shenin through marriage.

As of January 2009 United Russia is the best represented party in the State Duma, followed by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In terms of mass organization, ER boasts 2,555 branches across Russia and nearly two million members.

Anti-Putin parties of “post”-communist Russian Federation:

1) Yabloko (Russian United Democratic Party): The liberal Yabloko party has become a marginal force in Russian “politics,” but continues to present itself as an alternative to Putin’s authoritarianism. Grigory Yavlinsky, Yuri Boldyrev, and Vladimir Lukin founded the Yavlinsky-Boldyrev-Lukin bloc in November 1993, just before the parliamentary elections. Yabloko is an anacronym of the founders’ last names, as well as Russian for “apple,” the party symbol. At that time Yabloko absorbed the Republican Party of Russia (Vladimir Lysenko and Vyacheslav Shostakovsky), the Social Democratic Party of Russia (Anatoly Golov), and the Christian Democratic Union (Valery Borshchov). Golov’s social democratic party should not be confused, apparently, with the one started by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 2001. In early 2006 the Green Party of Russia merged with Yabloko. In the 2007 parliamentary election Yabloko lost its representation in the State Duma.

Yavlinksy was head of the USSR Joint Economic Department and joined Academician Abalkin’s commission on economic reforms in 1989. He was appointed Deputy Chair of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic Council of Ministers, and then Chair of the USSR State Commission for Economic Reforms in 1990. Yabloko supports the integration of Russia into the European Union which is, in fact, a primary objective of Moscow’s Leninist strategists. Yavlinsky stepped down as party leader in 2008, and was replaced by Moscow City Duma deputy Sergei Mitrokhin.

Communist youth organizations of the “post”-communist Russian Federation:
1) Red Youth Vanguard (AKM): Originally the youth wing of Viktor Anpilov’s Working Russia, the restored CPSU adopted AKM as its own youth wing in 2004.
2) Revolutionary Komsomol: This organization is the youth wing of the “banned” Russian Communist Workers’ Party-Revolutionary Party of Communists.
3) Russian Union of Youth (RUY): The RUY is the “ex”-Russian section of the old CPSU Komsomol, which adopted its current name in 1990, before the “collapse” of communism.
4) Union of Communist Youth of the Russian Federation (SKMRF): The Communist Party of the Russian Federation created its own Komsomol, SKMRF, in 1994.
5) United Youth League: This alliance united Za Rodina and the Union of Communist Youth of the Russian Federation in 2006.
6) Za Rodina: Formed in 2003, this organization was the youth wing of Rodina, which merged into Just Russia in 2006.

Crypto-communist youth organizations of the “post”-communist Russian Federation:
1) Democratic Anti-Fascist Youth Movement Nashi (“Ours”): Formed in 2005, this Kremlin-spawned organization refers to chapter leaders as commissars, like the old CPSU, and uses the red star of bolshevism as its logo, prominently displayed on members’ T-shirts. Like Russia’s contemporary communist youth organizations, Nashi is committed to fighting “fascism.” Nashi’s chief ideologist is the deputy head of Putin’s presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov. Nashi’s chief organizer is Vasily Yakimenko. In 2000 Surkov and Yakimenko created another pro-Putin youth group Idushchiye Vmeste (“Walking Together”), which has been criticized for its similarity to the old CPSU’s Young Pioneers. Cell members in Walking Together are referred to as “red stars.”
2) Young Guard: This is the youth wing of the pro-Putin United Russia party. The name refers to the old CPSU Komsomol’s journal and publishing house. Like Russia’s communist youth organizations, Young Guard is committed to fighting “fascism.”

The CPSU Prepares for the Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The USSR was established on December 29, 1922 when the RSFSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Byelorussian SSR, and Ukrainian SSR signed the Treaty of Creation of the USSR. The Soviet Union was formally dissolved and replaced by the “Commonwealth of Independent States” (CIS) on December 31, 1991. The CPSU banned itself and went underground, continuing to govern the CIS through “new” communist parties, “non”-communist parties, and KGB-spawned false opposition parties. The Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time on this date, only to await the long-planned resurrection of the Soviet Union more than 15-plus years later.

The Congress of Soviets, or Congress of People’s Deputies, was the supreme governing body of the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991. The congress was created as part of CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, via a 1988 amendment to the 1977 Soviet Constitution, and consisted of 2,250 deputies. The congress assembled twice yearly and would then elect a Supreme Soviet consisting of a smaller number of deputies. The Supreme Soviet served as a permanent legislature, deliberating on all but the most critical issues, which were reserved for the full congress.

On February 7, 1990, after 72 years of single-party rule, the CPSU Central Committee voted overwhelmingly to surrender its public monopoly of power. On March 15 the Congress of People’s Deputies amended Article Six of the Soviet Constitution, which guaranteed the CPSU its supremacy as the “leading authority” in government. In its revised form, Article Six stated that the Communist Party, together with “other political parties” and social organizations, has the right to shape state policy. During the 28th Party Congress, held between July 2 and 13, the CPSU voted to reorganize its ruling body, the Politburo, to include communist leaders from each of the 15 republics, in addition to the top 12 Moscow officials. Instead of their being selected by the Central Committee, the communist party in each republic chose its own leaders. Vladimir Ivashko from Ukraine was elected the first deputy general secretary, a new position created to assist the general secretary which, in this case, was Gorbachev.

The first and last USSR Congress of Soviets was elected in March 1989. This election differed from previous elections in the Soviet Union in that it was “competitive.” Instead of one CPSU-approved candidate for each seat, multiple communist candidates, representing “different” political positions, ran for the congress.

During the same period, a similar two-level legislative structure, in which a Congress of Soviets assembled twice yearly and a Supreme Soviet assembled year round, was established in the RSFSR. The body convened at the Russian White House. The first and last congress was elected in March 1990, and existed until President Boris Yeltsin dissolved the congress with its supreme soviet during the constitutional crisis of 1993. No such congress was established in the other republics of the Soviet Union during this period.

Upon convening in May 1990, the RSFSR Congress of Soviets elected Yeltsin, a former member of the Gorbachev clique, as president of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet. In June 1990 the congress affirmed Russia’s sovereignty over its natural resources and the supremacy of Russian laws over those of the central government of the Soviet Union.

Beween 1990 and 1991 the RSFSR expanded its sovereignty by establishing republican branches of numerous organizations, including the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, which became the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in 1993; the Russian Academy of Sciences; the Russian Committee for State Security, which was later divided into the Federal Security Service and Foreign Intelligence Service; and state radio and television broadcasting facilities.

Boris Yeltsin was president of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic until December 12, 1991, when the “new” Russian Federation was created. The communist-dominated Russian Federation Supreme Soviet elected Aleksandr Rutskoy (ex-Soviet military officer, Derzhava, Russian Social Democratic People’s Party, National Patriotic Union of Russia) to the post of president between September 22 and October 4, 1993, in opposition to Yeltsin during the 1993 constitutional crisis.

Pictured here: Vladimir Putin, Russia’s KGB-communist dictator since 1999.

President Putin’s Commitment to Communism

President Putin’s past (and present) membership in the CPSU is evident from several sources. During a December 23, 2004 press conference Putin acknowledged that former President of Poland, Alexander Kwasniewski, was being considered as a possible secretary general of NATO. Putin noted that Kwasniewski is a former communist, admitting that he recalled this fact from his own days as a member of the Young Communist League. Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky, furthermore, claims that President Vladimir Putin is a Soviet communist: “Communism means that you are ready to pay whatever price for your own political goals. Communism means that you say one thing and do another. Communism means you are always lying. All those points are the main points of Putin’s policies” (Interview, CNN, Russian Elections 2000). Lastly, John Stormer–author of the classic book None Dare Call It Treason (1964) and its sequel None Dare Call It Treason . . . 24 Years Later (1990)—wrote an article for the October and November 2001 issues of The Schwarz Report in which he stated:

The Communist Party was supposedly abolished over ten years ago but still controls the most seats in the Russian parliament. Putin, who while building a reputation as a “reformer,” has admitted that he personally never left the Communist Party. In fact, a keen-eyed observer of the CNN TV report on the December 1999 Russian parliamentary elections spotted Putin presenting his I.D. to the clerk so he could vote. The I.D. clearly showed the letters CCCP in dark gray on the inside of the booklet—which was, of course, his official Soviet Union Communist Party ID. The authoritative British journal, Soviet Analyst commented that CNN ignored this “curiosity.”

>USSR2 File: Red Youth Vanguard holds Dec. 10 protest, charges Putin with "genocide of Russia"; Dec. 16 march planned with Kasparov and Kasyanov groups

>On December 10 several organizations related to the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union mobilized in Moscow to protest the “anti-communist” Putinist- Chekist-Surkovist-Gryzlovist regime. These groups included the Red Youth Vanguard (AKM, the youth section of the CPSU), the Union of Communist Youth of the Russian Federation (the youth section of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, itself the Russian section of the restored CPSU), the “banned” National Bolshevik Party (NBP), and the military veterans of the International Union of Officers of the Soviet Union. The red agitators declared that President Putin and Prime Minister Fradkov are guilty of the “genocide of the Russian people, revelry of criminality, total corruption, and terrorism.” Some of the slogans shouted included: “Observe the constitution!” “Free political prisoners!” “Government by the entire people!”

What these youthful exuberant communists–and their ideological elders, such as Comrades Shenin and Zyuganov–neglected to mention is that the “Western-financed fascist monster” occupying the Kremlin was installed there by the old CPSU to advance the Party’s long-range strategic deception against the West.

AKM plans to participate in December 16’s March of Dissent, which includes the NBP, former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov’s People’s Democratic Union, and chess champion Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front/Committee 2008. The Federal Security Service raided Kasparov’s party office on December 12, as we blogged earlier, seeking “extremist” materials. Yesterday Kommersant Daily reported that the United Civil Front was allegedly storing propaganda literature for AKM. Here we see clearly the sinister nexus between the Soviet communists who covertly control Russia and their “liberal” cutouts.

>Red World: Republic of Uzbekistan: Soviet Communist Facelift in Central Asia

>Pictured here: “Post”-communist Uzbekistan’s only president, “ex”-communist Islam Karimov.

After many months of research we have resumed our “Red World” list of communist states. Thus far, we have posted information on 14 of the 15 republics of the Not-So-Former Soviet Union, otherwise known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. Tomorrow we will post information on the Russian Federation, the world’s headquarters for the continuing Leninist revolution. For previous country lists see the following months in our archives: Africa, March; Asia, May; and Western Europe, July.

Republic of Uzbekistan
Constituent republic of USSR: May 13, 1925-December 26, 1991
Previous names: Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, October 27, 1924-September 1, 1991
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” presidential-dominant state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Communist government:
1) People’s Democratic Party (formerly Communist Party of Uzbekistan): 1992-present
2) Communist Party of Uzbekistan (Uzbek section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1924-1992
Communist Bloc memberships: Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Central Asian Cooperation Organization (to merge with Eurasian Economic Community), Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Organization of the Islamic Conference
Socialist International presence: none
Ethnic Russian composition: 5.5%
Presidents of “post”-communist Uzbekistan:
1) Islam Karimov (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, Self-Sacrifice National Democratic Party, Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party; President, Uzbek SSR): September 1, 1991-present
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Uzbekistan:
1) Shavkat Mirziyayev (Self-Sacrifice National Democratic Party): December 12, 2003-present
2) Otkir Sultonov (political affiliation unknown): December 21, 1995-December 11, 2003
3) Abdulxashim Mutalov (political affiliation unknown): January 13, 1992-December 21, 1995
Parliament of “post”-communist Uzbekistan: Bicameral national legislature, Supreme or National Assembly, consisting of the 120-member Legislative Assembly and 100-member Senate
Soviet-era parliament: Supreme Soviet (Council), provisional parliament until 1995
Communist parties of “post”-communist Uzbekistan:
1) Communist Party of Uzbekistan (KPU): In spite of renaming itself as the Uzbekistan People’s Democratic Party, the KPU has maintained a separate existence since President Islam Karimov (“ex”-CPSU) officially “banned” the party in August 1991. The KPU operates under the leadership of Kahramon Mahmudov and associates with the UCP-CPSU.
2) Tashkent Communist Union (TKS): The radical left TKS was founded in 2001.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Uzbekistan:
1) People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (PDPU): Founded on November 15, 1991, the Communist Party of Uzbekistan renamed itself as the People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, operates under the leadership of Asliddin Rustamov, and in 2004 boasted 580,000 members.
Pro-government parties of “post”-communist Uzbekistan:
1) Adolat (“Justice”) Social Democratic Party (ASDP): The ASDP was founded on February 18, 1995, operates under the leadership of Turgunpulat Daminov, and boasts 50,000 members.
2) Liberal Democratic Party (LDP): The LDP was founded on November 15, 2003, operates under the leadership of Mahammadjon Ahmedjanov, and boasts 135,000 members.
3) Self-Sacrifice National Democratic Party (FDP): The FDP was founded on December 28, 1998, operates under the leadership of Akhtam Tursunov, and boasts 61,000 members.
4) Milli Tiklanish (“National Renaissance”): National Renaissance was founded on June 9, 1995, operates under the leadership of Hurshid Dostmuhammad, and boasts 50,000 members.
Banned parties of “post”-communist Uzbekistan:
1) Birlik (“Unity”) Popular Movement
2) Erk Democratic Party
3) Hezb-ut Tahrir: This reputed terrorist organization is committed to establishing a caliphate in the Islamic countries.
4) Islamic Movement of Turkestan (IMT): This terrorist organization, commonly known as Jamaot and formerly known as Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), is allied to the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan under the umbrella of the Islamic Movement of Central Asia (IMCA). The IMCA, in turn, is a guerrilla organization consisting of Tajik, Uzbek, Chechen, and Uyghur militants—the last based in the Chinese province of Xinjiang—who are committed to establishing a pan-Central Asian Islamist theocracy. Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada’s list of terrorist organizations links the IMT/IMU to al-Qaeda. According to the Uzbek security service, Tohir Toldashev, the organization’s leader, operates out of western Pakistan.
Russian military presence: After the 911 terrorist attack, the United States leased the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in southern Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan, to serve as a base to overthrow Kabul’s Taliban regime, which was harboring Osama bin Laden. On July 29, 2005 Uzbekistan invoked a provision requiring the US Air Force to leave within 180 days. On November 21 the withdrawal of US troops from Uzbekistan was completed. — At the same time, following a 2005 military pact between Russia and Uzbekistan, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov denied that the Russian Air Force would assume control of Karshi-Khanabad. However, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta and The Moscow News (August 8, 2005)—citing sources in the Russian Defense Ministry and Daniil Kislov, editor-in-chief of the Uzbek news agency Fergana—several hundred “plain-clothes Russian commandos” (Spetsnaz) were waiting at a nearby geological exploration base to assume control of Karshi-Khanabad. Neither the Russian nor Uzbek governments have issued any official statements related to the new management of the air base. — Karshi-Khanabad used to be the second-largest air base in the Soviet Union. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the air base hosted strategic Tu-22MZ planes and Tu-95 heavy bombers.

>Red World: Republic of Turkmenistan: Soviet Communist Facelift in Central Asia; Long-Time Dictator Niyazov Dies December 21, 2006

>Pictured here: A golden statue of Turkmenistan’s megalomaniac “ex”-communist dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, who died on December 21, 2006.

Republic of Turkmenistan
Constituent republic of USSR: May 30, 1925-October 27, 1991
Previous names:
1) Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic: October 27, 1924-October 27, 1991
2) Turkmen Oblast within Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic: August 7, 1921-October 27, 1924
Type of state: “Post”-communist single-party dictatorship under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Communist government:
1) Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (formerly Turkmen Communist Party), sole legal party: 1991-present
2) Turkmen Communist Party (Turkmen branch of CPSU), sole legal party: 1921-1991
Communist Bloc memberships: Turkmenistan maintains a “status of permanent neutrality,” which was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 12, 1995. Since that time it has not joined any international organization, with the exception of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO)–which embraces Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan–and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Founded in 1985, ECO is headquartered in Tehran. All of the ECO states are also members of the OIC, which was founded in 1969. The Russian Federation attained observer status in the OIC in 2005.
Socialist International presence: none
Ethnic Russian composition: 4.0%
Presidents of “post”-communist Turkmenistan:
1) Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow (Democratic Party of Turkmenistan): December 21, 2006-February 14, 2007 (acting), February 14, 2007-present
2) Saparmurat Niyazov (“ex”-CPSU, Democratic Party of Turkmenistan; President, Turkmen SSR): October 27, 1991-December 21, 2006 (died, presumably of natural causes)
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Turkmenistan: This office does not exist since the president is both head of state and head of government.
Parliament of “post”-communist Turkmenistan: Bicameral national legislature consisting of 50-member Assembly and 65-member People’s Council
Soviet-era parliament: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1993
Communist parties of “post”-communist Turkmenistan:
1) Communist Party of Turkmenistan: In spite of renaming itself as the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, the KPT has maintained a separate existence since President Saparmurat Niyazov (“ex’-CPSU) officially “banned” the party in November 1991. The KPT, which was originally founded in 1924, associates with the UCP-CPSU.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Turkmenistan:
1) Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (DPT): Founded in 1991, the Communist Party of Turkmenistan renamed itself as the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan and, despite constitutional guarantees permitting the formation of other parties, has been the only legal party since that time. As such, it holds all of the seats in both chambers of the national legislature. President Saparmurat Niyazov is the party chair and in 1992 the DPT boasted 52,000 members.
Exiled parties of “post”-communist Turkmenistan:
1) Republican Party of Turkmenistan: This party is co-chaired by Nurmukhammet Hanamov and Sapar Yklymov.
2) Union of Democratic Forces: Following conferences in Prague and Vienna in 2003, this alliance was organized by leaders of the United Democratic Opposition of Turkmenistan, Republican Party of Turkmenistan, and a third party, Vatan.
Russian military presence: The last troops of the Border Guard Service, a branch of the Russian Federation Federal Security Service, departed Turkmenistan in 1999.

>Red World: Republic of Tajikistan: Soviet Communist Facelift in Central Asia; Communist Party Never Banned

>Pictured here: “Post”-communist Tajikistan’s long-serving president, Emomali Rahmonov (“ex”-CPSU)

Republic of Tajikistan
Constituent republic of USSR: October 14, 1924-September 9, 1991
Previous names: 1) Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic: December 5, 1929-September 9, 1991; 2) Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic: October 14, 1924-December 5, 1929
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multi-party” presidential-dominant state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991

Neo-communist re-renewal: The neo-communist government of President Rakhmon Nabiyev (“ex”-CPSU) was ousted by the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) on September 7, 1992, leading to the Tajik Civil War, which finally ended in 1997. The UTO was a loosely organized opposition composed of disenfranchised groups from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions, liberal reformists, and Islamists, including the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, which was linked to the wider Islamic Movement of Central Asia (IMCA). The Uzbek branch of the IMCA is called the Islamic Movement of Turkestan/Uzbekistan. Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada’s list of terrorist organizations links the IMT/IMU to al-Qaeda.

In Afghanistan the UTO reorganized and rearmed with the aid of the Jamiat-i-Islami.

With the assistance of Russian troops and support from the Uzbekistan government, Emomali Rahmonov (“ex”-CPSU) reestablished communist control over the country. The estimated dead numbered from 50,000 to as many as 100,000. About 1.2 million people were displaced inside and outside Tajikistan. In the midst of the civil war, in June 1993, the Tajik Supreme Court banned all parties save the Communist Party of Tajikistan.

Communist government:

1. People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan with support of Communist Party of Tajikistan: 2000-present
2. Communist Party of Tajikistan with support of People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan (front for Communist Party of Tajikistan): 1995-2000
3. Communist Party of Tajikistan (briefly sole legal party, 1993): 1990-1995
4. Communist Party of Tajikistan (Tajik section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1924-1990

Type of installation: Soviet Army occupation, 1921

Russian military presence: As of 2002, approximately 25,000 troops of the Border Guard Service, a branch of the Russian Federation Federal Security Service, patrolled Tajikistan’s 1,400-kilometer border with Afghanistan. In 2004 the Russian Armed Forces opened a permanent base in the capital Dushanbe. The 6,000 troops of the 201^st Motorized Rifle Division are stationed there. Russia also plans to construct an air base near Dushanbe. Russian troops came to the defense of the pro-Moscow Rahmonov regime during the Tajik Civil War (1992-1997).

Communist Bloc memberships: Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), Central Asian Cooperation Organization (to merge with EEC), Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Organization of the Islamic Conference

Socialist International presence: none

Ethnic Russian composition: 1.1%

Communist parties of “post”-communist Tajikistan:

1. Communist Party of Tajikistan (HKT): Founded in 1929, the HKT operates under the leadership of Shodi Shabdolov and associates with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001). In 1991, when many of the constituent republican parties of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were temporarily “banned,” the HKT escaped that potemkin procedure. At that time, the HKT boasted 40,000 members. Presently, it rarely opposes the ruling People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan. Qahhor Mahkamov, who joined the Central Committee of the HKT in 1963, was first secretary of the party between 1985 and 1991. He was also president of the Tajik SSR from November 1990 until August 31, 1991, when he was forced to resign after supporting the August 19 “hardline” communist coup in Moscow. In 2000 President Emomali Rahmonov (“ex”-CPSU) appointed Mahkamov to the National Assembly, the upper house of the Tajik parliament.

Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Tajikistan:

1. Agrarian Party of Tajikistan: This party is apparently a front for the Communist Party of Tajikistan/ People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan.
2. Economic Reform Party: This party is apparently a front for the Communist Party of Tajikistan/People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan.
3. People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan (HDKT): “Post”-communist Tajikistan’s ruling party was founded in 1993 as a front for the Communist Party of Tajikistan. The HDKT operates under the leadership of Emomali Rahmonov and boasts 100,000 members.
4. Socialist Party of Tajikistan: Founded in 1996, this left socialist party operates under the leadership of Mirhuseyn Narziyev.

Other parties of “post”-communist Tajikistan:

1. Democratic Party of Tajikistan
2. Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRP): Founded in 1976 and banned between 1993 and 1998, during the Tajik Civil War, the IRP boycotted the 2006 presidential election. The second largest party in Tajikistan, after the ruling People’s Democratic Party, the IRP boasts 23,000 members. The IRP’s long-time leader, Tajik Muslim cleric Said Abdullo Nuri, died of cancer in August 2006. During the civil war he led the United Tajik Opposition.
3. Justice Party
4. Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan

Presidents of “post”-communist Tajikistan

1. Emomali Rahmonov (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan): November 20, 1992-present (Chair, Supreme Assembly until November 16, 1994)
2. Akbarsho Iskandrov: September 7-November 19, 1992 (acting)
3. Rakhmon Nabiyev (“ex”-CPSU; Chair, Supreme Soviet, Tajik SSR; President, Tajik SSR): December 2, 1991-September 7, 1992
4. Akbarsho Iskandrov: October 6-December 2, 1991 (acting)
5. Rakhmon Nabiyev (“ex”-CPSU; Chair, Supreme Soviet, Tajik SSR; President, Tajik SSR): September 23-October 6, 1991
6. Kadriddin Aslonov (“ex”-CPSU): August 31-September 23, 1991 (acting)
7. Qahhor Mahkamov (CPSU): November 1990-August 31, 1991

Prime ministers of “post”-communist Tajikistan:

1. Okil Okilov (People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan): December 20, 1999-present
2. Yakhyo Azimov: February 8, 1996-December 20, 1999
3. Jamshed Karimov: December 2, 1994-February 8, 1996
4. Abdujalil Samadov: December 18-27, 1993 (acting) December 27, 1993-December 2, 1994
5. Abdumalik Abdullajanov: September 21-November 22, 1992 (acting), November 22, 1992-December 18, 1993
6. Akbar Mirzoyev: January 9-September 21, 1992
7. Izatullo Khayoyev (CPSU, “ex”-CPSU): June 25, 1991-January 9, 1992

Parliament of “post”-communist Tajikistan: Bicameral national legislature, Supreme Assembly, consisting of 63-member Assembly of Representatives and 33-member National Assembly
Soviet-era “parliament”: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1995

Presidential elections of “post”-communist Tajikistan:

1. November 6, 2006: Emomali Rahmonov (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan) contested the election with Olimzon Boboyev (Economic Reform Party). Rahmonov won 76.4% of the popular vote, while Ismonov won 7.2%. The list of contenders also included Ismail Talbakov of the Communist Party of Tajikistan, Amir Karakulov of the Agrarian Party of Tajikistan, and Abdualim Gagarov of the Socialist Party of Tajikistan. The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, Democratic Party, and Social Democratic Party (SDH) did not field candidates. SDH leader Rakhmatillo Zoyirov criticized the election, asserting: “The Agrarian Party and the Economic Reform Party have a single mission: to create the appearance of a democratic election.”
2. June 22, 2003: Emomali Rahmonov (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan) won a referendum that would allow him to run for two more consecutive seven-year terms after his present term expires in 2006, theoretically permitting him to hold the presidency of Tajikistan until 2020.
3. November 9, 1999: Emomali Rahmonov (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan) contested the election with Davlat Ismonov. Rahmonov won 97.0% of the popular vote, while Ismonov won 2.0%.
4. November 6, 1994: Emomali Rahmonov (“ex”-CPSU, Communist Party of Tajikistan) contested the election with Abdumalk Abdulajanov (“ex”-CPSU, Party of Popular Unity and Accord). Rahmonov won 58.3% of the popular vote, while Abdulajanov won 35.0%.
5. December 2, 1991: Rakhmon Nabiyev (“ex”-CPSU) won the election. Disputes concerning the election led to demonstrations by the opposition that paralyzed the country. In May 1992 the country fell into a state of civil war. Nabiyev was ousted in an anti-communist coup in September of that year.

Parliamentary elections of “post”-communist Tajikistan:

1. February 27 and March 12, 2005: The pro-Nabiyev People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan won 49 out of 63 seats and 64.5% of the popular vote, while the pro-Nabiyev Communist Party of Tajikistan won 4 and 20.6%, Islamic Rebirth Party 2 and 7.5%, pro-Nabiyev “independent” candidates 5, and vacant seats 3.
2. February 27 and March 12, 2000: The pro-Nabiyev People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan won 30 out of 63 seats and 64.5% of the popular vote, while the pro-Nabiyev Communist Party of Tajikistan won 13 and 20.6%, Islamic Rebirth Party 2 and 7.5%, “independent” candidates 15, and vacant seats 3.
3. February 26 and March 12, 1995: The Communist Party of Tajikistan and affiliates won 100 out of 181 seats, while the pro-Nabiyev People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan won 10, Party of Popular Unity and Accord 6, Tajikistan Party of Economic and Political Renewal 1, and others 64. Constitutional changes reduced the number of seats in the national legislature before the 2000 parliamentary election.
4. March 1990: The Communist Party of Tajikistan won 94.0% of the seats in the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik SSR.

>Red World: Republic of Kazakhstan: Soviet Communist Facelift in Central Asia

>Pictured here: “Post”-communist Kazakhstan’s only president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, a “former” cadre of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Republic of Kazakhstan
Constituent republic of USSR: December 30, 1922-December 16, 1991
Previous names:
1) Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic: December 5, 1936-December 10, 1991
2) Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic: April 15, 1925-December 5, 1936
3) Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (not to be confused with Kyrgyz SSR): August 26, 1920-April 15, 1925
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” presidential-dominant state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Communist government:
1) Nur-Otan (formerly known as Otan, additional merger with Civic Party of Kazakhstan, Agrarian Party of Kazakhstan, and Asar) with support of Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, and Patriots’ Party of Kazakhstan: 2006-present
2) Otan (crypto-communist, merger of People’s Union of Kazakhstan Unity, Liberal Movement of Kazakhstan, and “For Kazakhstan–2030” Movement) with support of Civic Party of Kazakhstan, Agrarian and Industrial Union of Workers Bloc (including Agrarian Party of Kazakhstan), and Asar: 1999-2006
3) People’s Union of Kazakhstan Unity (“ex”-communist): 1996-1999
4) People’s Union of Kazakhstan Unity (“ex”-communist) with support from pro-Nazarbayev “independent” and state list candidates: 1994-1996
5) Socialist Party of Kazakhstan (formerly Kazakh Communist Party): 1991-1994
6) Kazakh Communist Party (Kazakh section of CPSU): 1990-1991
7) Kazakh Communist Party (Kazakh section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1922-1990
Communist Bloc memberships: Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), Central Asian Cooperation Organization (to merge with EEC), Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Organization of the Islamic Conference
Socialist International presence: none
Ethnic Russian composition: 30.0%
President of “post”-communist Kazakhstan:
1) Nursultan Nazarbayev (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Union of Kazakhstan Unity, Otan/Nur-Otan; Chair, Council of Ministers/Chair, Supreme Soviet/ President, Kazakh SSR): December 1, 1991-present
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Kazakhstan:
1) Karim Massimov (Nur-Otan; Co-chair, China-Kazakhstan Cooperation Committee; graduated from Beijing Language University, China): January 10, 2007-present
2) Daniyal Akhmetov (Otan/Nur-Otan): June 13, 2003–January 10, 2007
3) Imangali Tasmagambetov (“ex”-CPSU, Otan): January 28, 2002-June 11, 2003
4) Kasymzhomart Tokayev (Otan): October 1, 1999-January 28, 2002
5) Nurlan Balgimbayev (People’s Union of Kazakhstan Unity): October 10, 1997-October 1, 1999
6) Akezhan Kazhegeldin (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Union of Kazakhstan Unity, Republican People’s Party of Kazakhstan; KGB, Semipalatinsk Region Department): October 12, 1994-October 10, 1997
7) Sergei Tereshchenko (“nonpartisan,” Otan): October 14, 1991-October 12, 1994
Parliament of “post”-communist Kazakhstan: Bicameral parliament consists of the 98-seat Assembly, or lower house, and 47-seat Senate, or upper house
Soviet-era “parliament”: Supreme Soviet (Council), provisional parliament until 1994
Communist parties of “post”-communist Kazakhstan:
1) All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): This party associates with the Russian VKP(B).
2) Communist Party of Kazakhstan (QPK): Founded in October 1991 the QPK is the reorganized successor of the Kazakh Communist Party, which was founded in June 1937 and “banned” in August 1991. The founders of the new QPK rejected the decision of the 18th Congress of the Kazakh Communist Party to rename itself as the Socialist Party of Kazakhstan. The new QPK officially registered on February 28, 1994 and reregistered in 1997, and operates in all regions of Kazakhstan. It is one of the primary parties “opposing” the Nazarbayev regime. The current leader is Abdildin Serikbolsyn and the party has a membership of 70,000. The QPK associates with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and UCP-CPSU.
3) Kazakhstan Section of CWI: This Trotskyist party was founded in 2002.
4) Kazakhstan Section of SIQI: This Trotskyist party was founded in 2004, after defecting from the Committee for a Workers’ International.
5) Labor Movement of Kazakhstan “Solidarity”: This radical left party was founded in 1990 as the Labor Movement.
6) People’s Communist Party of Kazakhstan (QKKP): The QKKP was founded in 2004 as a split from the QPK. The current leader is Vladislav Kosarev and the party has a membership of 70,000. The split in communist ranks came about when Kosarev accused QPK leader, Serikbolsyn Abdildin, of accepting contributions from dubious sources.
7) People’s Party “Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan”: This party was founded in 2001. The current leader is Galymzhan Zhakiyanov.
8) Socialist Party of Kazakhstan: Founded on September 7, 1991, this party claims to be the legitimate heir of the old Kazakh Communist Party.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Kazakhstan:
1) Agrarian Party of Kazakhstan: This pro-Nazarbayev party was founded on January 6, 1999, operates under the leadership of Romin Madinov, and has a membership of 102,000.
2) Asar: Founded by President Nazarbayev’s daughter, Dariga, Asar merged into the pro-Nazarbayev Otan party on September 25, 2006. Asar had a membership of 177,000.
3) Civic Party of Kazkhstan (QAP): Founded on November 17, 1998 the QAP announced in October 2006 that it will merge into President Nazarbayev’s Otan party. The QAP has a membership of 160,000.
4) Democratic Party of Kazakhstan: Founded in July 2004 this pro-Nazarbayev party operates under the leadership of Maksut Narikhaev and has a membership of 60,100.
5) Democratic Party of Kazakhstan “Bright Path” (Ak Zhol): Ak Zhol was founded in March 2002 by a dissident faction of Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan. It has a membership of 147,000.
6) Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK): Founders of the anti-Nazarbayev DVK included Deputy Defense Minister Zhannat Yertlesova, Deputy Finance Minister Kairat Kelimbetov, and leading Kazakh businessmen, including the head of the Kazkommertz Bank Nurzhan Subkhanberdin, and Bulat Abilov. In the 2004 parliamentary election the DVK entered into an electoral bloc with the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. The party was founded in November 2001 and dissolved in February 2005.
7) Nur-Otan (“Fatherland’s Ray of Light”): Formerly known as Otan, this crypto-communist, pro-Nazarbayev party was founded on February 12, 1999 by a merger of three other presidential parties, People’s Union of Kazakhstan Unity, Liberal Movement of Kazakhstan, and “For Kazakhstan–2030” Movement. Asar joined in September 2006, followed by the Civic Party and the Agrarian Party in December, after which the party assumed its current name. Nur-Otan has a membership of 762,000. The China Brief reports: “Capitalizing on anti-American sentiments and the inherent openness to communist ideology of the pro-presidential party, Otan, China has begun to develop a strong strategic relation with its western neighbor” (July 8, 2004, page 7).
8) People’s Union of Kazakhstan Unity: This pro-Nazarbayev party was founded on February 6, 1993. Its relation to National Unity of Kazakhstan, founded on November 17, 1992, is not clear.
9) Republican People’s Party of Kazakhstan (RPPK): The RPPK is one of several parties that “opposes” Nazarbayev and regards the new Communist Party of Kazakhstan as an ally. The leader of the RPPK, Akezhan Kazhegeldin (“ex”-CPSU), was Prime Minister of Kazakhstan until he resigned in October 1997. In 1998 he was elected President of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan. The RPPK website portrays the QPK favorably:

Major responsibility lies now on the Communist Party leaders of Kazakhstan. Nursultan Nazarbayev is ready to let reregister the Communist Party only to have a communist threat to scare the West. We regard today’s communist leaders as our partners in the anti-Nazarbayev coalition. Kazakh Communist Party enjoys the support of a large segment of Kazakh society, represented mostly by senior citizens. I am sure that the rank-and-file communists will support our call for a boycott of the anti-constitutional law. It’s imperative that Communist party leaders make up their mind and support our initiative. The stance of Serikbolsyn Abdildin and other party leaders may be of crucial importance here. True communists have never accepted compromises.

Russian military presence: The Russian Federation currently leases the Baikonur Cosmodrome and 6,000 square kilometers adjacent to that facility from the Kazakh government. This agreement will expire in 2050. As of August 2006 the Russian Space Troops stationed 4,424 personnel at the cosmodrome (The Moscow News, August 14, 2006). These troops will be redeployed or transferred to reserve between 2007 and 2008. The Russian Federal Space Agency manages both Baikonur and the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, which is located in the Russian Federation and to which Moscow has transferred many of its spacefaring operations. Opened in 1955 the Baikonur Cosmodrome is the oldest, continuously operating space base in the world. The world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched here on October 4, 1957.

>Red World: Kyrgyz Republic: Soviet Communist Facelift in Central Asia; Communist Party Never Banned

>Pictured here: The “post”-communist Kyrgyz Republic’s deposed president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev (“ex”-CPSU)

Kyrgyz Republic
Constituent republic of USSR: October 14, 1924-August 31, 1991
Previous names:
1) Republic of Kyrgyzstan: December 15, 1990-1993
2) Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic: December 5, 1936-December 15, 1990
3) Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic: February 1, 1926-December 5, 1936
4) Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast: October 14, 1924-February 1, 1926
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” presidential-dominant state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Neo-communist re-renewal: Tulip Revolution, 2005
Neo-communist re-re-renewal: “Tulip Revolution 2,” 2006

Communist government:
1) People’s Movement of Kyrgyzstan (electoral alliance containing Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan and Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan): 2005-present
2) Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan (formerly Kyrgyz Communist Party): 1995-2005
3) Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan (front for Kyrgyz Communist Party): 1990-1995
4) Kyrgyz Communist Party (Kyrgyz section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1924-1990

Communist Bloc memberships: Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), Central Asian Cooperation Organization (to merge with EEC), Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Organization of the Islamic Conference
Socialist International presence: none
Ethnic Russian composition: 9.0%

Presidents of “post”-communist Kyrgyz Republic:
1) Roza Otunbayeva (“ex”-CPSU, Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan): April 7, 2010-present (head of provisional government)
2) Kurmanbek Bakiyev (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Movement of Kyrgyzstan, Ak Zhol Party): March 25-August 15, 2005 (acting), August 15, 2005-April 7, 2010 (deposed)
3) Ishenbai Kadyrbekov (party affiliation undetermined): March 24-25, 2005 (acting)
4) Askar Akayev (“ex”-CPSU, Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan): October 27, 1990-March 24, 2005 (deposed)

Prime ministers of “post”-communist Kyrgyz Republic:
1) Daniyar Usenov: October 20, 2009-April 7, 2010 (resigned)
2) Igor Chudinov (ethnic Russian, does not speak Kyrgyz; nominated by Ak Zhol Party, former Kyrgyz Energy and Industry Minister): December 24, 2007-October 20, 2009
3) Iskenderbek Aidaraliyev: November 28-December 24, 2007 (acting)
4) Almazbek Atambayev (Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan): March 29-November 28, 2007
5) Azim Isabekov (Komsomol, Ar Namys Party): January 29-March 29, 2007
6) Feliks Kulov (“ex”-CPSU, ex-Soviet apparatchik; Ar Namys Party, People’s Congress of Kyrgyzstan (alliance), For Fair Elections (alliance)): August 11, 2005-January 29, 2007
7) Kurmanbek Bakiyev (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Movement of Kyrgyzstan): March 24-August 11, 2005 (acting)
8) Nikolai Tanayev (ex-Soviet apparatchik): May 22-30, 2002 (acting), May 30, 2002-March 24, 2005
9) Kurmanbek Bakiyev (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Movement of Kyrgyzstan): December 21, 2000-May 22, 2002
10) Amangeldy Muraliev (“ex”-CPSU): April 13-21, 1999 (acting), April 21, 1999-December 11, 2000, December 11-21, 2000 (acting)
11) Boris Silaev (“ex”-CPSU): April 4-13, 1999 (acting)
12) Jumabek Ibraimov: December 25, 1998-April 4, 1999
13) Boris Silaev (“ex”-CPSU): December 23-25, 1998 (acting)
14) Kubanychbek Jumaliev (“nonpartisan”): March 24-25, 1998 (acting), March 25-December 23, 1998
15) Apas Jumagulov (“ex”-CPSU; Chair, Council of Ministers, Kyrgyz SSR): December 14, 1993-March 24, 1998
16) Almanbet Matubraimov (“nonpartisan”): December 13-14, 1993 (acting)
17) Tursunbek Chyngyshev (“nonpartisan”): February 10-26, 1992 (acting), February 26, 1992-December 13, 1993
18) Andrei Iordan (“nonpartisan”): November 29, 1991-February 10, 1992
19) Nasirdin Isanov (“nonpartisan”): August 30-November 29, 1991 (died in car crash)

Legislative Assembly Chairs of “post”-communist Kyrgyz Republic:
1) Omurbek Tekebayev (Ata-Meken Socialist Party): 2005-present
Parliament of “post”-communist Kyrgyz Republic : Bicameral Supreme Council, consisting of 60-member Legislative Assembly and “nonpartisan” 45-member Assembly of People’s Representatives
Soviet-era parliament: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1995

Communist parties of “post”-communist Kyrgyz Republic:
1) Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan (KPK): The KPK was founded and separated from the PKK on August 21, 1999 and registered on September 13. The KPK is co-chaired by Klara Ajybekova and Anarbek Usupbaev, boasts 8,000 members (Ajybekova, January 3, 2004), and associates with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001).
2) Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan (PKK): The PKK was founded in August 1992 as the successor of the Kyrgyz Communist Party, which avoided the “ban” imposed on the communist parties in many of the other Soviet republics in August 1991. The PKK registered on September 17, 1992 and reregistered on September 26, 2001. The PKK was first chaired by Absamat Masaliyev (“ex”-CPSU; Chair, Supreme Soviet, Kyrgyz SSR) from 1992 to 2004, and has been chaired by Nikolai Bailo since that time. The PKK boasts 25,000 members (Reuters, February 17, 2000) and associates with the UCP-CPSU.
3) People’s Movement of Kyrgyzstan: This left-communist electoral alliance was founded on September 22, 2004 by the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan, Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan, Republican Party of Kyrgyzstan, Asaba, Kairran, Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan, Erkindik, Erkin Kyrgyzstan, and New Kyrgyzstan. The alliance was originally chaired by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev (“ex”-CPSU) and was created to contest the 2005 parliamentary election.

Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Kyrgyz Republic:
1) Agrarian Party of Kyrgyzstan: Founded in 1993, this party operates under the leadership of Medetbek Shamshibekov and in 1999 boasted 8,000 members.
2) Ak Zhol (“Bright Path”) Party: Founded on October 15, 2007 by “ex”-CPSU President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Ak Zhol won 71 of 90 seats in the December 16, 2007 election for the Kyrgyz parliament.
3) Ar Namys (“Dignity”) Party: Founded in 1999, this party operates under the leadership of Prime Minister Feliks Kulov and currently boasts 11,000 to 12,000 members. Kulov was imprisoned between 2001 and 2005.
4) Ata Meken (“Fatherland”) Socialist Party: This party is chaired by Omurbek Tekebayev. On September 6, 2006 police discovered heroin in Tekebayev’s luggage during a trip to Poland. This incident is generally regarded as an attempt by the government of Kyrgyzstan to frame Tekebayev. Ata-Meken boasts 2,000 members.
5) Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan (DMK): In 1990 the “ex”-communist intelligentsia of Kyrgyzstan formed the DMK, which became the main force in the newly independent country’s first parliament. The DMK’s leader Topchubek Turgunaliev was subsequently imprisoned on charges of fraud. In 1999 founder Jypar Jeksheev stated that party membership was 15,000.
6) Republican People’s Party: This neo-communist party was founded in 1992 by Janybek Sharshenaliev and is currently chaired by Jenishbek Tentiev. Although boasting 3,500 members, it is currently inactive.
7) Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan: This neo-communist party was founded in 1993, is chaired by Almaz Atambaev, and absorbed the El Party in October 2004. It currently boasts 4,250 members.

Russian military presence: As of October 2003, the Russian Armed Forces maintained 500 troops and 20 combat and transport planes and helicopters at the Kant Air Base, near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, under the authority of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

>Red Terror File: Pro-Kremlin youth group Young Russia burns Estonian flag, denounces anti-Soviet law; Zhirinovsky brands Estonians "pro-Nazi"

>They [Young Russia] are behaving in the right way. They should bring it home somehow to the Estonian authorities that they have created an undemocratic regime, and are conducting a policy of open discrimination against Russians.
— Sergei Markov, Institute of Political Studies; quoted December 13, 2006

The hypocrisy of the Kremlin, as represented by the statement of Sergei Markov, a talking head from the Russian think tank mentioned above, is breathtaking. Russia’s crypto-communist politicians, such as KGB frontman Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and crypto-communist organizations, such as the “anti-fascist” youth organizations that cluster around the Kremlin–Nashi, Walking Together, Young Guard, and Young Russia–expose their true color when they fling words like “fascist” and “Nazi” at the Kremlin’s opponents. While not as obviously red as the country’s communist youth groups, the potemkin Russian “Right” is establishing a political climate conducive to the open resurgence of Soviet communism. Young Russia’s pro-Soviet sympathies are evident in some of the photos posted at its website.

Russian ombudsman sees no crime in Estonian flag-burning incident

MOSCOW, December 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s human rights commissioner said Wednesday he sees no criminality in a protest rally organized by a Russian youth movement near the Estonian Embassy in Moscow December 11, when Estonian national flags were burned.

Estonia sent Russia a diplomatic note of protest Tuesday after around 30 representatives of Young Russia protested against an anti-Soviet bill passed by Estonian lawmakers, burning Estonian flags and hanging an effigy of an Estonian soldier.

“I would not burn national flags of foreign states, but to be honest, I see no criminality in this case,” ombudsman Vladimir Lukin told RIA Novosti.

On November 30, the Estonian parliament approved a draft law introducing criminal responsibility for the public use and distribution of symbols pertaining to “occupation regimes,” which would include Soviet symbols.

The Russian protesters held banners reading “Liberator is not the same as invader” and “Estonian authorities – go to Nuremberg”, and set up a gallows with an effigy of an Estonian soldier dressed in Nazi uniform.

Estonia’s attitude to WWII, including officially-sanctioned marches of former Nazi SS fighters, have been strongly condemned by Moscow. Ultra-nationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky has branded the Baltic country a “pro-Nazi state”, and called for diplomatic ties with Tallinn to be severed. The Russian leadership has repeatedly called the EU’s attention to Estonia’s attempts to glorify Nazi Germany, and to its discriminatory policies relating to ethnic Russians who moved to the republic following its annexation by the Soviet Union.

Under the new bill, drafted by the Estonian Justice Ministry, the demonstration and distribution of official symbols of the Soviet Union and its republics, as well as symbols of the German Nazi Party and SS troops, including easily-recognizable fragments of such symbols, will be considered attempts to incite hatred, and will incur criminal punishment.

The leader of Young Russia admitted that burning Estonian flags was excessive, and did not rule out that the activists will apologize.

“We are considering this, and will make a decision on the issue soon,” Maxim Mishchenko told RIA Novosti.

The human rights commissioner said he saw no violations of anyone’s rights in the events, but said he is against such actions.

However, the director of the Institute of Political Studies think tank, Sergei Markov, said: “They are behaving in the right way. They should bring it home somehow to the Estonian authorities that they have created an undemocratic regime, and are conducting a policy of open discrimination against Russians.”

Earlier Russia’s foreign minister said he considered the Estonian lawmakers’ decision to be a disgrace.

“I consider the Estonian government’s latest decision morally disgraceful, and it could engender fabricated political problems while real problems, including those of the Russian-speaking population, should be resolved there,” Sergei Lavrov said.

Mikhail Kamynin, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, has already reacted to the bill, calling it outrageous.

“The Estonian authorities are continuing their disgraceful attempts to re-write history and equate Nazi crimes and the heroism of the Soviet people, who made a huge contribution to Europe’s liberation from Fascism,” he said earlier, adding that Estonia’s move could seriously damage bilateral relations.

The Baltic country was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, before World War II, and then re-conquered following the Nazi occupation of 1941-1944.

>Red Terror File: Pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi harrasses British ambassador, steals diary with FSB connivance; Anglo-Russian relations bottom out

>Nashi’s links with the Kremlin are well enough known. Their leader has met with President Putin many times and one of his advisers was known to have been involved in its creation.
— Anthony Brenton, British ambassador to Russia; quoted in The Telegraph, December 13, 2006

In the wake of the Litvinenko assassination, which MI5, MI6, and Scotland Yard are openly attributing to the Russian Federation Federal Security Service, Anglo-Russian relations have sunk to their lowest level since the First Cold War (1945-1991). Now the Kremlin has dispatched one of its youth organizations to intimidate the British ambassador to Russia, accusing him of fascism for opposing President Putin and questioning the Kremlin’s commitment to democracy.

The “anti-facist” activities of Nashi only serve to bolster the “anti-fascist” front that the pro-Putin, crypto-Stalinist United Russia party formed earlier this year with the KGB-spawned Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and the Union of Right Forces, founded by “ex”-CPSU members. Pictured above is Comrade Czar Putin’s chief ideologist, Vladislav Surkov ala Che Guevara and Andy Warhol. This image was produced by Young Guard, another pro-Kremlin crypto-Komsomol that looks to Surkov for its ideological marching orders. Along with ex-Komsomol capitalist Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Surkov sat on the board of directors at Menatep, Yukos’ parent organization.

While the Putinist-Chekist-Surkovist-Gryzlovist clique appears to hold the reins of power in the Kremlin, its personal and ideological linkages with the restored/continuing Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which we have documented in this blogsite, suggest that the Russian “Right” is itself a “fascist” fiction that serves only to provide the CPSU with a pretext for reasserting open control over the Not-So-Former Soviet Union. Pictured here again is Surkov, presumably power networking with his Kremlin buds.

British Envoy Links Kremlin to Harassment Campaign Unleashed Against Him

Moscow News, 13.12.2006

Britain’s ambassador to Moscow directly linked the Kremlin to a campaign of harassment waged against him by an ultra-nationalist youth movement, Telegraph.co.uk reported Wednesday.

Anthony Brenton said he had been the victim of four months of co-ordinated intimidation by the Nashi youth movement, an organization that has pledged loyalty to President Vladimir Putin. “Nashi’s links with the Kremlin are well enough known,” he said. “Their leader has met with President Putin many times and one of his advisers was known to have been involved in its creation.

”Even if one were to accept that they are not directly controlled by the Kremlin, this level of influence suggests that the Kremlin could stop them if it wanted to.“ The movement has obtained copies of Brenton’s daily diary — something that could suggest the involvement of the FSB spy agency — and used it to trail the ambassador wherever he goes.

Nashi youths have staked out his home and the embassy. They follow him, block his car on occasions and disrupt meetings. At one lunch, heckling youths rocked his chair, raising fears that he would be assaulted.

Mr Brenton said he could not go shopping without facing a barrage of abuse. ”When I go out of the house to buy cat food, they follow me and start waving banners,“ he said.

Ostensibly at least, Nashi’s campaign stems from Mr Brenton’s attendance at a summit convened by Russia’s liberal opposition in July to protest the limits imposed on civil society by the Kremlin. Nashi says that Mr Brenton participated in a ”fascist meeting“ and promised to hound him until he apologized for attending.

Mr Brenton’s speech also infuriated Mr Putin. Britain, which has emerged as Russia’s fiercest critic within the European Union, has particularly irked the Kremlin. The Russian government’s reaction to repeated complaints over Nashi’s actions from the embassy revealed how low Britain’s stock has fallen, even before differences emerged following the murder of ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko.

Although Russia is a signatory to the Vienna Protocols, which require host countries to ensure the safety of diplomats, the foreign ministry initially insisted that Nashi’s actions were ”not illegal“. Even when they later agreed to act, Nashi’s campaign has continued unabated.

Created last year largely by Vladislav Surkov, the deputy chief of the presidential staff, Nashi has become a useful tool for crushing dissent. Nashi youths have infiltrated opposition movements, beat-en up activists and held massive demonstrations.

Other tools have been used to target other British interests in Russia. The British Council in St Petersburg suffered repeated tax inspections earlier in the year and is now being threatened with closure by the fire safety department and the BBC’s Russia service has been taken off the air several times in the past year.

Russia’s problem with Britain essentially stems from court decisions granting political asylum to two of Putin’s least favorite people: Boris Berezovsky, the oligarch who helped bring the president to power but then turned against him, and Ahmed Zakayev, a Chechen rebel envoy.

Relations soured further this year when the Kremlin claimed that four British diplomats had used a transmitter hidden in a rock to spy on Russia and Mr Brenton challenged Putin’s democratic record.

>Red World: Georgia: Soviet Communist Facelift in the Caucasus

>Pictured here: Eduard Shevardnadze, long-time Georgian communist party boss, Soviet Foreign Minister (1985-1990, 1991), head of state of Georgia, 1992-1995, President of Georgia, 1995-2003; top Gorbachev ally and key player in perestroika deception; on Stalinists’ hit list of “counter-revolutionaries” at Soviet Belarus forum

Republic of Georgia
Constituent republic of USSR: December 30, 1922-April 9, 1991
Previous names:
1) Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic: February 25, 1921-November 15, 1990
2) Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, including Armenia and Azerbaijan: March 12, 1922-December 5, 1936
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” presidential-dominant state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Neo-communist re-renewal: Rose Revolution, 2003
Neo-communist coups:
1) The Moscow-backed United Communist Party of Georgia and related Justice Party attempted to violently overthrow Mikhail Saakashvili’s “pro-Western” government in September 2006. At the same time, Russian politicians warmly support the independence movements in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two self-proclaimed independent republics within the borders of Georgia. Russia has in fact granted citizenship to many residents in these two breakaway regions. South Ossetians held a referendum on November 12, 2006 in which they voted overwhelmingly to secede from Georgia. The results are not recognized internationally.
2) Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgia’s first democratically elected “non”-communist president, was deposed by Moscow-backed forces on January 6, 1992. Gamsakhurdia returned from exile to overthrow the Moscow-backed regime, but failed when Russian troops supported Eduard Shevardnadze’s government between September and December 1993.
Communist government:
1) National Movement-Democrats (under leadership of Eduard Shevardnadze’ protege Mikhail Saakashvili): 2003-present
2) Citizens’ Union of Georgia (under leadership of Eduard Shevardnadze) with support from Communist Party of Georgia/Socialist Labor Party of Georgia: 1995-2003
3) Georgian State Council (under leadership of Eduard Shevardnadze) with support from Communist Party of Georgia/Socialist Labor Party of Georgia: 1992-1995
4) Military government with support from (new) Communist Party of Georgia/Socialist Labor Party of Georgia: 1992
5) Round Table-Free Georgia: 1990-1992
6) Communist Party of Georgia (Georgian section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1921-1990
Communist Bloc memberships: Commonwealth of Independent States, GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, Community of Democratic Choice
Socialist International presence: none
Ethnic Russian composition: 1.5%
Presidents of “post”-communist Georgia:
1) Mikhail Saakashvili (“ex”-communist United Citizens of Georgia, United National Movement/National Movement-Democrats; Komsomol “drop out,” alleged KGB agent): January 20, 2008-present
2) Nino Burjanadze (“ex”-communist United Citizens of Georgia, Burjanadze-Democrats): November 25, 2007-January 20, 2008 (acting)
3) Mikhail Saakashvili (“ex”-communist United Citizens of Georgia, United National Movement/National Movement-Democrats; Komsomol “drop out,” alleged KGB agent): January 25, 2004 -November 25, 2007
4) Nino Burjanadze (“ex”-communist United Citizens of Georgia, Burjanadze-Democrats): November 23, 2003-January 25, 2004 (acting)
5) Eduard Shevardnadze (“ex”-CPSU, United Citizens of Georgia): November 25, 1995-November 23, 2003 (deposed in Rose Revolution); March 10, 1992-November 25, 1995 (acting chair, State Council)
6) Tengiz Sigua (Moscow-backed military government): January 6-March 10, 1992
7) Zviad Gamsakhurdia (Round Table-Free Georgia): April 9, 1991-January 6, 1992 (deposed by coup)
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Georgia:
1) Grigol Mgaloblishvili (independent, son of Soviet intelligentsia, born 1973): November 1, 2008-present
2) Vladimer “Lado” Gurgenidze (nonpartisan): November 22, 2007-November 1, 2008
3) Zurab Nogaideli (Green Party, “ex”-communist United Citizens of Georgia, nonpartisan): February 17, 2005-November 22, 2007
4) Giorgi Baramidze (United National Movement/National Movement-Democrats): February 3-17, 2005 (acting)
5) Zurab Zhvania (“ex”-communist United Citizens of Georgia, United National Movement/National Movement-Democrats, Burjanadze-Democrats): November 27, 2003-February 3, 2005 (died under suspicious circumstances)
6) Avtandil Jorbenadze (“ex”-CPSU, United Citizens of Georgia): December 21, 2001-November 27, 2003
7) Giorgi Arsenishvili (“ex”-CPSU, United Citizens of Georgia): May 11, 2000-December 21, 2001
8) Vazha Lortkipanidze (“ex”-CPSU, United Citizens of Georgia): August 7, 1998-May 11, 2000
9) Niko Lekishvili (“ex”-CPSU, United Citizens of Georgia): December 8, 1995-August 7, 1998
10) Otar Patsatsia (“nonpartisan”): August 20, 1993-October 5, 1995
11) Eduard Shevardnadze (“ex”-CPSU): August 6-20, 1993 (acting)
12) Tengiz Sigua (“nonpartisan”): January 6, 1992-August 6, 1993
13) Bessarion Gugushvili (Round Table-Free Georgia): August 1991-January 6, 1992
14) Murman Omanidze (“nonpartisan”): August 18, 1991-August 1991 (acting)
15) Tengiz Sigua (“nonpartisan”): November 15, 1990-August 18, 1991
Parliament of “post”-communist Georgia: Unicameral 235-member Supreme Council
Soviet-era parliament: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1992
Communist parties of “post”-communist Georgia:
1) Communist Party of Abkhazia: This regional party associates with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001).
2) Communist Party of Georgia (SKP): The formerly ruling party of the Georgian SSR, the SKP was banned by President Zviad Gamsakhurdia in August 1991 and communist deputies deprived of their seats in the Supreme Soviet. One faction of the party reorganized in February 23, 1992 as the Socialist Labor Party of Georgia, but was later known again as the Communist Party of Georgia. The SKP operates under the leadership of Ivan Tsiklauri, publishes Komunisti-XXI, boasts 15,000 members, and maintains a youth league.
3) Communist Party of Adzharia: This regional party is the Adzharian section of the SKP.
4) Communist Party of South Ossetia: This regional party associates with the UCP-CPSU.
5) Followers of Stalin
6) Jumber Patiashvili-Unity: This coalition unites two leftist parties, Unity and the Intellectuals’ League of Georgia. It operates under the leadership Jumber Patiashvili, the head of the old Communist Party of Georgia between 1985 and 1989.
7) New Communist Party: Founded in 2001, this party operates under the leadership of Yevgenii Dzhughashvili, the grandson of Joseph Stalin, and associates with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001). The party participated in Adzharia’s June 2004 elections.
8) Party of Communists of the Republic of South Ossetia: Founded in 2001, this party formerly associated with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001).
9) People’s Patriotic Union of Georgia: This alliance was founded in 1997 and dissolved the following year.
10) Political Organization of Georgian Workers: Founded in 1990, this party operates under the leadership of Tengiz Kantelashvili.
11) Samartlianoba (“Justice”) Party: This party operates under the leadership of Igor Giorgadze, the son of ex-Soviet General Panteleimon Giorgadze, the head of the United Communist Party of Georgia. Igor was forced into exile after being accused of plotting to assassinate Eduard Shevardnadze in 1995. From his base in Russia, Igor runs a public movement “Anti-Soros in Georgia,” as well as Samartlianoba. The former movement’s name refers to Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros, who was allegedly involved in sponsoring the November 23, 2003 Rose Revolution. During the 1992-1993 civil war between the adherents of the first Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia and his opponents, Igor sided with Shevardnadze and in 1993, was appointed the country’s Minister of State Security. Igor attempted to run for president of Georgia in the 2000 and 2004 elections, but the Central Election Commission prevented him from registering. — On September 6, 2006 Georgian police arrested over 30 members of Samartlianoba and its front groups, in Tbilisi and elsewhere in the country. The arrested parties are suspected of plotting to organize a violent coup against the current pro-Western government of President Mikheil Saakashvili. Allegations also include receiving illegal funds from abroad and collaboration with the security services of a foreign country, presumably the Russian Federation Federal Security Service. Reportedly, a large amount of arms and illegal money were discovered in party offices. The United Communist Party of Georgia and its leader, Igor’s father, were also implicated in the coup plot.
12) United Communist Party of Georgia (SEKP): The SEKP was founded in 1994 by a merger of the Stalin Society, Workers’ Communist Party, and Union of Communists. The party operates under the leadership of ex-Soviet General Panteleimon Giorgadze, and associates with the UCP-CPSU and International Communist Seminar. The party organ is Komunisti.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Georgia:
1) Citizens’ Union of Georgia (UGC): This party, defunct since the Rose Revolution in 2003, amalgamated members of the Green Party of Georgia, leading communist-era intellectuals with ties to Eduard Shevardnadze (“ex”-CPSU), and a number of unaffiliated Shevardnadze supporters from the Georgian SSR Supreme Soviet. Georgians generally viewed the Citizens’ Union as the government party.
Other parties of “post”-communist Georgia:
1) National Movement-Democrats: The founder of this party, Mikhail Saakashvili (born 1967), received a Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School in 1994 and a PhD in law from George Washington University the following year. He also received a diploma from the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. After graduation, while working in the New York law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler in early 1995, Saakashvili was approached by Zurab Zhvania, an old friend from Georgia who was recruiting young Georgians to work in President Eduard Shevardnadze’s cabinet. Saakashvili stood in the December 1995 elections along with Zhvania. Both men represented the Citizens’ Union of Georgia (UGC), Shevardnadze’s party, and won seats in parliament. He is a Komsomol “drop out” and an alleged KGB agent. — On October 12, 2000, Saakashvili became Shevardnadze’s Minister of Justice. He initiated major reforms in the corrupt Georgian criminal justice and prisons system. In mid-2001 he became involved in a controversy with Economics Minister Ivane Chkhartishvili, State Security Minister Vakhtang Kutateladze, and Tbilisi police chief Ioseb Alavidze, accusing them of profiting from fraudulent business deals. — Saakashvili resigned on September 5, 2001 and quit the Shevardnadze-run UGC. Saakashvili founded the United National Movement (UNM) in October 2001, a mildly nationalistic social democratic party, to provide a haven for Georgia’s reformist leaders. In June 2002 he was elected as chair of the Tbilisi City Assembly, following an agreement between the UNM and the Georgian Labor Party. This gave Saakashvili a powerful platform from which to criticize President Shevardnadze. On February 24, 2004 the UNM and the United Democrats amalgamated into the National Movement-Democrats (NMD). — Zhvania, who was prime minister from February 18, 2004 until his death, entered politics in 1988, under the communist regime, co-chairing the Green Party of Georgia. In September 1991 the Greens joined the opposition to the government of the first post-Soviet president of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Zhvania joined the UGC in 1992, entering the Georgian parliament in the same year and recruited other reformists, like Saakashvili, to the party. He died on February 3, 2005 of carbon monoxide poisoning, apparently due to an inadequately ventilated gas heater. He was in the home of Raul Usupov, deputy governor of Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli region, at the time. Usupov also died. Notwithstanding official denials that foul play was involved, the fact that Zhvania recruited Saakashvili into the Shevardnadze-run “ex”-communist UGC is suspicious.
Russian military presence: The Russian Armed Forces maintain two bases in Batumi and Akhalkalaki, Georgia, which is a source of considerable tension between Moscow and Tblisi. The headquarters of the Russian military in the Caucasus is located in the capital. According to the bilateral agreements of 2005 and 2006, Russian troops will complete their withdrawal by January 1, 2008.

>Red World: Azerbaijan: Soviet Communist Facelift in the Caucasus

>Pictured here: Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, walking in the footsteps of his father Heydar (“ex”-CPSU/KGB), previous president

Republic of Azerbaijan
Constituent republic of USSR: December 30, 1922-August 30, 1991
Previous names:
1) Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic: April 28, 1920-November 19, 1991
2) Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, including Armenia and Georgia: March 12, 1922-December 5, 1936
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” presidential-dominant state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Neo-communist coup: Abülfaz Elçibay, Azerbaijan’s first democratically elected “non”-communist president, was deposed by Moscow-backed forces on September 1, 1993.
Communist government:
1) New Azerbaijan Party (“ex”-communist members) with extraparliamentary support of Reformist Communist Party of Azerbaijan: 1996-present
2) New Azerbaijan Party (“ex”-communist members): 1993-1996
3) Azerbaijan Popular Front (front for Communist Party of Azerbaijan): 1992-1993
4) Communist Party of Azerbaijan (“banned”): 1991-1992
5) Communist Party of Azerbaijan: 1990-1991
6) Communist Party of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1920-1990
Communist Bloc memberships: Commonwealth of Independent States, GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, Organization of the Islamic Conference
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (consultative
Ethnic Russian composition: 1.8%
Presidents of “post”-communist Azerbaijan:
1) Ilham Aliyev (New Azerbaijan Party, son of Heydar Aliyev, presidential administration consists of “ex”-CPSU cadres and “ex”-Komsomol activists): October 31, 2003-present
2) Heydar Aliyev (“ex”-CPSU, New Azerbaijan Party; Chair, Azerbaijan KGB): June 24, 1993-October 31, 2003
3) Abülfaz Elçibay (Azerbaijan Popular Front, front for Communist Party of Azerbaijan; pro-Grey Wolves): June 16, 1992-September 1, 1993 (deposed by communist coup)
4) İsa Qambar (Azerbaijan Popular Front, front for Communist Party of Azerbaijan): May 19-June 16, 1992 (installed by coup)
5) Ayaz Mütallibov (“ex”-CPSU, Communist Party of Azerbaijan): May 14-18, 1992 (restored by communist old guard)
6) Yaqub Mammadov (“nonpartisan”): March 6-May 14, 1992 (acting)
7) Ayaz Mütallibov (CPSU, Communist Party of Azerbaijan): May 1990-March 6, 1992 (resigned)
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Azerbaijan:
1) Artur Rasizada (“ex”-CPSU, New Azerbaijan Party): November 4, 2003-present
2) Ilham Aliyev (New Azerbaijan Party, son of Heydar Aliyev): August 4-November 4, 2003
3) Artur Rasizada (“ex”-CPSU, New Azerbaijan Party): July 20-November 26, 1996 (acting), November 26, 1996-August 4, 2003
4) Fuad Guliyev: October 6, 1994-May 2, 1995 (acting), May 2, 1995-July 20, 1996
5) Surat Huseynov: June 27, 1993-October 6, 1994
6) Panakh Huseynov: April 28-June 7, 1993
7) Ali Masimov: January 26-April 28, 1993
8) Rahim Huseynov: May 18, 1992-January 26, 1993
9) Firuz Mustafayev: April 7-May 18, 1992 (acting)
10) Hasan Hasanov (CPSU, “ex”-CPSU): January 25, 1990-April 7, 1992
“Ex”-communists in Ilham Aliyev’s government:
1) Ramiz Mehtiev, Head of Presidential Administration (Communist Party of Azerbaijan ideologist in the 1980s, founded NGO Erivan Birliyi (Yerevan Unity) in 2001, reportedly controls ATV, a nominally independent television channel): 1998 (or earlier)-present
2) Excerpt from 2004 International Crisis Group report: During his last three years [2000-2003], the elder [Heydar] Aliyev appointed younger ministers, many of them associates of his son. . . . Many of these younger figures, who were formerly active in the Communist youth organisation (Komsomol), helped pave the way for Ilham’s ascent to power.
Parliament of “post”-communist Azerbaijan: Unicameral 125-member National Assembly
Soviet-era “parliament”: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1992
Communist parties of “post”-communist Azerbaijan:
1) Central Committee of Communists and Bolsheviks
2) Communist Bolsheviks Party: This party operates under the leadership of Tavakkul Qambarov.
3) Communist Party of Azerbaijan (AKP): The AKP was officially subject to the “ban” imposed on the communist parties in many of the other Soviet republics after the August 19, 1991 coup in Moscow. Although the AKP dissolved itself in September, communists openly ruled Azerbaijan until the Supreme Soviet was dissolved in May 1992. The “ban” against communism was lifted in 1993. The AKP currently operates under the leadership of Ramiz Akhmedov, boasts 100,000 members, and associates with the UCP-CPSU and Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Between 1996 and 2000 the AKP was again “banned” by the ruling “ex”-communist New Azerbaijan Party.
4) Communist Party of Azerbaijan (Marxism-Leninism Platform) (AKP-MLP): The AKP-MLP split from the United Communist Party of Azerbaijan-Savadov in 2000, operates under the leadership of Telman Nurullayev, and associates with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001).
5) Communist Party of Nagorno-Karabakh: This party operates under the leadership of Hrant Melkumian and associates with the Communist Party of Azerbaijan.
6) Reformist Communist Party of Azerbaijan (AIKP): The pro-government AIKP split from the Communist Party of Azerbaijan (AKP) in 1996 and operates under the leadership of Firudin Hasanov, who was formerly leader of the AKP. In 2000 the AIKP newspaper Bu Gun reported that Hasanov was floating a merger with the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. However, AIKP press secretary Seyran Veliev contradicted the report by insisting that no such merger was under consideration.
7) United Communist Party of Azerbaijan (AVKP-Sayadov): This party operates under the leadership of Sayad Sayadov.
8) United Communist Party of Azerbaijan (AVKP-Tuganov): A second party that travels under this name associates with the CPSU (Lenin-Stalin) and operates under the leadership of Musa Tuganov.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Azerbaijan:
1) Azerbaijan Popular Front (AXCP): The Azerbaijan Popular Front was established on July 16, 1989 by Ali Karimli, Abülfaz Elçibay, and other intellectuals from the communist-controlled Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences. After military service in the Soviet Army in 1985, Karimli studied law at Baku State University, where he established and headed the Yurd (“Homeland”) Movement, which supported democratic reform. In November 1988, Yurd organized student meetings in Baku to protest the communist regime. Special units of the security services were used to oppress the demonstrations. After the Popular Front was founded, he led a party cell at Baku State and participated in the creation of the front’s charter. In 1991 Karimli obtained a teaching position at Baku State’s Law Department and later joined party leader Elçibay’s presidential administration as state secretary for three months in 1993. Two small parties, the Democratic Independence Party and the Azerbaijan National Independence Party, coalesced around former members of the Popular Front in early 1992. The Popular Front converted into a party in 1995 and claims 80,000 members. On August 10, 2005, protesters–whom the Popular Front suspects were mobilized by the Azerbaijani authorities–accused the front and its chair, Kerimli, of collusion with opposition youth activist Ruslan Bashirli, who was arrested on August 3 on charges of plotting to overthrow the Azerbaijani government with financial support from Armenian intelligence.
2) New Azerbaijan Party (YAP): Founded in 1993 by Heydar Aliyev (“ex”-CPSU; Chair, Azerbaijan KGB) as a haven for Azerbaijan’s “ex”-communists. Azerbaijan’s ruling party claims 150,000 members.
Other parties of “post”-communist Azerbaijan:
1) Musavat (“Equality”) Party: Musavat claims to be the successor of the old Musavat Party that ruled the country during the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic between 1918 and 1920. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, most Musavat leaders held membership in the Azerbaijan Popular Front. In 1992, however, Musavat was re-established as a political party and registered in 1993.
2) Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (SDPA): The founding conference of the SDPA was held on December 10, 1989 with most of the original members originating from the Azerbaijan Popular Front. In the summer of 1990 the party joined the Democratic Bloc and participated in the last Supreme Soviet election of the Azerbaijan SSR, which occurred in September and October. When Ayaz Mutalibov was the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the party had one Member of Parliament, which was Araz Alizadeh, the present co-chairman of the party.
Russian military presence: The Russian Armed Forces withdrew from Azerbaijan in May 1993. As of 2005 the government of Azerbaijan allegedly opposes the redeployment of Russian troops on its territory. During the Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994) and following the “collapse” of communism, the Russian Federation supported Armenia against Azerbaijan, in which the ethnic Armenian-dominated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is located. As of March 2002, approximately 1,500 Russians were employed at the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan.

>Red World: Armenia: Soviet Communist Facelift in the Caucasus

>Pictured here: Former President of Armenia, Robert Kocharian (“ex”-CPSU), meets Vladimir Putin (“ex”-CPSU/KGB/FSB), President of the Russian Federation

Republic of Armenia
Constituent republic of USSR: December 30, 1922-September 21, 1991
Previous names:
1) Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic: November 29, 1920-August 23, 1990
2) Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, including Georgia and Azerbaijan: March 12, 1922-December 5, 1936
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” presidential-dominant state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Communist government:
1) Miasnutyun (“Unity”) Bloc, consisting of Republican Party of Armenia (“ex”-Komsomol leader), Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and United Labor Party, with extraparliamentary support of United Communist Party of Armenia: 2006-present
2) Miasnutyun (“Unity”) Bloc, consisting of Republican Party of Armenia (“ex”-Komsomol leader), Armenian Revolutionary Federation, United Labor Party, and Country of Law, with extraparliamentary support of United Communist Party of Armenia: 2003-2006
3) Miasnutyun (“Unity”) Bloc, consisting of Republican Party of Armenia (“ex”-Komsomol leader) and People’s Party of Armenia (“ex”-CPSU leader): 1999-2003
4)Republican Bloc, consisting of Pan-Armenian National Movement (front for Communist Party of Armenia), DLP-Hanrapetutyun Bloc, Republic Party, CDU, Intellectual Armenia, Social Democratic Party, and independent candidates: 1995-1999
5) Pan-Armenian National Movement (front for Communist Party of Armenia): 1990-1995
6) Communist Party of Armenia (Armenian section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1920-1990
Communist Bloc memberships: Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organization
Socialist International presence: Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Ethnic Russian composition: 0.5%
Presidents of “post”-communist Armenia:
1) Serzh Sargsyan (“ex”-CPSU, Republican Party of Armenia): April 9, 2008-present
2) Robert Kocharian (“ex”-CPSU, Republican Party of Armenia; Deputy, Supreme Soviet, Armenian SSR): February 3, 1998-April 9, 2008
3) Levon Ter-Petrossian (communist parents, KGB-controlled dissident; Chair/Deputy, Supreme Soviet, Armenian SSR; Pan-Armenian National Movement): October 16, 1991-February 3, 1998
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Armenia:
1) Tigran Sargsyan (ex-Soviet apparatchik, no relation to Serzh Sargsyan): April 9, 2008-present
2) Serzh Sargsyan (“ex”-CPSU, Republican Party of Armenia): March 26, 2007-April 9, 2008
3) Andranik Markaryan (suspected KGB-controlled dissident, pro-communist; Republican Party of Armenia): May 12, 2000-March 25, 2007
4) Aram Sarkissian (Republican Party of Armenia, brother of Vazgen), November 3, 1999-May 2, 2000
5) Vazgen Sarkissian (“ex”-Komsomol, Yerkrapah, Republican Party of Armenia): June 11-October 27, 1999 (assassinated)
6) Armen Darbinyan (“nonpartisan”): April 10, 1998-June 11, 1999
7) Robert Kocharian (“ex”-CPSU, “nonpartisan”): March 20, 1997-April 10, 1998
8) Armen Sarkissian (ex-Soviet apparatchik, “nonpartisan”): November 4, 1996-March 20, 1997
9) Hrant Bagratyan (Pan-Armenian National Movement): February 2, 1993-November 4, 1996
10) Khosrov Arutyunyan (“nonpartisan”): July 30, 1992-February 2, 1993
11) Gagik Arutyunyan (“nonpartisan”): November 22, 1991-July 30, 1992
12) Vazgen Manukyan (National Democratic Union of Armenia): August 13, 1990-November 22, 1991
Parliament of “post”-communist Armenia: Unicameral 131-member National Assembly
Soviet-era “parliament”: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1995
Communist parties of “post”-communist Armenia:
1) Communist Party of Armenia (HKK): The HKK was founded in 1920 and associates with the UCP-CPSU. The HKK was subject to the “ban” imposed on the communist parties in many of the other Soviet republics in August 1991, but the ban was lifted in 1992. The HKK’s influence should not be measured in terms of popular support but, rather, by the previous communist careers of “ex”- and “non”-communist politicians and the support thrown to them by the HKK.
2) United Communist Party of Armenia (HMKK): The HMKK was founded in 2003 through a merger of the Renewed Communist Party of Armenia, Armenian Labor Communist Party, Armenian Workers’ Union, Union of Communists of Armenia, Armenian Marxist Party, and Party of Intellectuals. The HMKK presents itself as a “constructive opposition party” and maintains closer links to the government than the HKK. It does not join opposition fronts. The HMKK supports the presidential bid of Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisian.
3) Union of Industrialists and Women (AKM): Founded in 2003, this electoral coalition consists of the United Progressive Communist Party of Armenia, Women of the Armenian Land, Domestic Producers, and Yerevan and Its Inhabitants.
4) United Progressive Communist Party of Armenia: The United Progressive Communist Party of Armenia was founded in 1998 as a split from the Communist Party of Armenia.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Armenia:
1) Artarutiun (“Justice”) Bloc: This progressive electoral alliance, containing the People’s Party of Armenia, is led by Stepan Demirchian Demirchian (ex-Soviet apparatchik), the son of Karen Demirchian (“ex”-CPSU).
2) New Country: This party was founded by Artashes Tumanian, chief of President Robert Kocharian’s staff.
3) Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHS): The “liberal” HHS was founded in 1989 by KGB-controlled nationalist dissident Levon Ter-Petrossian, who was previously leader of the Karabakh Committee at the state-run Matenadaran Institute. Ter-Petrossian was appointed senior researcher at the institute in 1985 and before that, in 1978, science secretary. He was born in 1945 to Armenian-Syrian communist parents. The HHS is currently chaired by Alexander Arzoumanian, a graduate of Moscow’s Patrice Lumumba University, which trains Third World terrorists, and Yerevan State University. Arzoumanian operated an information centre for and published the newspaper of HHS between 1989 and 1991.
4) People’s Party of Armenia (HZK): This socialist party was founded in 1998 by Karen Demirchian (“ex”-CPSU), who was assassinated by gunmen under the direction of journalist Nairi Hunanyan on October 27, 1999. Between June of that year and his murder, Demirchian was speaker of the Republic of Armenia’s National Assembly. He endorsed the candidacy of Levon Ter-Petrossian during the 1996 presidential elections. Between 1974 and 1988, Demirchian was First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia, which he joined in 1966. The HZK is currently chaired by Karen’s son Stepan Demirchian (ex-Soviet apparatchik), who also leads the Artarutiun (“Justice”) Bloc.
5) Republican Party of Armenia (HHK): This “liberal” party was founded on April 2, 1990 and registered on May 14, 1991 as “post”-communist Armenia’s first registered party. Vazgen Sarkissian (“ex”-Komsomol) reorganized the party in 1998 as a centrist support base for President Robert Kocharian (“ex”-CPSU) by merging the original party with the Yerkrapah Volunteer Union, an association of Armenian veterans of the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Sarkissian, along with People’s Party leader Karen Demirchian (“ex”-CPSU), was assassinated by gunmen under the direction of journalist Nairi Hunanyan on October 27, 1999. President Kocharian was at one time leader of the Karabakh Movement and held various posts in Nagorno-Karabakh’s communist youth organization and communist publications. He also served in the Soviet Army. Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan (suspected KGB-controlled dissident) joined the illegal National United Party in 1968, was jailed in 1974 by Soviet authorities, and in 1992 joined the Republican Party, which he now leads. In 2001, on the occasion of the Communist Party of China’s 80^th anniversary, Prime Minister Markaryan, sent a letter of congratulations. The Republican Party should not to be confused with the “conservative” Republic Party.
6) United Labor Party: This pro-Kocharian group operates under the leadership of Gurgen Arsenian.
Other parties in “post”-communist Armenia:
1) Armenian Revolutionary Federation (HHD): The HHD is a pre-Bolshevik social democratic party founded in 1890. During the short-lived Democratic Republic of Armenia between 1918 and 1922, it was the ruling party. Following the Soviet invasion in 1920 and the party’s subsequent banning, the HDD has been influential throughout the Armenian Diaspora, including Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Lebanon. The HHD was again banned between 1991 and 1998.
Parliament of “post”-communist Armenia: Unicameral 131-member National Assembly
Soviet-era “parliament”: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1995
Russian military presence: The Russian Armed Forces maintain 5,000 troops of all types in Armenia, including 3,000 officially posted at the 102nd Military Base in Gyumri. In 1997 Russia and Armenia, both members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, signed a comprehensive friendship treaty that facilitates mutual assistance in the event of a military threat to either country and permits the Border Guard Service of the Russian Federation Federal Security Service to patrol Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Iran. As of early 2005 the 102nd Military Base consisted of 74 tanks, 17 battle infantry vehicles, 148 armored personnel carriers, 84 artillery pieces, 30 Mig-29 fighters, and several batteries of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. Since then, however, additional military hardware has been relocated to Gyumri from the Russian military bases in Batumi and Akhalkalaki, Georgia. — In early January 2009 Azerbaijani media reported that arms worth a total of US$800 million had been transferred to the Armenian military from Russia’s Gyumri base. Armenia’s Defense Ministry denied the report. Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia became strained in 1988 when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population, declared independence from Azerbaijan with the intent of joining Armenia.

>Red Terror File: Armed FSB agents raid office of Kasparov’s United Civil Front, seize "propaganda materials" on suspicion of "extremist activity"

>The Soviet Union has returned in all but name. That comes next . . .

The Moscow News reports: “According to Kasparov’s website, police officers arrived at his offices shortly after a United Civil Front member encouraged others at a party congress to meet at Kasparov’s headquarters.” This information suggests that an informer might be operating in Kasparov’s party.

“Extremist activity.” A catchall concept that any authoritarian/ totalitarian government can use to suppress dissent. Kasparov’s political website describes the behavior of the police as “boorish” and “threatening.” The great chess champion has apparently met his match in the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, its appetite not satiated by consuming Russia’s independent media, the Kremlin is threatening to sue international journalists for libel should they endeavor to connect the dots between President Putin and the Polonium 210 murder of FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko.

Russian Police Raid Offices of Kasparov-led Opposition Group in Moscow
Moscow News, 12.12.2006

Russian police have seized propaganda materials from the office of the United People’s Front opposition group to check them for extremist content, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. Ekho Moskvy radio said the materials are linked to the group’s plan to hold an unauthorized protest march December 16.

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, the leader of the United People’s Front, pointed out in comments for Ekho Moskvy that the search was conducted on Russian Constitution Day, December 12.

Denis Bilunov, executive director of the group, told RIA Novosti that policemen “seized several newspapers and other materials for inspection.”

Kasparov told Ekho Moskvy that his office had been raided by armed police officers on suspicion of “extremist activity”. About 20 agents, both from police ranks and the Federal Security Service (FSB), a KGB successor organization, arrived at the Moscow headquarters of Kasparov’s movement Tuesday afternoon, the youngest-ever World Chess Champion told Ekho Moskvy.

The officers demanded staffers turn off computers and mobile phones and took part of the party newspaper’s print run, according to a statement on Kasparov’s website, DPA reports. The search of Kasparov’s office ended after about 2 1/2 hours, the website statement said. It was unclear which court labelled Kasparov’s political activity extremist, or why.

Kasparov, world-famous as the reigning World Chess Champion from 1985 until his retirement in 2005, is one of the organizers of the banned March of the Unwilling. The event was to unite opposition groups, including that of former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. After banning the march, which had been scheduled for Saturday, Moscow authorities Tuesday gave its organizers permission to hold a stationary demonstration.

Co-organizer Eduard Limonov said he, Kasparov and Kasyanov vowed to hold the march nonetheless. Another march, planned to honour murdered journalists on Sunday, was also banned by Moscow authorities Tuesday, Ekho Moskvy reported.

Moscow City Hall told that march organizers that the event would “violate the constitutional right of non-participants” by taking up space on the street, the prominent liberal broadcaster said. The city instead suggested organizers hold a stationary vigil. The march had been planned for a worldwide day of memory for killed journalists. Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in her apartment building in October; it is still unclear who her killers were.

According to Kasparov’s website, police officers arrived at his offices shortly after a United People’s Front member encouraged others at a party congress to meet at Kasparov’s headquarters. Police showed an order to search the offices in connection with “extremist activity,” Kasparov said.

An outspoken critic of the Russian government, Kasparov has faced physical attacks since retiring from chess, including being beaten over the head with a chess board during a demonstration last year.

>Red World: Lithuania: Communism "banned," "ex"-communists dominate leftist parties, FSB/SVR infiltrates rightist parties

>Pictured here: Former Prime Minister/ President of Lithuania Rolandas Paksas, impeached for ties with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR/KGB).

Republic of Lithuania
Constituent republic of USSR: August 3, 1940-March 11, 1990
Previous name: Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, July 21, 1940-March 11, 1990
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991

Communist government:
1) Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (“right-wing” faction of communist front Sąjūdis, infiltrated by SVR/KGB), in coalition with Liberal and Centre Union (infiltrated by SVR/KGB), National Resurrection Party, and Liberal Movement: 2008-present
2) Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (“ex”-communist, formerly Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party): 2001-2008
3) Homeland Union-Conservatives (“right-wing” faction of communist front Sąjūdis, infiltrated by SVR/KGB): 1996-2001
4) Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party (“ex”-communist): 1992-1996
5) Lithuanian Reform Movement (also known as Sąjūdis, communist front) with support from Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party (“ex”-communist) and Lithuanian Christian Democrats: 1990-1992
6) Communist Party of Lithuania (Lithuanian section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1940-1990
7) Lithuanian-Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, unrecognized government under leadership of Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Lithuania and Belorussia, revolutionary leaders Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas and Kazimierz Cichowski, and Soviet military occupation: 1919
Communist Bloc membership: Community of Democratic Choice, European Union
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (“ex”-communist)
Ethnic Russian composition: 6.3%

Presidents of “post”-communist Lithuania:
1) Dalia Grybauskaitė (nonpartisan, supported by Conservative Party and communist front Sąjūdis; professor at Communist Party college until 1990): July 12, 2009-present
2) Valdas Adamkus (nonpartisan, ex-US citizen; twice vetoed lustration law exposing KGB agents/ collaborators; strongly supported by Algirdas Brazauskas (“ex”-CPSU) in 1998 presidential election): July 12, 2004-July 12, 2009
3) Artūras Paulauskas (New Union (Social Liberals); Deputy Prosecutor General, Lithuanian SSR): April 6-July 12, 2004 (acting)
4) Rolandas Paksas (SVR/KGB-controlled politician; Order and Justice (Liberal Democrats)): February 26, 2003-April 6, 2004 (impeached)
5) Valdas Adamkus (nonpartisan, ex-US citizen; twice vetoed lustration law exposing KGB agents/ collaborators; strongly supported by Algirdas Brazauskas (“ex”-CPSU) in 1998 presidential election): February 26, 1998-February 25, 2003
6) Algirdas Brazauskas (“ex”-CPSU, “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party/Social Democratic Party of Lithuania): November 25, 1992-February 25, 1993 (acting), February 25, 1993-February 25, 1998
7) Vytautas Landsbergis (non-communist leader of communist front Sąjūdis): March 11, 1990-November 25, 1992

Prime ministers of “post”-communist Lithuania:
1) Andrius Kubilius (communist front Sąjūdis; Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats, infiltrated by SVR/KGB): December 9, 2008-present
2) Gediminas Kirkilas (“ex”-CPSU, “ex”-communist Social Democratic Party of Lithuania): July 4, 2006-December 9, 2008
3) Zigmantas Balčytis (ex-Komsomol, “ex”-communist Social Democratic Party of Lithuania): June 1-July 4, 2006 (acting)
4) Algirdas Brazauskas (“ex”-CPSU, “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party/Social Democratic Party of Lithuania): July 3, 2001-June 1, 2006
5) Eugenijus Gentvilas (Lithuanian Liberal Union, infiltrated by SVR/KGB): June 20-July 3, 2001 (acting)
6) Rolandas Paksas (SVR/KGB-controlled politician, Lithuanian Liberal Union): October 26, 2000-June 20, 2001
7) Andrius Kubilius (communist front Sąjūdis; Homeland Union-Conservatives, infiltrated by SVR/KGB): November 3, 1999-October 26, 2000
8) Irena Degutiene (Homeland Union-Conservatives, infiltrated by SVR/KGB): October 27-November 3, 1999 (acting)
9) Rolandas Paksas (SVR/KGB-controlled politician, Homeland Union-Conservatives): May 18-October 27, 1999
10) Irena Degutiene (Homeland Union-Conservatives, infiltrated by SVR/KGB): May 4-18, 1999 (acting)
11) Gediminas Vagnorius (Homeland Union-Conservatives, infiltrated by SVR/KGB): February 15, 1996-May 4, 1999
12) Laurynas Stankevičius (“ex”-CPSU, “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party): February 15-November 27, 1996
13) Adolfas Šleževičius (“ex”-CPSU, “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party): March 10, 1993-February 15, 1996
14) Bronislovas Lubys (“ex”-CPSU, nonpartisan): December 2, 1992-March 10, 1993
15) Aleksandras Abišala (communist front Sąjūdis with support from “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party): July 21-December 2, 1992
16) Gediminas Vagnorius (communist front Sąjūdis with support from “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party): January 13, 1991-July 21, 1992
17) Albertas Šimėnas (communist front Sąjūdis with support from “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party): January 10-13, 1991
18) Kazimira Prunskienė (alleged KGB collaborationist; communist front Sąjūdis with support from “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party and Lithuanian Christian Democrats): March 11-17, 1990 (acting), March 17, 1990-January 10, 1991

In September 2006 Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitekunas defended the secretary of his ministry, Albinas Januska, against accusations, advanced by the mass media, of collusion with Russia’s security and intelligence services. According to the online paper Penki kontinentai, Januska allegedly conspired with the Deputy Director of the Lithuanian Security Department (VSD), Darius Jurgeliavicius, to “exile” security service officer Vytautas Pociunas to Belarus. In November 2006 officers of the VSD allegedly approached journalists for the purpose of disseminating stories that would discredit a parliamentary deputy of the ruling conservative-led coalition, Jurgis Razmas. Razmas had demanded that an independent committee be established to investigate the “unhealthy situation” in the Lithuanian security services. VSD agents reportedly threatened journalists who refused to cooperate.

An ongoing issue, the current Prime Minister of Lithuania Gediminas Kirkilas (“ex”-CPSU) is opposed to subordinating the VSD to the oversight of parliament and replacing the organization’s leadership, including VSD head Arvidas Pocius (“ex”-KGB). Between 2000 and June 1, 2006 Antanas Valionis (captain in KGB reserves) was former Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas’ (“ex”-CPSU) Minister of Foreign Affairs. Parliament of “post”-communist Lithuania: Unicameral 141-seat Seimas Soviet-era “parliament”: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1992

Communist parties of “post”-communist Lithuania:
1) Communist Party of Lithuania (CPL): In December 1989 the “reformists” in the CPL defected from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to form the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party, while the smaller “hardline” faction maintained a separate existence as the CPL. The CPL has been “banned” since August 1991, like other openly communist parties in the Baltic states, and associates with the UCP-CPSU.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Lithuania:
1) Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats: This party was founded in May 1993 by the “right wing” of the Lithuanian Reform Movement (Sąjūdis), led by the transitional national leader Vytautas Landsbergis. Its current leader is former Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius. Former President of Lithuania Rolandas Paksas, who was impeached in 2004 for his ties with Russia’s security and intelligence services, and mafia, was a member of this party. Hence, it would not be unreasonable to describe Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats–known as Homeland Union-Conservatives until 2008–as an SVR/KGB-infiltrated party.
2) Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party (LDDP): The defunct LDDP was founded in 1990 by the larger “reformist” faction of the old Communist Party of Lithuania. In 2001 the LDDP merged with the Lithuanian Social-Democratic Party to form the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania.
3) Lithuanian Reform Movement (Sąjūdis): Sąjūdis was the communist front that led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was established on June 3, 1988 under the leadership of Vytautas Landsbergis. Kazimira Prunskienė, first prime minister of “post”-communist Lithuania and alleged KGB collaborationist, was a co-founder. In the beginning, Sąjūdis’ goal was to establish the Autonomous Republic of Lithuania and later, to form an independent state. At a meeting at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences on June 3, 1988, 17 communist and 18 non-communist intellectuals formed the Sąjūdis Initiative Group to support Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s programs of glasnost, democratization, and perestroika. On June 24 the first large assembly of Sąjūdis occurred. Before departing for Moscow, delegates to the 19th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were instructed about Sąjūdis’ objectives.
4) Lithuanian Socialist Party: This party was founded in 1994 as a split from the “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party and operates under the leadership of Mondaugas Stakvilevicius.
5) Order and Justice: Founded in 2002 as the Liberal Democratic Party by Rolandas Paksas, who later became president of Lithuania, Order and Justice is accused of ultranationalism and neofascism. Paksas was impeached in April 2004. The impeachment terminated a five-month investigation in which the Lithuanian Security Department (VSD) provided parliamentarians with a report linking President Paksas and his closest advisers to Russia’s security and intelligence services, and mafia. Among some of Paksas’ specific transgressions was bestowing Russian “businessman” Yuri Borisov with Lithuanian citizenship as a reward for his financial support during the 2002-2003 presidential election campaign. The VSD report specified Borisov’s Russian mafia connections.
6) Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSP): The LSP was formed in 2001 by a merger of the “ex”-communist Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party and Lithuanian Social-Democratic Party, which was founded in 1989 under the communist regime of the Lithuanian SSR.
Russian military presence: The Russian Armed Forces withdrew from Lithuania on August 31, 1993, one year before they withdrew from the other Baltic states. Between 1992 and 1995, the Russian Air Force violated Lithuanian air space more than 5,300 times. In September 2005 a Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter, en route to Kaliningrad, crashed in Lithuania, prompting the government of the Baltic state to initially express suspicions that Moscow had staged the incident, possibly to test NATO air defenses. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia joined NATO on March 29, 2004.

>Red World: Latvia: Communism "banned," "ex"-communists dominate leftist parties, FSB/SVR infiltrates rightist parties

>Pictured here: Tatjana Ždanoka, head of For Human Rights in United Latvia party, Moscow’s chief agent of influence in that country

Republic of Latvia
Constituent republic of USSR: August 5, 1940-August 21, 1991
Previous name: Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, July 21, 1940-May 4, 1990
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Communist government:
1) People’s Party (infiltrated by FSB/SVR) in coalition with Union of Greens and Farmers (coalition consisting of Green Party of Latvia and Latvian Farmers’ Union (infiltrated by “ex”-communists)), Latvia First Party (populist), Latvian Way (ex-members of People’s Front of Latvia), and For Fatherland and Freedom: 2006-present
2) People’s Party (infiltrated by FSB/SVR), New Era Party, Latvia First Party (populist), and other parties: 2004-2006
3) New Era Party and three other parties: 2002-2004
4) Latvian Way (ex-members of People’s Front of Latvia) and three other parties: 2000-2002
5) People’s Party (infiltrated by FSB/SVR) and Latvian Way (ex-members of People’s Front of Latvia): 1998-2000
6) Democratic Party “Saimnieks” (“ex”-communist) and five other parties: 1995-1998
7) Latvian Way (ex-members of People’s Front of Latvia) and Latvian Farmers’ Union (infiltrated by “ex”-communists): 1993-1995
8) Social Democratic Party (formerly “reformist” faction of Communist Party of Latvia, merges with two other social democratic parties) and People’s Front of Latvia (front for Communist Party of Latvia): 1991-1993
9) Communist Party of Latvia and People’s Front of Latvia (front for Communist Party of Latvia): 1990-1991
10) Communist Party of Latvia (Latvian section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1940-1990
11) Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic, unrecognized government under leadership of Social-Democracy of the Latvian Territory/Communist Party of Latvia, Prime Minister Pēteris Stučka, and Soviet military occupation: 1918-1920
Communist Bloc membership: Community of Democratic Choice, European Union
Socialist International presence: Latvian Social Democratic Workers’ Party
Ethnic Russian composition: 28.5%
Presidents of “post”-communist Latvia:
1) Valdis Zatlers (“ex”-communist People’s Front of Latvia, People’s Party, nonpartisan): July 8, 2007-present
2) Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga (“nonpartisan”; raised in Germany, Morocco, and Canada): July 8, 1999-July 7, 2007
3) Guntis Ulmanis (“ex”-CPSU, Latvian Farmers’ Union): July 7, 1993-July 7, 1999
4) Anatolijs Gorbunovs (“ex”-CPSU, Latvian Way): 1991-July 7, 1993 (acting) (speaker of Latvian SSR Supreme Soviet and “post”-communist parliaments, 1988-1995; Saeima deputy, minister of regional development, minister of transportation, and deputy prime minister, 1995-2002)
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Latvia:
1) Ivars Godmanis (People’s Front of Latvia, Latvian Way): December 20, 2007-present
2) Aigars Kalvītis (People’s Party, infiltrated by FSB/SVR): December 2, 2004-December 20, 2007
3) Indulis Emsis (Green Party): March 9-December 2, 2004 (first Green prime minister in European history)
4) Einars Repše (New Era Party): November 7, 2002-March 9, 2004
5) Andris Bērziņš (Latvian Way): May 5, 2000-November 7, 2002
6) Andris Šķēle (People’s Party, infiltrated by FSB/SVR): July 16, 1999-May 5, 2000
7) Vilis Krištopans (Latvian Way): November 26, 1998-July 16, 1999
8) Guntars Krasts (For Fatherland and Freedom, formerly Latvian National Independence Movement): August 7, 1997-November 26, 1998
9) Andris Šķēle (“nonpartisan”): December 21, 1995-August 7, 1997
10) Māris Gailis (People’s Front of Latvia, Latvian Way): September 15, 1994-December 21, 1995
11) Valdis Birkavs (Latvian Way, ex-members of People’s Front of Latvia): August 3, 1993-September 15, 1994
12) Ivars Godmanis (People’s Front of Latvia, supported by President Anatolijs Gorbunovs and “moderate” communists): May 7, 1990-August 3, 1993
Parliament of “post”-communist Latvia: Unicameral 100-seat Saeima
Soviet-era “parliament”: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1993
Communist parties of “post”-communist Latvia:
1) Socialist Party of Latvia (LSP): Established in 1994, the LSP is the “renamed” successor to the Communist Party of Latvia (CPL), which was dominated by ethnic Russians and has been “banned” since September 10, 1991. In the 2002 parliamentary election the LSP was part of the For Human Rights in United Latvia coalition, which won 18.9% of the popular vote and 25 out of 100 seats. In the 2006 parliamentary election, the LSP was part of the Harmony Centre coalition. The LSP draws most of its support from ethnic Russians and associates with the International Communist Seminar. Alfrēds Rubiks, former mayor of Riga, was imprisoned between 1991 and 1997 on charges of conspiring to simultaneously overthrow the pro-independence Latvian government during the anti-Gorbachev coup in Moscow. He does not hold a seat in the Saeima since he is prohibited from contesting elections. In January 2006, LSP member Juris Bojars requested that Latvia’s Constitutional Court remove the ban that prevents former KGB officers and CPL Central Committee members from being elected to parliament. Bojars insisted that he resigned from his position in the KGB in 1973, and that his employment with the Soviet secret police should not affect his civil freedoms.
2) Union of Communists of Latvia (UCL): This party was founded in 1992 by “hardliners” in the Communist Party of Latvia, and associates with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001) and the International Communist Seminar. The UCL falls under the pro-independence government’s September 10, 1991 “ban” against open communist parties.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Latvia:
1) Democratic Party “Saimnieks” (DPS): The leader of the DPS, Ziedonis Cevers, was a former Komsomol leader in the Estonian SSR, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Affairs in “post”-communist Estonia. On April 12, 2002 Cevers announced the planned formation of a new party called Latvia’s Freedom Party (BP). Latvian Economics Institute Director Raita Karnite and former State Police Narcotics Bureau Chief Vilnis Kipens assisted in the formation of this party.
2) For Fatherland and Freedom (TB): Founded in 1993, TB is a nationalist party that absorbed the Latvian National Independence Movement, itself founded during the communist regime of the Latvian SSR.
3) For Human Rights in United Latvia (PCTVL): This pro-European Union coalition was established in May 1998 by the People’s/National Harmony Party (TSP), Equal Rights Party, and Socialist Party of Latvia, all of which are mainly supported by ethnic Russian voters. The origin of the TSP is found within the moderate wing of the People’s Front of Latvia. PCTVL won 16 out of 100 seats in the 1998 parliamentary election and 25 seats in the 2002 election. In the municipal elections of 2001, the coalition won 13 out of 60 seats in the Riga City Council and PCTVL member Sergejs Dolgopolovs became vice-mayor. The TSP and LSP defected from the PCTVL in 2003. In the municipal elections of 2005 the party won 13.9% of the votes and 9 seats in the Riga City Council. — PCTVL’s most prominent leaders are Jānis Jurkāns, Alfrēds Rubiks, and Tatjana Ždanoka. Rubiks and Ždanoka are former leaders of the Communist Party of Latvia and Latvia’s pro-Moscow, anti-independence movement of the early 1990s. Ždanoka remained active in the CPL after the leadership planned a coup in January 1991 against the elected pro-independence government of Latvia, led by the People’s Front. — As a result, Ždanoka was banned from running for the Latvian parliament in 1998 and 2002. Ždanoka sued Latvia in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). With the court case pending, the Latvian parliament decided not to impose restrictions on former members of the CPL in the 2004 European Parliament elections. Ždanoka was elected to that body in June 2004 and won the court case a few days later. Latvia appealed the decision to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR. On March 16, 2006 the Grand Chamber ruled that Ždanoka’s rights had not been violated. Axis Information and Analysis observes of Ždanoka: “ She is considered to be one of the main Russian ‘agents of influence’ in the Baltic region. Her actions and the actions of several organizations controlled by her, perfectly coincide with the confrontational policy of Russia towards Latvia. And her membership in the European Parliament also serves Moscow’s interests.” One of the organizations run by Ždanoka is the EU Russian-Speakers Alliance.
4) Harmony Centre: This “ex”-communist-social democratic coalition was established in 2005 by the People’s/National Harmony Party, Socialist Party of Latvia, and New Centre.
5) Latvian National Independence Movement (LNNK): Founded in 1988 under the communist regime of the Latvian SSR, the LNNK advocated autonomy from the Soviet Union. After 1991 it was known as the National Conservative Party. In 1997 it was absorbed into For Fatherland and Freedom, founded in 1993. The new entity is known by the abbreviation, TB/LNNK.
6)Latvian Social Democratic Workers’ Party (LSDSP): Founded in 1892, the LSDSP was exiled between 1934 and 1990. After the independence of Latvia, the LSDSP absorbed two other social democratic parties, including the “reformist” faction of the Communist Party of Latvia. The current party leader is Guntars Jirgensons.
7) Latvian Way (LC): The liberal LC was founded on September 25, 1993 by a group of former activists of the “ex”-communist People’s Front of Latvia and exiles who had returned to Latvia after independence.
8) People’s Front of Latvia (LTF): Founded on October 9, 1988, the LTF advocated autonomy from the Soviet Union. By the end of the year it boasted 250,000 members. The party was formed by moderate members of the Communist Party of Latvia, but opposed by “hardline” communists. The LTF merged into the Christian Democratic Union in 1993.
Other parties in “post”-communist Latvia:
1) New Era Party (JL): Founded in 2001, the JL is a conservative party that operates under the leadership of Karlis Sadurskis.
2) People’s Party (TP): Founded in 1998 by Andris Šķēle, the TP is a conservative party that has operated under the leadership of Atis Slakteris since 2002. The Baltic Times ranks Šķēle as the 15th wealthiest person in the Baltic republics. In May 2005 the TP leadership expelled Aleksandrs Kirðteins from the ranks of the party after Kirðteins made provocative statements in the Latvian parliament that brought disrepute upon the People’s Party. Later, in confidence, party leaders admitted that they believe that Kirðteins has connections with the Russian Federation’s security and intelligence services. Between 1988 and 1997 Kirðteins was active in the ranks of the Latvian National Independence Movement, spawned under the communist regime of the Latvian SSR.
Russian military presence: The Russian Armed Forces withdrew from Latvia on August 31, 1994. Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia joined NATO on March 29, 2004.

>Red World: Estonia: Communism "banned," "ex"-communists dominate leftist parties, FSB/SVR infiltrates rightist parties

>Pictured here: The “ex”-communist Prime Minister of Estonia Andrus Ansip.

Republic of Estonia
Constituent republic of USSR: August 6, 1940-August 20, 1991
Previous names: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic: July 21, 1940-May 8, 1990
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Communist government:
1) Estonian Reform Party (“ex”-CPSU founder), Estonian Centre Party (“ex”-CPSU leader), and People’s Union of Estonia (“ex”-CPSU founder/past leader): 2005-present
2) Estonian Reform Party (“ex”-CPSU founder), Res Publica, and People’s Union of Estonia (“ex”-CPSU founder/past leader): 2003-2005
3) Estonian Reform Party (“ex”-CPSU founder) and Estonian Centre Party (“ex”-CPSU leader): January 2002-2003
4) Estonian Reform Party (“ex”-CPSU founder), Pro Patria Union, and Moderates (known as Social Democratic Party since 2003): 1999-December 2001
5) Coalition (Estonian Coalition Party, “ex”-communist) and Rural People’s Party (as minority government): 1996-1999
6) Coalition (Estonian Coalition Party, “ex”-communist) and Rural People’s Party, and Estonian Reform Party (“ex”-CPSU founder): 1995-1996
7) Coalition (Estonian Coalition Party, “ex”-communist) and Rural People’s Party, and Estonian Centre Party (“ex”-CPSU leader): 1995
8) Provisional government under “nonpartisan” leadership of Prime Minister Andres Tarand: 1994-1995
9) National Coalition Party Pro Patria, Moderates, and Estonian National Independence Party: 1992-1994
10) Communist Party of Estonia and People’s Front of Estonia (front for Communist Party of Estonia): 1990-1992
11) Communist Party of Estonia (Estonian section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1940-1990
12) Commune of the Working People of Estonia, unrecognized government under leadership of Communist Party of Estonia, party chairman Jaan Anvelt, and Soviet military occupation: 1918-1919
Communist Bloc memberships: Community of Democratic Choice, European Union
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party
Ethnic Russian composition: 25.7%
Presidents of “post”-communist Estonia:
1) Toomas Hendrik Ilves (Social Democratic Party, raised in USA; no apparent link to old Soviet regime): October 9, 2006-present
2) Arnold Rüütel (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Union of Estonia): October 8, 2001-October 9, 2006
3) Lennart Meri (possible KGB-controlled dissident, Pro Patria Party): October 6, 1992-October 8, 2001
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Estonia:
1) Andrus Ansip (“ex”-CPSU, Estonian Reform Party): April 12, 2005-present
2) Juhan Parts (Res Publica): April 10, 2003-April 12, 2005
3) Siim Kallas (“ex”-CPSU, Estonian Reform Party): January 28, 2002-April 10, 2003
4) Mart Laar (Pro Patria Union): March 25, 1999-January 28, 2002
5) Mart Siimann (Estonian Coalition Party): March 17, 1997-March 25, 1999
6) Tiit Vähi (Estonian Coalition Party): April 17, 1995-March 17, 1997
7) Andres Tarand (“nonpartisan”): November 8, 1994-April 17, 1995
8) Mart Laar (Pro Patria Union): October 21, 1992-November 8, 1994
9) Tiit Vähi (“nonpartisan”): January 29-October 21, 1992 (acting)
10) Edgar Savisaar (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Front of Estonia): August 20, 1991-January 29, 1992
“Ex”-communists in current cabinet of “post”-communist Estonia:
1) Jaak Aab (Komsomol): Minister of Social Affairs
2) Rein Lang (Soviet lawyer): Minister of Justice
3) Kalle Laanet (Agent, Criminal Surveillance Group, Ministry of Interior, Estonian SSR): Minister of Internal Affairs
4) Jürgen Ligi (ex-Soviet apparatchik): Minister of Defense
5) Jaan Õunapuu (ex-Soviet apparatchik): Minister of Regional Affairs
6) Raivo Palmaru (“ex”-CPSU): Minister of Culture
7) Rein Randver (ex-Soviet apparatchik): Minister of Environment
8) Edgar Savisaar (“ex”-CPSU; Minister of Economic Affairs, Estonian SSR; Deputy Chairman/ Chairman, State Planning Committee, Council of Ministers, Estonian SSR): Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications
“Ex”-communist members of the Estonian State Assembly, with dates of CPSU membership and current party affiliation:
1) Olav Aarna: Res Publica, CPSU, 1964-1989
2) Rein Aidma: Estonian Reform Party, CPSU, 1988-1990
3) Toomas Alatalu: Estonian Centre Party, CPSU, 1966-1990
4) Jaak Allik: Estonian People’s Union, CPSU, 1971-1991
5) Arnold Kimber: Estonian Centre Party, CPSU, 1970-1990
6) Mait Klaassen: Estonian Reform Party, CPSU, 1986-1989
7) Mark Soosaar: Social Democratic Party, CPSU, 1976-1989
8) Andres Taimla: Estonian Reform Party, CPSU, 1976-1988
9) Vladimir Velman: Estonian Centre Party; Komsomol, 1967
Parliament of “post”-communist Estonia: Unicameral 101-seat State Assembly
Soviet-era parliament: Supreme Soviet (Council); provisional parliament until 1992
Communist parties of “post”-communist Estonia:
1) Anarcho-Communist Federation
2) Communist Party of Estonia-Communist Party of the Soviet Union (EKP-NLKP): Founded in 1990 by “hardliners” in the old Communist Party of Estonia, the EKP-NLKP, like other openly communist parties in the Baltic states, was “banned” after the August 1991 coup in Moscow. The EKP-NLKP first affiliated with the UCP-CPSU, then with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001). In 2005 the only known member of the EKP-NLKP is Juri Mishin, a leader of the ethnic Russian nationalists in Estonia. Banned to this day, the party apparently only exists in lists of both the European Left Party and CPSU (Shenin, 2001).
3) Estonian Anarcho-Communist Movement “Anti!”
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Estonia:
1) Constitution Party: A small centre-left party that caters to the large ethnic Russian minority of Estonia.
2) Estonian Centre Party (EK): Founded on October 12, 1991 from leftist-populist elements of the People’s Front of Estonia (ER), the EK’s long-time leader has been Edgar Savisaar (“ex”-CPSU), who also co-founded the People’s Front. In December 2004 the EK entered into a protocol of cooperation with the crypto-communist United Russia party, which has probably contributed to the EK’s success within Estonia’s ethnic Russian electorate. The EK is currently the most electorally successful party in Estonia. — From 1980 to 1988, Savisaar worked in various departments of Estonia’s communist government that coordinated the country’s planned economy. In 1987 Savisaar and fellow communist Siim Kallas, then members of the EKP, co-authored the plan Economically Independent Estonia, which called for limited economic autonomy. Between 1988 and 1989, Savisaar was academic director of Mainor, a consultation company. In 1989 Savisaar became Vice-Chair of the Council of Ministers of the Estonian SSR and head of the State Planning Committee. In early 1990 he was Minister of Economy and on April 3 he was appointed Chair of the Council of Ministers. When Estonia declared its independence on August 20, 1991, he became the first prime minister of the “new” Republic of Estonia.
3) Estonian Coalition Party: This “ex”-communist leftist party was founded in 1991 by Jaak Tamm and Tiit Vähi, who also was among the organizers of the People’s Front of Estonia and led the front’s regional committee in Valga County. The Estonian Coalition Party was dissolved in 2001. Born in 1947, Vähi graduated from Tallinn Technical University with a degree in engineering. From his graduation to 1992 he served in several top managerial post with the Valga Trucking Company. In 1989 Vähi was appointed Minister for Transport and Communications, a post that he held until January 1992. Tamm has been the Minister of Industry in Edgar Savisaar’s government.
4) Estonian Left Party (EVP): The EVP traces its origin to the original Communist Party of Estonia (EKP), founded in 1920. In June 1988 CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev appointed Vaino Väljas as chair of the EKP, a post that he held until March 1990. Väljas previously served as Soviet ambassador to Venezuela and Nicaragua in 1980 and 1986, respectively. He led the “reformist” majority in the EKP to found the “new” Communist Party of Estonia in 1990. In 1992 the EKP renamed itself as the Estonian Democratic Labor Party (EDLP). Väljas was chair of the EDLP from 1992 to 1995. In July 1995 the EDLP joined the New European Left Forum. In 1997 the party again renamed itself as the Estonian Social Democratic Labor Party (ESDTP). In 2004 ESDTP co-founded the Party of the European Left. The most recent party name change occurred in December 2004, when the ESDTP changed its name to the Estonian Left Party (EVP).
5) Estonian Reform Party: Founded in 1994 by Siim Kallas (“ex”-CPSU), Reform is a “free market” party that has been a member of the Liberal International since 1996. In 1987 Kallas and Edgar Savissar, then members of the Communist Party of Estonia, co-authored the plan Economically Independent Estonia, which called for limited economic autonomy. In 1989 both men became deputies in the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR.
6) People’s Front of Estonia (ER): Founded in 1989 by Edgar Savisaar (“ex”-CPSU, ex-Komsomol) and Marju Lauristin (“ex”-CPSU), the ER was the first national independence movement of its kind in the Soviet Union. During the late 1980s, “perestroika communists” founded national independence movements throughout the Soviet republics to agitate for the withdrawal of their respective country from the Soviet Union.
7) People’s Union of Estonia (ER): Founded on September 29, 1994, as the Estonian Country People’s Party, the populist agrarian ER adopted its current name in 1999. On June 10, 2000 the ER merged with the Estonian Country Union (EML) and the Estonian Party of Pensioners and Families (EPPE), becoming the largest political party in Estonia. Another merger with the New Estonia Party (EUE) in 2003 resulted in a total membership of 9,000. Despite its official nationalism, the party contains former Kolkhoz managers, “ex”-communist party officials, and farmers. In order to attract ethnic Russian voters, the ER established the Russian Association of the People’s Union in 2005. At the European level, the ER is a member of the Union for Europe of the Nations, but is not represented in the European Parliament. — The first chair of the ER was Arnold Rüütel (“ex”-CPSU), who held that post until 2000. Prior to the “collapse” of communism, Rüütel was chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR (April 1983-March 1990), chair of the Supreme Council (March-May 1990), as well as a member of the “post”-communist Constitutional Assembly (1991-1992) that drafted the constitution of the “new” Republic of Estonia. The current leader of the ER is Villu Reiljan.
8) Social Democratic Party (SDE): The SDE was formed as the Estonian Social Democratic Party (ESDP) in 1990 through a merger of the Estonian Democratic Labor Party (EDT), Estonian Social Democratic Independence Party (ESI), Russian Social Democratic Party in Estonia (VSPE), and Estonian Socialist Party’s Foreign Association (ESPVK). Founded in 1905, the last is the successor of the exiled Estonian Socialist Workers’ Party (ESTP). In 1996 the ESDP merged with the Estonian Rural Centre Party to form the “Moderates.” In 1999 the Moderates merged with the People’s Party to form the Moderate People’s Party. The People’s Party was a centre-right party formed in 1998 from the fusion of the Peasants’ Party and the People’s Party of Republicans and Conservatives, a group that defected from the Pro Patria Union in 1994. In 2003, the Moderate People’s Party adopted the current name, Social Democratic Party. — The first leader of the SDE (1990-1995) was Marju Lauristin (“ex”-CPSU) who, along with Edgar Savisaar (“ex”-CPSU) co-founded the People’s Front of Estonia in 1988. Marju is the daughter of Johannes Lauristin, also known under the pseudonym Johan Maderik, who in 1940 led the communist insurrection against the Estonian government. When the Soviet Army occupied Estonia in June of that year, Johannes Vares was appointed to head the puppet government as prime minister until August 1940, when Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union. Karl Säre became first secretary of the Communist Party of Estonia on August 28 and, together with the elder Lauristin, president of the Council of Peoples Commissars (1940-1941), signed a number of new laws that communized Estonia along the lines of the Soviet Union.
Other parties of “post”-communist Estonia:
1) Estonian Christian People’s Party (EKR): The EKR is a Christian democratic party and a member of the European Christian Political Movement.
2) Estonian Independence Party (EI): The EI is a Eurosceptic party, opposing Estonia’s current membership in the European Union.
3) Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica (IRPL): This conservative party was founded in 2006 by a merger of two other conservative parties, Pro Patria and Res Publica. The Pro Patria Union was founded on December 2, 1995 by merging the Estonian National Independence Party (ERSP) and the National Coalition Party “Pro Patria” (RKI). Most of the latter’s founding members had been political dissidents during the Soviet era and had participated actively in the movement for regaining national independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. RKI was founded in September 1992 by the merger of four other parties: Christian Democratic Party, Christian Democratic Union, Conservative People’s Party, and Republicans’ Coalition Party. Res Publica was founded in 1989 as the Union for the Republic-Res Publica. At the European level, IRPL associates with the European People’s Party and the European Democratic Union, while in the European Parliament it associates with the European People’s Party-European Democrats.
Russian military presence: The Russian Armed Forces withdrew from Estonia on August 31, 1994. Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia joined NATO on March 29, 2004.

>Red Terror File: Branch head of Russia’s largest independent gas producer Itera and colleague shot dead on December 5

>Another capitalist iced in Russia. Red Mafiya? Federal Security Service? Either way, state-run Gazprom, the Putinist regime, and the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union benefit through the elimination of competition. The wire report below observes blandly: “High-profile business-related killings have become common in Russia in recent months . . .”

Russian gas production chief shot dead
AFP, MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 12 05 06

A branch head of Russia’s largest independent gas producer Itera was shot and killed Monday as he left his office in the central Russian city of Samara, police said.

Alexander Samoylenko, the general director of Itera’s Samara operations, was gunned down by automatic weapons along with a colleague as he left his office around 8:00 pm local time (1700 GMT), a police spokesman said.

“Samoylenko died on the way to the hospital,” where his wounded colleague was also taken, the Interfax news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

Itera, like all Russia’s independent gas producers, relies heavily on state-controlled gas giant Gazprom to transport its gas to markets.

Itera’s activity in the Samara region, around 1100 kilometers (680 miles) east of Moscow, is centred around oil extraction and transport, according to the official ITAR-TASS news agency.

In addition to heading Itera-Samara, Samoylenko was the general director of AvtoVAZenergo, a division of auto-maker AvtoVAZ, ITAR-TASS said.

High-profile business-related killings have become common in Russia in recent months and include the apparent assassination in September of Central Bank first deputy head Andrei Kozlov and Rusia Petroleum chief engineer Enver Ziganshin.

>USSR2 File: Kremlin seizes Shell’s $20-billion Sakhalin-2 liquified gas project in Far East, awards to state-run Gazprom; cites environmental concerns

>There’s too much anti-Russian hysteria.
— Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesentity, December 11, 2006

The Kremlin is once again using legal pretexts to cover what was essentially an expropriation of private resources in the energy sector. The Kremlin ought to cease this behaviour.
— Bob Amsterdam, lawyer for jailed “Komsomol capitalist” Mikhail Khodorkovsky, December 11, 2006

It [Gazprom] is a state within a state.
— Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov; speaking at International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, June 26, 2006

One third of western Europe’s natural gas is supplied by Russia – a figure expected to rise over the next decade.
— Quote from Guardian article below

Gazprom: The Kremlin’s avaricious energy and media monster. Since 2000 Russia’s crypto-communist Chekist regime has jailed, murdered, defamed, or driven into exile a number of prominent businessmen and bankers. As a pretext to drive out Shell, the Kremlin’s sudden concern over the Siberian environment is hard to swallow, especially in view of the Soviet Bloc’s appalling history of industrial pollution. Think Chernobyl. Think Aral Sea.

Comrade Czar Putin continues to roll back President Boris Yeltsin’s New Economic Policy Version 2.0 in time for Chairman Shenin’s ascent to the Russian Federation presidency in 2008 and the re-Sovietization of Russia and her satellites. Welcome to the 1930s all over again.

Viktor Khristenko, the Russian Federation’s Minister of Industry and Energy, is pictured here.

$20bn gas project seized by Russia
Terry Macalister, Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Tuesday December 12, 2006
The Guardian

Shell is being forced by the Russian government to hand over its controlling stake in the world’s biggest liquefied gas project, provoking fresh fears about the Kremlin’s willingness to use the country’s growing strength in natural resources as a political weapon.

After months of relentless pressure from Moscow, the Anglo-Dutch company has to cut its stake in the $20bn Sakhalin-2 scheme in the far east of Russia in favour of the state-owned energy group Gazprom.

The Russian authorities are also threatening BP over alleged environmental violations on a Siberian field in what is seen as a wider attempt to seize back assets handed over to foreign companies when energy prices were low.

The moves will alarm many investors in the City of London as Shell and other share prices are hit, but the news will also increase ministers’ concerns about Britain’s energy security.

Russia is becoming a key source of natural gas to the UK and Gazprom has already made clear it would like to buy a company such as Centrica, which owns British Gas. One third of western Europe’s natural gas is supplied by Russia – a figure expected to rise over the next decade.

The security of energy supply is now the main political issue between the EU and the Kremlin. Nervousness about the Russians was heightened last winter when the gas supply to Ukraine was cut off in the middle of a political dispute.

Shell confirmed last night that its chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, met Gazprom’s chairman, Alexei Miller, in Moscow last Friday but would say only that the talks on Sakhalin-2 were “constructive”. The Russian company said that “Shell did indeed make several proposals concerning Sakhalin-2” at the meeting which came after Shell was threatened with having its operating licence withdrawn.

The energy minister, Viktor Khristenko, is expected to give details today of a deal under which Shell and its Japanese partners are likely to get a cash payment in return for giving Gazprom a stake in the project.

Dmitry Peskov, the official spokesman of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, hit out yesterday at critics in the western media who implicated the Russian government in manipulating oil projects and the poisoning of dissidents. He said there was too much “anti-Russian hysteria”. With reference to BP’s oil spills in Alaska, he added: “If it’s an environmental problem in Alaska it’s environmental. If it’s in Russia you call it politics.”

But other senior politicians in Moscow had no doubt Shell was being harassed into reducing its 55% stake in Sakhalin-2 to something close to 25% through relentless pressure from ministries.

“In the current situation Shell will not be able to defend its economic interests in a civilised process with the Russian authorities, so they will be obliged to give up control if they want to save at least some adequate part of the project,” said Vladimir Milov, Russia’s former deputy energy minister.

Bob Amsterdam, the lawyer of the jailed oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said the Kremlin was “once again” using legal pretexts to cover what was essentially an expropriation of private resources in the energy sector. “The Kremlin ought to cease this behaviour,” he said.

The Sakhalin-2 project is scheduled to start operations in 2008 and involves finding and producing oil and gas near Sakhalin island, formerly known only as a penal colony during the tsarist and Soviet eras.

The two fields that make up Sakhalin-2 have an estimated 1.2bn barrels of oil and 500bn cubic metres of natural gas. The gas is to be brought ashore, liquefied and frozen before being shipped to customers in Japan and elsewhere.

The scheme created almost immediate controversy with western conservation groups because it involves putting equipment close to breeding grounds of endangered western grey whales. There has also been criticism that sensitive salmon fishing areas are being hit by dumping of dredging spoil waste amid worries about oil spills from platforms in the Okhotsk and Japanese seas.

But even non-governmental organisations have expressed surprise at the way the Russian authorities have taken up environmental issues since the summer after taking little interest before.

Mr Peskov said it was a coincidence of timing and that it was “a process that is natural for every country” to come to eventually. Mr Putin’s spokesman said Russia wanted to encourage western investment and wanted closer links with west European countries to foster mutual “interdependence.”

>USSR2 File: Pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi threatens to sue ICANN over proposed elimination of .SU domain name extension

>Looks like ICANN touched a raw nerve with the Kremlin’s red star-emblazoned, T-shirt- wearing crypto-Komsomol. Might as well keep the .SU domain name extension since presidential hopeful Oleg Shenin intends to resurrect the USSR by 2010 . . .

Russia’s Pro-Kremlin Youth Group Threatens ICANN With Lawsuits If Soviet Era Domain Is Scrapped

Moscow News, 11.12.2006

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (icann.org) said last week it was considering eliminating some outdated domain name extensions, according to reports.

ICANN began accepting public comments in Sao Paulo, Brazil this week on how to revoke certain outdated suffixes, primarily those assigned with countries that no longer exist. ICANN currently controls 265 domain name extensions.

The corporation says the Soviet Union’s .su is on the top of the list for deletion and the former Yugoslav republic’s .yu is also being taken into consideration.

Some domain names that have already become obsolete include Great Britain’s .gb, which has been replaced by .uk, East Germany’s .dd and Zaire’s .zr after the country became the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

ICANN said it wanted to establish a formal policy and will be accepting comments online until Jan. 31 2007.

Kommersant Daily wrote Monday that if the corporation goes ahead with its plan many Russian companies may suffer losses. Some of them have already threatened ICANN with lawsuits.

The domain .su was registered in September 1990. But in 1994 when Russia’s .ru was introduced the registration of .su names was suspended to be resumed in December 2002 only for brand owners. A year later the .su extension again became available to all users.

The Soviet-era domain name is five times more expensive than .ru. Registering a domain name with the ’outdated’ suffix costs $100 excl. VAT while .ru, .com and .net domains cost only $20 each.

Today, there are approximately 8,000 domain names registered with the .su ending in the Internet. Elimination of the Soviet-era suffix may cause considerable damage to their owners, who have already put up cash for advertising of their websites. Some of those companies have already said that they could sue ICANN.

One of those is the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, whose website is registered with the .su suffix. “Should the domain be eliminated our lawyers will examine the issue and will stand up for the movement’s rights in court,” Nashi spokesman Robert Shlegel told Kommersant.

>Red World: Transnistria: Unrecognized diminutive retro-Soviet republic holds strategic value for Russia

>Pictured here: Four-term President of Transnistria Igor Smirnov (“ex”-CPSU).

Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR, Transnistrian Moldavian Republic, Transnistria)
Constituent republic of USSR: Semi-autonomous region of Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic prior to unrecognized declaration of independence on September 2, 1990
Previous names: Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (PMSSR), September 2, 1990-November 5, 1991
Type of state: Unrecognized “post”-communist “multiparty” presidential-dominant state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Communist government:
1) Personalist government of “ex”-communist President Igor Smirnov: 1991-present
Communist Bloc memberships: none
Socialist International presence: none
Ethnic Russian composition: 30.3% (2004; Moldavian 31.9%, Ukrainian 28.8%)
Presidents of “post”-communist Transnistria:
1) Igor Smirnov (“ex”-CPSU, United Workers’ Collective Council, Republic Party; Chair, Provisional Supreme Soviet, PMSSR): December 3, 1991-present
Vice-presidents of “post”-communist Transnistria:
1) Alekxandee Korolev (Republic Party): December 10, 2006-present
2) Leontiev Fyodorovich (“ex”-CPSU; Graduate, Higher Party School, Central Committee, Communist Party of Ukraine): December 2001-December 10, 2006
3) Alexandru Caraman (“ex”-CPSU): September 2, 1990-December 2001
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Transnistria: This office does not exist since the president is both head of state and head of government.
Speakers of Transistrian Supreme Soviet:
1) Yevgeni Shevchuk (Renewal Party): December 11, 2005-present
2) Grigore Mărăcuţă (“ex”-CPSU, Republic Party): September 16, 1992 (or earlier)-December 11, 2005
Parliament of “post”-communist Transnistria: Unicameral 43-member Transnistrian Supreme Soviet
Communist parties of “post”-communist Transnistria:
1) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Lenin-Stalin): The CPSU (Lenin-Stalin) is associated with Victor Anpilov’s faction of the CPSU.
2) Communist Party of Pridnestrovie-Communist Party of the Soviet Union (KPP-KPSS): Founded in 1996 as a split from the Pridnestrovie Communist Party (PKP), the KPP-KPSS is viewed as a “conservative” communist party, in contrast to the PKP. It operates under the leadership of Vladimir Gavrilchenko. The KPP-KPSS affiliates with the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the chair of which is Oleg Shenin. The KPP-KPPSS boasts no representation in parliament and claims less than 100, mostly elderly, members. It supports an independent Transnistria, but “opposes” the Smirnov regime. The KPP-KPSS supported the candidacy of PKP member Nadesha Bondarenko for the December 10, 2006 presidential election. — According to a May 28, 2004 press release of the PMR government: “In the afternoon the President [Smirnov] met with Oleg Shenin, the Chair of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The goals of the communist movements of the Russian Federation, PMR and RM [Republic of Moldova] were discussed in the course of the meeting with the guest from Moscow. In Oleg Shenin’s opinion, they should combat the expansion of imperialism on the post-Soviet territory retaining the best ideas of communists of the Soviet Union and increasing the prestige of the party among people.”
3) Pridnestrovie Communist Party (PKP): The PKP is the local successor to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Like many other communist parties throughout the USSR, it was “banned” in August 1991, but reorganized in 1993. The PKP operates under the leadership of Oleg Khorzhan. Although the party fielded candidates for the 2005 parliamentary election, it obtained no seats in the Transnistrian Supreme Soviet and boasts no political representation above local government. It supports an independent Transnistria, but “opposes” the Smirnov regime. — The PKP’s candidate for the December 10, 2006 presidential election was Nadesha Bondarenko, editor of Dnestrovskaya Pravda. Following Smirnov’s victory, Transnistria’s two communist parties nevertheless offered their support to the president. Khorzhan affirmed: “We will propose that Igor [Smirnov] meet with us and discuss the problems of economic and social policy.” The neo-communist government of Moldova, based in Chisnau, has condemned Tiraspol for “impeding” the activities of both the PKP and the Communist Party of Pridnestrovie-Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Transnistria:
1) Liberal Democratic Party of Pridnestrovie (LDPR-Pridnestrovie or LDPP): Founded on August 1, 2006 by followers of suspected KGB agent Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the LDPP affiliates with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. It operates under the leadership of Roman Khudyakov.
2) Party of Democracy: This left socialist party was founded in 1995.
3) Patriotic Party of Pridnestrovie: Founded on August 4, 2006 by merging the Union of Defenders of Pridnestrovie, the Union of Afghan War Veterans, and the Women’s League of Pridnestrovie. The pro-presidential PPP operates under the leadership of Oleg Smirnov, the son of President Igor Smirnov. Oleg chairs the Transnistria branch of Gazprombank, a fully owned subsidiary of Gazprom. In his acceptance speech, Oleg stated that the party’s goal is Transnistria’s integration into “Mother Russia” and that the party’s propaganda activities would utilize Gazprom resources. The PPP supported Igor Smirnov’s candidacy in the December 2006 presidential election.
4) People’s Power Party: Founded in 1994 by ethnic Russian and former Soviet military officer Alexander Radchenko. During the February 2001 parliamentary election in Moldova, Radchenko urged Transnistrians to participate and campaigned in support of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova. The Transnistrian Minister of Justice accused Radchenko of crimes against the state. As a result, on May 14, 2001 the Supreme Court of Transnistria imposed a ban upon People’s Power. The ban was lifted in June, reintroduced in December, lifted again on March 7, 2002, and imposed a third time in October 2002.
5) Republic Party: This pro-presidential party supports Igor Smirnov (“ex”-CPSU). Although formerly the majority party in parliament, in the 2005 parliamentary election Republic won 13 out of 43 seats and, according to one source, found itself in the minority for the first time since the formation of the country in 1990. Defying the communist elite of Moldova, Smirnov praised the August 1991 “hardline” communist coup. On a visit abroad on August 29, 1991, the Moldovan secret service arrested Igor Smirnov and he was taken to solitary confinement in Chisinau. Peaceful protests led to Smirnov’s release. Writing in the December 2003 issue of The Eurasian Politician, Marco Pribilla refers to Smirnov as a “Stalinist.” Based on scanty English-language documentation, the party’s origin is not clear. Republic might have evolved from the pro-independence (anti-Moldovan, pro-Russian) United Workers’ Collective Council with which Smirnov was associated during the early 1990s.
Russian military presence: The War of Transnistria (1992) initially took the form of armed clashes on a limited scale between Transnistrian separatists and Moldovan police as early as November 1990 at Dubăsari. The main armed conflict occurred between March 2 and July 21, 1992, when a ceasefire brokered that year came into effect. At the time the 14th Russian Army in Moldova, operating under the command of General Alexander Lebed (1950-2002), numbered about 14,000 professional soldiers. The Transnistrians mustered 9,000 militiamen, trained and armed by Lebed’s troops. In addition, there were 5,000 to 6,000 volunteers who came forward after an appeal on Russian television urged fighters to join the Transnistrian separatist cause. Volunteers came from all over Russia. On April 5, 1992, Vice-President Rutskoy of the Russian Federation, in a speech delivered to 5,000 people in Tiraspol, the Transnistrian capital, encouraged the breakaway region to obtain its independence. — As per its 1992 agreement with Moldova, Russia has a right to maintain up to 2,400 troops in Transnistria. As of 2006, however, under the terms of the Joint Control Commission, Moldova supplies 403 troops to the ceasefire maintenance force, Transnistria 411, and Russia 385. — In 1992 Transnistrians elected General Lebed as Man of the Year. The next year Lebed (“ex”-CPSU) was elected as a deputy of the Transnistrian Supreme Soviet, but resigned later that year during the constitutional crisis in Moscow. — On March 3, 2006, Ukraine imposed new customs regulations on its border with Transnistria. Ukraine declared it will only import goods from Transnistria with documents processed by Moldovan customs offices, as part of the implementation of the joint customs protocol between Ukraine and Moldova on December 30, 2005. Transnistria and Russia termed Ukraine’s new policy an “economic blockade.” — In a September 17 referendum that was not recognized by international organizations, 97.0% of Transnistrians voted in favor of independence and free association with the Russian Federation, rather than union with Moldova. Transnistria is a landlocked country surrounded by Moldova on the west and Ukraine on the east. The diminutive regime holds strategic value for Russia since Moscow maintains an armaments and ammunition depot here, as well as an air base that can support strategic bombers en route to the Balkans. — As of 2006 the flag and coat of arms of the PMR retains the hammer and sickle in recognition of, according to official sources, Transnistria’s “historic legacy” (of communism). Any current attachment to communism by the Smirnov administration is disavowed.

>Red World: Moldova: Democratically elected Communist Party ruled between 2001 and 2009

>Pictured here: Former president of Moldova (2001-2009) Vladimir Voronin transformed the Moldavian section of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union into the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova.

Republic of Moldova
Constituent republic of USSR: October 12, 1924-August 27, 1991
Previous names:
1) Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova: June 1990-May 23, 1991
2) Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic: August 2, 1940-June 1990
3) Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic: October, 12 1924-August 2, 1940
4) Moldavian Autonomous Oblast within Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic: March 7-October 12, 1924
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Neo-communist re-renewal: Democratically elected neo-communist government, 2001
Communist government:
1) Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (“ex”-CPSU leader), in coalition with Democratic Party of Moldova, Social Liberal Party, and Christian Democratic People’s Party (“ex”-communist): 2005-present
2) Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (“ex”-CPSU leader): 2001-2005
3) Democratic Convention of Moldova (consisting of Party of Revival and Accord, Christian Democratic People’s Front (“ex”-communist), and other pro-Lucinschi parties), Bloc for a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova (pro-Lucinschi), and Party of Democratic Forces: 1998-2001
4) Agrarian Democratic Party of Moldova (“ex”-CPSU leader, Petru Lucinschi): 1996-1998
5) Agrarian Democratic Party of Moldova (“ex”-CPSU leader, Petru Lucinschi) and Socialist Union (consisting of Unity Movement and Socialist Party of Moldova (“ex”-communist)): 1994-1996
6) Christian Democratic People’s Front (formerly People’s Front of Moldova): 1992-1994
7) People’s Front of Moldova (formerly Communist Party of Moldavia): 1991-1992
8) Communist Party of Moldavia (Moldavian section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1940-1991
9) Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic, proclaimed by Bolsheviks from provisional capital in Tiraspol, but never recognized: 1919
Communist Bloc memberships: Commonwealth of Independent States, GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, Community of Democratic Choice
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party of Moldova (observer)
Ethnic Russian composition: 5.9%
Presidents of “post”-communist Moldova:
1) Mihai Ghimpu (Liberal Party, co-founded communist-dominated People’s Front of Moldova): September 11, 2009-present (acting)
2) Vladimir Voronin (“ex”-CPSU, Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova): April 7, 2001-September 11, 2009
3) Petru Lucinschi (“ex”-CPSU, Agrarian Democratic Party of Moldova, Democratic Convention of Moldova): January 15, 1997-April 7, 2001
4) Mircea Snegur (CPSU, Agrarian Democratic Party of Moldova, Party of Revival and Accord, Democratic Convention of Moldova; Chairman, Supreme Soviet, Moldavian SSR, 1989-1990): September 3, 1990-January 15, 1997
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Moldova:
1) Vlad Filat (Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova, Democratic Party of Moldova): September 25, 2009-present
2) Vitalie Pirlog (Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova): September 14-25, 2009 (acting)
3) Zinaida Greceanîi (Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, born in Russia): March 20, 2008-September 14, 2009
4) Vasile Tarlev (Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova): April 19, 2001-March 20, 2008
5) Dumitru Braghiş (“ex”-CPSU, Social Democracy Party of Moldova): December 21, 1999-April 19, 2001
6) Valeriu Bobutac: November 12-December 21, 1999
7) Ion Sturza: February 19-November 9, 1999
8) Serafim Urechean (“ex”-CPSU, Party Alliance Our Moldova): February 5-17, 1999
9) Ion Ciubuc: January 24, 1997-February 1, 1999
10) Andrei Sangheli (“ex”-CPSU, Agrarian Democratic Party of Moldova): July 1, 1992-January 24, 1997
11) Valeriu Moravschi (Socialist Workers’ Party, National Peasant Party Christian Democratic): May 28, 1991-July 1, 1992
12) Mircea Druc (“ex”-communist People’s Front of Moldavia): May 26, 1990-May 28, 1991
Parliament of “post”-communist Moldova: Unicameral 101-seat Parliament of the Republic of Moldova Soviet-era “parliament”: Supreme Soviet (Council), provisional parliament until 1994
Communist parties of “post”-communist Moldova:
1) Electoral Bloc “Homeland/Motherland”: This electoral bloc was founded in 2004 by the Socialist Party of Moldova and the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova.
2) Organizing Committee on Restoration in Moldova of a Communist Party of Leninist Type: This party was founded as a split from the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova and operates under the leadership of Igor Kucher.
3) Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM): The PCRM was organized in October 1993 from the remnants of the Communist Party of Moldavia, which was “banned” in August 1991. It registered in April 1994. On September 27, 2003 the Party of Civic Dignity of Moldova joined the PCRM. The PCRM currently operates under the leadership of Vladimir Voronin and associates with the UCP-CPSU and the ICS. The party has openly ruled Moldova since 2001, when it won the parliamentary and presidential elections of that year.
4) Revolutionary Workers’ Party: This is a Trotskyist party.
5) Union of Communists of Moldova (UCM): The UCM was founded in 1997 as a split from the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova.
Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Moldova:
1) Agrarian Democratic Party of Moldova: This party consists of “ex”-communists and rural leftists who support closer economic and political ties with Russia as opposed to Romania. Mircea Snegur (“ex”-CPSU) was the first leader of the ADPM, followed by Petru Lucinschi (“ex”-CPSU).
2) Bloc for a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova: Founded in December 1996 under the leadership of Deputy Speaker of Parliament Dumitru Diacov, this electoral bloc supported President Petru Lucinschi (“ex”-CPSU) in the 1998 parliamentary election.
3) Labor Union “Homeland”: This party was founded in 1999 and operates under the leadership of Gheorghe Sima.
4) Moldova Noastra (“Our Moldova”) Alliance (MNA): Founded on July 19, 2003, the MNA combines the Social-Democratic Alliance of Moldova, Liberal Party, Independents’ Alliance of Moldova, and Democratic Peoples’ Party of Moldova. The alliance chair is Serafim Urechean.
5) Party of Revival and Accord: This party was founded by Mircea Snegur (“ex”-CPSU) who, under the communist regime of the Moldavian SSR, was Chair of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldavia, as well as Chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
6) Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM): The PSRM is a left-socialist party that was founded in 1997 as split from the Socialist Party of Moldova and operates under the leadership of Veronica Abramciuc.
7) People’s Front of Moldova: Founded on May 20, 1989 as the Democratic Movement of Moldova, this potemkin, pan-Romanian party enjoyed a high degree of support from “reformists” in the Communist Party of Moldavia (CPM) in the early days of Moldovan “independence.” On February 11, 1990, the People’s Front, with the official support of government authorities, organized a “Republic’s Voters Meeting” in the capital Chisinau. This was attended by more than 100,000 people and was addressed by Petru Lucinschi, First Secretary of the CPM, and other high-level communist officials. The People’s Front insisted that the country be renamed the Romanian Republic of Moldova, its citizens be called “Romanians,” and Romanian be designated as the country’s official language. Among the communist candidates supported by the People’s Front during the 1990 Supreme Soviet election, one could find the names of high-ranking CPM members such as Mircea Snegur. On August 27, 1991, after the “hardline” communist coup in Moscow, the CPM “banned” itself, all of the communist deputies joined the People’s Front, which became the official government, and Moldovan “independence” was proclaimed. — The People’s Front was renamed in 1992 as the Christian Democratic People’s Front and is currently known as the Christian Democratic People’s Party. Iurie Roşca is the long-time leader of the People’s Front. Prior to the March 6, 2005 parliamentary election Roşca publicly stated: “Moldova today is a tiny red stain in an ocean of orange.” Notwithstanding this comment, on April 8, after the communists formed a second government, upon the recommendation of parliamentary speaker Marian Lupu (PCRM) and with the support of the governing communists, Roşca was elected to the position of vice-speaker.
8) Social Democracy Alliance of Moldova (ASDM): The ASDM emerged from the People’s Front of Moldova after 1990. Originally known as the Social Democracy Party of Moldova (PDS), the ASDM adopted the name Social-Political Movement “Civic Alliance for Reforms” in 1997, and then its current name in 1999. It operates under the leadership of Dumitru Braghis (“ex”-CPSU), and holds observers status in both the Socialist International and the Eastern European Social Democratic Forum. Since 2003 it has been part of the Moldova Noastra Alliance. The ASDM should be distinguished from the Social-Democratic Party of Moldova, which was founded on May 13, 1990 and operates under the leadership of Eduard Musuc.
9) Socialist Action Party: This party was founded in 1997 as a split from the Socialist Party of Moldova. It operates under the leadership of Aurel Cepoi and has supported the presidential campaigns of Petru Lucinshi (“ex”-CPSU).
10) Socialist Party of Moldova (SPM): Founded on August 11, 1992 by “ex”-members of the old Communist Party of Moldavia, the SPM joined the Unitate-Edintsvo (“Unity”) Movement the following year with the intention of running in the 1994 parliamentary election. The SPM also field candidates in the 1995, 1999, and 2003 local elections. The party operates under the leadership of Victor Morev.
Russian military presence: In accordance with its 1992 agreement with Moldova, which followed the War of Transnistria, Russia has a right to maintain up to 2,400 troops in Transnistria, which the Moldovan government considers part of its territory. As of 2006, however, under the terms of the Joint Control Commission, Moldova supplies 403 troops to the ceasefire maintenance force, Transnistria 411, and Russia 385.

>Red World: Ukraine: Communist Party openly ruling in coalitions since 1991, Yanukovich restores strategic partnership with Russia

>Pictured here: Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich, an “ex”-cadre of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and leader of the pro-Moscow Party of Regions.

Ukraine
Constituent republic of USSR: December 30, 1922-August 24, 1991
Previous name: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, December 25, 1917-August 24, 1991
Type of state: “Post”-communist “multiparty” state under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Neo-communist re-renewal: Orange Revolution, 2004-2005

Communist government:
1) Party of Regions (“ex”-CPSU leader) in coalition with Communist Party of Ukraine, Lytvyn Bloc, and defectors from Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense Bloc: 2010-present
2) Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in coalition with Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense Bloc and Lytvyn Bloc: 2008-2010
3) Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in coalition with Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense Bloc: 2007-2008
4) Party of Regions (“ex”-CPSU leader) in coalition with Communist Party of Ukraine and Socialist Party of Ukraine (“ex”-CPSU leader): 2006-2007
5) Communist Party of Ukraine in coalition with Socialist Party of Ukraine (“ex”-CPSU leader), United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (“ex”-CPSU founder), and For United Ukraine (coalition consisting of People’s Party of Ukraine (“ex”-CPSU leader), People’s Democratic Party of Ukraine, Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine, Party of Regions (“ex”-CPSU leader), and Labor Ukraine): 2002-2006
6) Communist Party of Ukraine in coalition with Socialist Party of Ukraine (“ex”-CPSU leader), Peasant’s Party of Ukraine (communist), People’s Democratic Party of Ukraine, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (communist), and United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (“ex”-CPSU founder): 1998-2002
7) Communist Party of Ukraine in coalition with Socialist Party of Ukraine (“ex”-CPSU leader) and Peasants’ Party of Ukraine (communist): 1994-1998
8) Communist Party of Ukraine (“Group of 239” majority): 1990-1994
9) Communist Party of Ukraine (Ukrainian section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1917-1990

Communist Bloc memberships: Commonwealth of Independent States, Unified Economic Space of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan (possible), GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, Eurasian Economic Community (observer), Community of Democratic Choice
Socialist International presence: Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (consultative), Socialist Party of Ukraine
Ethnic Russian composition: 17.3%

Presidents of “post”-communist Ukraine:
1) Viktor Yanukovich (“ex”-CPSU, Party of Regions; Kuchma ally, pro-Russian): February 25, 2010-present
2) Viktor Yushchenko (KGB Border Guard Unit, ex-Soviet apparatchik, Kuchma appointee; Our Ukraine Bloc, Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense Bloc): January 23, 2005-February 25, 2010
3) Leonid Kuchma (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Democratic Party of Ukraine): July 19, 1994-January 23, 2005
4) Leonid Kravchuk (“ex”-CPSU, Communist Party of Ukraine, United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine; Chair, Supreme Soviet, Ukraine SSR): December 5, 1991-July 19, 1994

Prime ministers of “post”-communist Ukraine:
1) Mykola Azarov (Russian-born ex-Soviet technocrat; Party of Regions, Yanukovich ally): March 11, 2010-present
2) Alexander Turchynov (All-Ukrainian Union-Fatherland, Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc): March 3-11, 2010 (acting)
3) Yulia Tymoshenko (Komsomol, “post”-communist oligarch): December 18, 2007-March 3, 2010
4) Viktor Yanukovich (“ex”-CPSU, Party of Regions, pro-Russian): August 4, 2006-December 18, 2007
5) Yuri Yekhanurov (People’s Union-Our Ukraine): September 8-22, 2005 (acting), September 22, 2005-August 4, 2006
6) Yulia Tymoshenko (Komsomol, “post”-communist oligarch): January 24-September 8, 2005
7) Mykola Azarov (Russian-born ex-Soviet technocrat; Yanukovich ally): January 5-24, 2005 (acting)
8) Viktor Yanukovich (“ex”-CPSU, Party of Regions; Kuchma ally, pro-Russian): December 28, 2004-January 5, 2005
9) Mykola Azarov (Russian-born ex-Soviet technocrat; Yanukovich ally): December 7-28, 2004 (acting)
10) Viktor Yanukovich (“ex”-CPSU, Party of Regions; Kuchma ally, pro-Russian): November 21, 2002-December 7, 2004
11) Anatoliy Kinakh (ex-Soviet apparatchik, Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine): May 29, 2001-November 21, 2002
12) Viktor Yushchenko (KGB Border Guard Unit, ex-Soviet apparatchik, Kuchma appointee; Our Ukraine Bloc): December 22, 1999-April 26, 2001, April 28-May 29, 2001
13) Valeriy Pustovoitenko (“ex”-CPSU, Kuchma’s clan): July 16, 1997-December 22, 1999
14) Vasyl Durdynets (“ex”-CPSU): June 19-July 16, 1997 (acting)
15) Pavlo Lazarenko (Kuchma’s clan): May 28, 1996-June 18, 1997
16) Yevhen Marchuk (Security Service of Ukraine officer): March 6, 1995-May 27, 1996
17) Vitaliy Masol (“ex”-CPSU): June 16, 1994-March 6, 1995
18) Yukhym Zvyahilsky (Kuchma’s clan, “post”-communist oligarch): September 22, 1993-June 15, 1994 (acting)
19) Leonid Kuchma (“ex”-CPSU, People’s Democratic Party of Ukraine): October 13, 1992-September 21, 1993
20) Valentyn Symonenko (“ex”-CPSU): October 2-13, 1992
21) Vitold Fokin (State Planning Committee, Ukraine SSR; Deputy Chair, Council of Ministers, Ukraine SSR): October 23-November 14, 1990 (acting), November 14, 1990-October 1, 1992
22) Vitaliy Masol (“ex”-CPSU): June 28-October 23, 1990

Parliament of “post”-communist Ukraine: Unicameral national legislature consisting of 450-member Supreme Council
Soviet-era parliament: Supreme Soviet (Council), provisional parliament until 1994

Communist parties associated with restored/continuing CPSU in “post”-communist Ukraine:
1) Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU): Founded in 1918, the KPU operates under the leadership of Petro Symonenko and associates with the UCP-CPSU. The Presidium of the “new” Ukraine’s Supreme Soviet “banned” the KPU on August 26 and 31, 1991, and allowed the party to publicly reorganize in October 1993. The old KPU boasted 3.5 million members, while the new KPU boasts only 150,000.
2) Communist Party of Workers and Peasants (KPRS): Founded in 2001 as a split from the Communist Party of Ukraine, the KPRS operates under the leadership of Volodymir Moiseenko and associates with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001).
3) Union of Communists of Ukraine (SKU): Founded in 1992, the SKU operates under the leadership of Tamyla Yabrova, and associates with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001) and the International Communist Seminar.

Other communist parties of “post”-communist Ukraine:
1) All-Ukrainian Worker’s Union (VSR): The VSR is a radical leftist party that was founded in 1994 as a split from the Communist Party of Ukraine and operates under the leadership of Alexander Shapovalov.
2) All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks-Ukraine (VKPB): The VKPB was founded 1991 as the Ukrainian section of the Russian VKPB. It operates under the leadership of Sergei Mayevski and associates with the International Communist Seminar.
3) Communist Party of Ukraine (Renovated) (KPU(O)): The KPU(O) was founded in 2000 as a split from the KPU and operates under the leadership of Mykhaylo Savenko. The original KPU claims that the “establishment” created the KPU(O) in order to steal votes.
4) Communist Party (Workers) (KP(T)): The KP(T) was founded in 1998 and operates under the leadership of Grygoriy Kushch.
5) Communist Struggle: This party was founded in 2001 as a split from the Communist Party of Ukraine’s Komsomol.
6) Communists of Ukraine Movement: This party was founded in 1992 and associates with the Russian Communist Workers’ Party-Revolutionary Party of Communists. It operates under the leadership of Tamara Bolieva.
7) Coordination Council of the Workers Movement (KSRD): The KSRD is a radical left nationalist party that was founded in 1999 and operates under the leadership of Yuri Dokukin.
8) Internationalist Workers’ Party (IRP): This Trotskyist party was founded in 1994 and associates with the International Workers’ League (Fourth International).
9) Leninist Communist Party of Ukraine (LKPU): The LKPU was founded 1998 as a split from the Communist Party of Ukraine.
10) Party of Communists (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine (PK(B)U): The PK(B)U was founded in 1994 and operates under the leadership of Ivan Dyachenko.
11) Peasants’ Party of the Ukraine (SelPU): SelPU is a left socialist party that was founded in 1992 and operates under the leadership of Sergei Dovgan.
12) Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Front of Ukraine (RAF Ukrainy): RAF Ukrainy is a radical leftist party that was founded in 2002 and operates under the leadership of Peter Krasnopyorov and Oleg Aristov.
13) Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (SDPU): The SDPU was founded in 1990 and operates under the leadership of Iuriy Buzdugan. The SDPU is a consultative member of the Socialist International.
14) Socialist Choice: This party is left socialist.
15) Socialist Renewal: This party is radical left.
16) Union of Marxists: This radical leftist party was founded in 1999.
17) Workers’ Resistance: This Trotskyist party was founded in 1994, and associates with the Committee for a Workers’ International.
18) Union “Struggle”: This Trotskyist party operates under the leadership of Vitaly Kulik, and associates with the International Liaison Committee for a Workers’ International.

Crypto-communist parties of “post”-communist Ukraine:
1) For United Ukraine (ZJU): Formed in 2002, the ZJU was a leftist coalition that consisted of the People’s (Agrarian) Party of Ukraine, People’s Democratic Party of Ukraine, Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine, Party of Regions, and Labor Ukraine.
2) Party of Regions (PR): Founded in 2001, the Party of Regions operates under the leadership of Viktor Yanukovych (“ex”-CPSU). Originally supporting Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma (“ex”-CPSU), the party ideologically defends and upholds the rights of ethnic Russians and speakers of the Russian language in Ukraine.
3) People’s Democratic Party of Ukraine (NDPU): Founded in 1996, the NDPU is an “ex”-communist/liberal party that operates under the leadership of Valeriy Pustovoytenko.
4) People’s Party of Ukraine: Previously known as the Agrarian Party of Ukraine, this party operates under the leadership of Volodymyr Lytvyn (“ex”-CPSU).
5) People’s Movement of Ukraine (“Rukh”): The “nationalist” Rukh party was founded in 1989 by Ivan Drach (“ex”-CPSU) and Vyacheslav Chornovil (“ex”-Komsomol). In the 2006 parliamentary election, Rukh was part of President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine Bloc. The People’s Union Our Ukraine party claims to be a continuation of the bloc. Rukh should not be confused with the Ukrainian People’s Movement.
6) Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU): Founded in 1996 as a split from the “ex”-communist Socialist Party of Ukraine, the PSPU is a left socialist /populist party that operates under the leadership of Nataliya Vitrenko. In 2001 Vitrenko sent a letter of congratulations to the Communist Party of China on the occasion of the latter’s 80^th anniversary.
7) Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU): Founded in 1991, the SPU is a left social democratic party that operates under the leadership of Oleksandr Moroz (“ex”-CPSU) and associates with the Socialist International.
8) United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (SDPU(O)): The SDPU(O) was founded by Ukrainian Presiden tLeonid Kravchuk (“ex”-CPSU).

Russian military presence: Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is still based in Sevastopol, Ukraine and will remain there until 2017, according to the 1997 treaty signed by the two countries. In spite of the formal agreement, the presence of the Russian Navy in the Crimea is a source of friction. Although Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea coast of Russia, is the fleet’s second most important base, Russia recently entered into an agreement with Syria to build a naval base in Tartus. In June 2006 state-run Novosti reported that dredging of the Tartus harbor had begun. In return, Russia has promised to modernize Syria’s antiaircraft system, which utilizes medium-range S-125 missiles that were deployed in the 1980s.

Following the communist-scripted Orange Revolution, there was some debate in Ukraine and the West as to the former Soviet republic’s possible admission to NATO. Not surprisingly, Moscow was vehemently opposed to the idea. “This move will affect our relations whether we want it or not,” Russian Federation Deputy Prime Minister/Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov warned on December 7, 2006. “We are concerned that these countries became a ‘gray zone’ after joining NATO, as they are no longer subjected to the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty,” Chief of the Russian General Staff Yuri Balueyvsky agreed.

On that day Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich (“ex”-CPSU), concluding a meeting with Ivanov, affirmed that Ukraine would restore its Soviet-era strategic partnership with Russia to the “full extent.” “As you may know, as soon as the Ukrainian Cabinet was formed last August, it declared the restoration of strategic partnership with Russia as one of its top priorities,” Yanukovich stated. “We had stated the same during the election campaign. We believe that this will be only natural in relations with Russia and Ukraine.”

>Red World: Belarus: An Oasis of Soviet Communism in the Twenty-First Century

>Belarus was a very Soviet republic. It now remains in its essence Soviet. Not only because the councils were preserved. A Soviet republic means an international republic, which carries out an appropriate social policy and so on. Belarus was designed to live in a united Soviet Union.
— Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus; statement made on NTV, on 15th anniversary of dissolution of USSR; as quoted in Telegraf, December 8, 2006

After many months of research we are resuming our “Red World” list of communist states. Over the next few days we will be featuring the Not-So-Former Soviet Union, otherwise known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. For previous country lists see the following months in our archives: Africa, March; Asia, May; and Western Europe, July.

Republic of Belarus
Constituent republic of USSR: December 30, 1922-August 25, 1991
Previous names: Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, January 1, 1919- September 19, 1991 (use of this name allowed until 1993)
Type of state: “Post”-communist “nonpartisan” dictatorship under covert control of restored/continuing CPSU
Neo-communist renewal: “Collapse of communism,” 1991
Neo-communist re-renewal: President Lukashenko (pictured above) dissolved the 13^th Supreme Soviet in the wake of the November 1996 referendum. The national legislature, which was elected in the previous year, had impeached the president.
Communist government:
1) Communist Party of Belarus in coalition with other pro-Lukashenko parties and nonpartisans: 1996-present
2) Party of Communists of Belarus (formerly Communist Party of Byelorussia, anti-Lukashenko): 1991-1996
3) Communist Party of Byelorussia (Byelorussian section of CPSU): 1990-1991
4) Communist Party of Byelorussia (Byelorussian section of CPSU), sole legal party: 1919-1990
5) Lithuanian-Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, unrecognized government under leadership of Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Lithuania and Belorussia, revolutionary leaders Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas and Kazimierz Cichowski, and Soviet military occupation: 1919
Communist Bloc memberships: Union (or United State) of Russia and Belarus, Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Eurasian Economic Community
Socialist International presence: Belarusian Social Democratic Party-People’s Assembly (unregistered)
Ethnic Russian composition: 11.4%
Presidents of “post”-communist Belarus (1994-present):
1) Alexander Lukashenko (“ex”-CPSU, Communists for Democracy, Belarusian Patriotic Movement/Party, “nonpartisan”; ex-Soviet apparatchik): July 20, 1994-present
Chairs of Supreme Soviet in “post”-communist Belarus (1991-1994):
1) Myechyslau Hryb (“nonpartisan”): January 28-July 20, 1994
2) Vyacheslav Kuznyetsov (“nonpartisan”): January 26-28, 1994 (acting)
3) Stanislav Shushkyevich (“ex”-CPSU, “nonpartisan”; Chair, Supreme Soviet, Byelorussian SSR): September 18, 1991-January 26, 1994
Prime ministers of “post”-communist Belarus:
1) Sergei Sidorsky (communist affiliation undetermined): December 26, 2003-present
2) Gennady Novitsky (“ex”-CPSU): October 10, 2001-July 10, 2003
3) Vladimir Yermoshin: March 14, 2000-September 21, 2001
4) Syargey Ling (“ex”-CPSU): February 19, 1997-February 18, 2000
5) Mikhail Chigir: July 22, 1994-November 18, 1996
6) Vyacheslav Kebich (“ex”-CPSU, Party of Communists of Belarus): January 1, 1990-August 1, 1994
Resumes of “ex”-communists in current Council of Ministers:
1) Ivan Bambiza (“ex”-CPSU, Minsk High Party School): Deputy Prime Minister
2) Viktor Burya (“ex”-CPSU): Deputy Prime Minister
3) Andre Kobyakov (“ex”-CPSU): Deputy Prime Minister
4) Alexander Kosinets (Komsomol): Deputy Prime Minister
5) Vladimir Ilich Semashko (ex-Soviet Army): First Deputy Prime Minister
Parliament of “post”-communist Belarus: Bicameral National Assembly consisting of 110-member House of Representatives and 64-member Council of the Republic: 1996-present
Soviet-era parliament: Supreme Soviet (Supreme Council); constitutional parliament until 1996
Communist parties of “post”-communist Belarus:
1) All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (VKP-B): The VKP-B is the Belarusian section of VKP-B, which associates with MLKP.
2) Belarusian Republican Movement “For the Union [of Russia and Belarus] and the Communist Party of the Union”: Founded in 2001, this Stalinist party associates with the CPSU (Shenin, 2001).
3) Party of Communists of Belarus (PKB): The “anti”-Lukashenko PKB is the successor of the Communist Party of Byelorussia. After the party was “banned” in August 1991, Belarusian communists regrouped and formed the PKB, which registered in December 1991. The Supreme Soviet of Belarus lifted the “ban” against the PKB in February 1993. The party operates under the leadership of Sergei Kalyakin. The PKB contends that it was the subject of a false report, published on July 15, 2006 by the Belarusian KGB, alleging a merger with the pro-Lukashenko Communist Party of Belarus. The PKB website has not been active since June 6, 2006. Having failed to absorb this rival communist party, the Lukashenko regime is endeavoring to suppress the PKB altogether. The Supreme Court of Belarus is presently threatening to suspend the PKB’s activities for failing to properly register (Charter 97, November 15, 2006). The youth wing of the PKB is the Lenin Communist Union of Youth.
4) Communist Party of Belarus (KPB): Founded in 1996 as a split from the anti-Lukashenko Party of Communists of Belarus, the pro-Lukashenko KBP operates under the leadership of Viktor Chikin, and associates with the UCP-CPSU. Chikin is also deputy head, or deputy mayor, of the Minsk City Executive Committee. The manager of the KPB Central Committee is Leonid Shkolnikov, who is also head of the Belarusian section of the restored CPSU, which operates under the leadership of Oleg Shenin, and deputy head of the Republic of Belarus National Emergency Management and Response Centre.
5) Marxist-Leninist Union of Communists (MLKP): The MLKP was founded in 1994.
6) Movement for Democracy, Social Progress, and Justice: Founded in 1991, this Stalinist alliance is dominated by the pro-Lukashenko Communist Party of Belarus.
7) Red Flag Organization: This radical left party was founded in 1995.
8) Revolutionary Justice Party: Founded in 1997, this Trotskyist party affiliates with International Workers’ Unity.
9) Revolutionary Party of Communists (RPK): Founded in 2000 by the Fighting Proletarian Union, the RPK is the Belarusian section of the Russian Communist Workers’ Party-Revolutionary Party of Communists.
10) Workers’ Democracy: This Trotskyist party is the Belarusian section of Russian Workers’ Democracy.
Parties that are loyal to President Lukashenko:
1) Agrarian Party of Belarus: The rural wing of the Communist Party of Belarus.
2) Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party
3) Communist Party of Belarus
4) Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus (LDPB): The LDPB associates with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (formerly Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union) under the leadership of suspected KGB agent Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
5) Republican Party of Labor and Justice: This social democratic party was founded in 1993.
Youth organizations that are loyal to President Lukashenko:
1) The Belarusian Republican Youth Union (BRSM) was formed in 2002 through a merger of the Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union and the Belarusian Youth Union. The former was created in 1997 by President Lukashenko, while the latter was the legal successor of the Byelorussian section of the old CPSU Young Communist League (Komsomol). — While the BRSM does not openly involve itself with politics, Mikhail Orda, First Secretary of the BRSM Central Committee, signed a letter along with other public officials denouncing the anti-Lukashenko Belarus Democracy Act passed by the United States Congress in 2004. Representatives from the BRSM are allowed to attend meetings of various government ministries and committees. The BRSM operates a radio station called Radio Stil (Style Radio, 101.2 FM), which began broadcasting in June 1998. It is the only youth group in Belarus that has been given permission to operate a radio station. — On September 19, 2005 President Lukashenko met with Orda, to be informed of the preparations for the 39^th BRSM congress on September 23, as well as the 85^th anniversary of the Belarusian section of the Komsomol. Anti-Lukashenko activists call the BRSM “Lukamol,” derisively combining the names Lukashenko and Komsomol.
Parties that are opposed to President Lukashenko:
1) People’s Coalition 5 Plus: This coalition consists of the anti-Lukashenko Party of Communists of Belarus, Belarusian Labor Party, Belarusian People’s Front, Belarusian Social Democratic Party-Assembly (BSDP-H), and United Civil Party of Belarus. The pro-communist Belarusian People’s Front (BNF) was organized in October 1988 by members of the Byelorussian intelligentsia, including Zianon Pazniak, Vasil Bykaŭ, and Michaś Dubianiecki. The current leader of the BNF is Vincuk Viačorka. In 2004 some members of the unregistered Belarusian Social Democratic Party-People’s Assembly formed and registered a new party, Belarusian Social Democratic Party-Assembly, which is part of the People’s Coalition. On July 13, 2006 Alexander Kazulin, head of the BSDP-H and rector of Belarusian State University between 1996 and 2003, was sentenced to jail for five and a half years for his role in the March anti-Lukashenko protests.
2) Democratic Centrist Coalition: This coalition consists of Republic, Young Belarus, European Coalition Free Belarus, Belarusian Social Democratic Party-People’s Assembly (BSDP-NH), and Belarusian Women’s Party Hope. The unregistered BSDP-NH holds membership in the Socialist International.
3) Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian People’s Front (KKP-BNF): The KKP-BNF split from the Belarusian People’s Front in 1999 and operates under the leadership of Zianon Pazniak.
4) Social Democratic Party of Popular Accord
Russian military presence: Prior to the “collapse” of the Soviet Union in 1991, 180,000 Soviet soldiers were stationed in the Byelorussian Military District. Two years later 40,000 troops of the Russian Air Force were still stationed in Belarus. Most of these troops were involved in the maintenance of the 72 strategic nuclear missiles based at Lida and Mazyr, which were scheduled to depart Belarus in 1995, the deadline for returning all nuclear weapons to Russia. The last SS-25 was transferred to Russia in November 1997. All other Russian troops were withdrawn in June 1997. — In October 1994 the Russian government announced that two conventional military installations would remain in Belarus. Although Belarus has since formed its own army, the bulk of its officer corps were at that time ethnic Russians. The drawdown of troops from 1993 to 1995 included a downsizing in the number of officers, which translated into fewer ethnic Russian generals. — On February 22, 1995 Russia and Belarus were united in the Union of Russia and Belarus, or United State of Russia and Belarus, which effectively eliminated the border between the two countries and permitted the future legal redeployment of Russian troops in Belarus as needed. — As a result, the Russian General Staff has formed a heavily militarized defense zone that includes western Russia, the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, and Belarus, the purpose of which is to counter the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe. The union’s Treaty of Creation was signed on December 8, 1999, with the intention of eventually establishing a common constitution, citizenship, president, parliament, armed forces, and currency, as well as common symbols such as flag and anthem. — In October 2005 the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense announced that the air defense systems of Russia and Belarus would be integrated and that S-300 anti-aircraft systems would be deployed to the smaller country. One year later, in October 2006, four such anti-aircraft systems were deployed and put into service in Belarus, in part, to counter the shipment of US-made F-16 fighter jets to neighboring Poland. — In June 2006 the two countries held Union Shield 2006, the largest joint Russian-Belarusian military exercise since the “collapse” of communism. More than 8,800 troops participated. Hardware included six Belarusian helicopters and 23 combat planes, six Russian helicopters and 13 warplanes, as well as 40 tanks, 180 armored infantry carriers, 140 anti-tank guided missiles, and 30 multiple-launch rocket systems. According to Russian officials, the objective of the exercise was to showcase the operability of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s joint command. In the fall of 2008 Belarusian forces joined Russian counterparts in the massive Stability-2008 strategic war game that included elements of civilian mobilization. — Like the Russian Armed Forces, which restored the red star of Bolshevism as its symbol, the Belarusian Armed Forces proudly display this communist emblem.

President Lukashenko’s Commitment to Communism

President Lukashenko’s commitment to communism is evident in his selection of communists for his cabinet, his attendance at conclaves of Soviet communists, and his public pronouncements. In March 1997 he welcomed 1,000 delegates to Minsk for the Third Congress of the Peoples of the USSR. In attendance were Oleg Shenin (then leader of the continuing Communist Party of the Soviet Union, known as the Union of Communist Parties-CPSU), Gennady Zyuganov (leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation), and other leading Soviet communists such as Nikolai Ryzhkov, Yegor Ligachev, Nina Andreeva, Valentin Varennikov, Albert Makashov, Stanislav Terekhov, and Viktor Anpilov. The March 16, 1997 issue of Interfax reports that:

Despite factional differences which erupted at times, the participants unanimously called for canceling the December 1991 agreements that established the CIS and for voluntary unification of the peoples in a “renewed USSR” on the basis of “socialism and people’s power.” Speakers and the final resolutions described Lukashenko’s policies as a model to follow in terms of uniting two Slavic states as a prelude to restoring the former Union. Lukashenko addressed the forum to repeated standing ovations.

In 2004 the Center for the Study of Global Change at Indiana University stated regarding Belarus: “The Communist Party remains a leading political force in the country. Economically, the nation has not made significant movements in the transition from a socialist to a free market economy.”

Following his second re-election to the presidency of Belarus on March 19, 2006, President Lukashenko hinted that he would support a new pro-presidential party that included the country’s political elite. While he admitted that the Communist Party of Belarus had not always produced the desired results, Lukashenko stated: “However, the party has focused on strategic issues and its positive role cannot be underestimated” (Novosti, May 23, 2006).

On the occasion of the 89^th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, November 7, 2006, President Lukashenko praised his countrymen for faithfully fulfilling the mandate of the “Great October Socialist Revolution”:

Dear compatriots, I would like to extend heartfelt congratulations to you on the Day of the October Revolution. 89 years ago an event happened that gave the workers of our country release from poverty and unlawfulness and that had a big influence on lives of people across the planet. For Belarus, that event was important because it created real opportunities for independent statehood. The Great October encouraged the grass-roots to realize their creative potential which had been overlooked. The society united seeking to build a free state which would be worthy of respect. The enthusiasm and selflessness of the masses turned into spectacular achievements of the huge country.

Today our country is celebrating that event in the atmosphere of political stability, lasting civil peace and dynamic economic and socio-cultural development. Dear countrymen, I wish you health, happiness, well being and success in everything you do for the benefit of our Belarus (source: Belarusian Telegraph Agency).

As a result of Lukashenko’s unreformed Soviet communism, many international observers consider “post”-communist Belarus, along with Turkmenistan, another “ex”-Soviet republic, to be one of the most repressive regimes in the world.

The Russian-Belarusian-Cuban- Venezuelan Strategic Alliance

Lukashenko’s commitment to communism in foreign relations was evident on the occasion of self-avowed socialist revolutionary Hugo Chavez’s second re-election to the presidency of Venezuela on December 3, 2006:

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has congratulated Hugo Chavez on being re-elected president of Venezuela for a new term, the presidential press-service told BelTA. Alexander Lukashenko has expressed confidence that Hugo Chavez will continue pursuing a course towards independence of Venezuela, will continue taking wise decisions concerning economic and political development of his country and will do everything possible to provide every citizen with the quality of life he/she is worth of (source: Belarusian Telegraph Agency).

A close ideological affinity exists between the governments of Belarus and Venezuela. In July 2006 President Chavez visited Belarus and in September a delegation from the Belarusian government visited the South American country. During that meeting the two governments declared that they were establishing an anti-American strategic alliance to complement the Russian-Venezuelan alliance that was formed in May 2001. “It is vital to defend the homeland to counter external and internal threats to national projects that imperialists are worried about because they are successful,” Comrade Hugo intoned, referring to Washington DC. “They are trying to impose on us an alien ideology and morals, pseudo-economic reforms resulting in the population growing poor for the sake of a bunch of fat cats,” Comrade Alex agreed, also referring to the USA. The two states are negotiating joint oil production. In addition, Belarus intends to export potash fertilizers and agricultural equipment to Venezuela and import phosphate fertilizers from the same.

The Russian-Venezuelan alliance, it should be noted, includes the delivery of 100,000 Kalishnikov rifles, 24 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, 53 helicopters to the Bolivarian Republic, as well as pilot training, which would entail, one might reasonably expect, the presence of Russian military personnel in Venezuela. Russia will also coordinate the construction of a Kalishnikov rifle assembly plant in the South American country. More ominously, Joseph Douglass, writing 15 years ago in Red Cocaine, observes that the Cuban General Intelligence Directorate (DGI) fell under the sway of the KGB more than 20 years before. In turn, Venezuelan intelligence has fallen under the sway of the DGI. Writing in FrontPage Magazine, Paul Crespo reports: “The partnership [with Cuba] is so close that Venezuela’s intelligence and security service, known as DISIP, reportedly has come under control of the Cuban intelligence service, the DGI. Because of this, US intelligence agencies have ended their longstanding liaison relationships with their Venezuelan counterparts. Hundreds of Cuban advisors, coordinated by Cuba’s military attache in Caracas, are also in charge of the elite presidential guard who defend Chavez against potential coups or military unrest.” That being so, can one conclude that the FSB/SVR now controls Venezuelan intelligence? Truly, a frightening prospect for neighboring pro-Washington Colombia in particular and the Western Hemisphere in general.

>USSR2 File: Stalinist Igor Smirnov wins fourth consecutive presidential election with open support of Transnistrian communists

>Although Stalinist President Igor Smirnov does not openly fraternize with the two communist parties of timewarped Transnistria, he evidently holds Oleg Shenin, chair of the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in high regard. In 2004, shortly after the Party’s re-formation, the August 1991 coup plotter trekked to Tiraspol to discuss communist strategy with Igor. An excerpt from their conversation is reprinted in this blogsite’s right column.

Following Smirnov’s victory, both communist parties offered their support to the president. Oleg Khorzhan, representing the Pridnestrovie Communist Party, affirmed: “We will propose that Igor [Smirnov] meet with us and discuss the problems of economic and social policy.” Evidently Comrade Khorzhan is permitted to address Transnistria’s authoritarian president on a first-name basis.

Update: Opposition hopeful challenges Transdnestr vote results
11/12/2006

TIRASPOL, December 11 (RIA Novosti) – An opposition candidate in Sunday’s presidential election in Moldova’s breakaway region said Monday the official preliminary results differ dramatically from exit poll data, and suggested they were rigged in the incumbent leader’s favor.

Transdnestr’s election commission said earlier Monday incumbent President Igor Smirnov, who has served three consecutive terms as leader of the post-Soviet de facto independent republic, had won 82.4% of the vote.

Andrei Safonov, editor of the opposition Novaya Gazeta newspaper, said exit polls showed the president had received the backing of around 63.4% of voters.

Safonov also said exit poles gave him 8.6% of the vote, rather than the official figure of 3.2%.

“We have expressed our distrust with the official [preliminary] results of the presidential elections announced by the election commission,” Safonov said. “We consider these figures to be very strange, and the noticeable difference between the [official and exit poll] data on the votes garnered by the incumbent president of the Transdnestr region suggests that the possibility of ballot-rigging cannot be ruled out.”

The commission said turnout was 66.1%; elections require a turnout of more than 50% to be valid. 1.6% voted against all candidates.

The other two contenders for the leadership were Nadezhda Bondarenko, the editor of a Communist newspaper, and Pyotr Tomaily, a lawmaker.

Safonov and Bondarenko have been in opposition to the Moscow-backed leader, accusing him of corruption, non-democratic practices, and a lack of progress in talks with Moldova, which seeks to regain control of the region.

“The incumbent authorities have built an authoritarian oligarchic government,” Safonov told Russian daily Kommersant earlier. “It cannot not advance Transdnestr’s development. We cannot be between war and peace for ever.”

The largely Russian-speaking Transdnestr region broke away from Moldova in 1991 following a bloody military conflict. The truce has been maintained by Russian peacekeepers and international mediators.

Smirnov, who has ruled the republic since 1991, organized a plebiscite in September that reaffirmed the drive for independence and joining Russia.

The referendum results have not been recognized internationally. Russia, which acknowledges the right to independence for breakaway republics in the former Soviet Union, has not made official signals that it is willing to admit Transdnestr.

The European Union and Moldova said Monday they did not recognize the vote in the breakaway region or its results.

The Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, also urged for the resumption of talks on the region’s status, which stalled after Ukraine backed Chisinau earlier this year by banning Transdnestrian exports without customs clearance in Moldova.

The move, which Transdnestr qualified as a trade blockade, dealt a severe blow to the struggling economy of the region, many of whose residents earn their living working in neighboring former Soviet states.

>Breaking News/Red Terror File: Russian suspect’s ex-wife and children, ex-wife’s boyfriend hospitalized in Germany, suspected Polonium 210 poisoning

>

Russia’s state-run media outlet Novosti is now reporting that the ex-wife and children of Dmitry Kovtun–one of the three Russian men who met with deceased FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko on November 1–as well as the ex-wife’s boyfriend have been hospitalized with suspected Polonium 210 poisoning. Either the Litvinenko assassination was a seriously botched operation in which just about everyone who was party to the death plot is now self-contaminated, or the Kremlin is taking no chances with respect to eradicating its opposition and potential dissidents, blabbers, and whistleblowers, not to mention people who have the misfortune to be related to such individuals.

Kovtun’s ex-wife in hospital with suspected polonium-210 poisoning
11/ 12/ 2006

BERLIN, December 11 (RIA Novosti) – The ex-wife of a witness in the case of a former Russian security officer, her two children and boyfriend have been hospitalized in Germany with suspected polonium-210 poisoning, the head of the investigation team in Hamburg said Monday.

He said a medical examination will show if their organisms contain a dangerous concentration of the radioactive element. Authorities did not identify them by name.

Businessman Dmitry Kovtun met with defector Alexander Litvinenko around the time of his poisoning at the beginning of November. Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin’s administration and a close associate of fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky, died in a London hospital after four days in a critical condition.

His body was found to contain a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210. Kovtun is now reported to have been hospitalized with similar symptoms.

Investigators also said traces of polonium-210 have been found on Kovtun’s clothes and some articles in the former wife’s Hamburg apartment, as well as in other apartments in Hamburg which he visited from October 28 till November 1.

Representatives of the investigative team also said “they have almost no doubt that Dmitry Kovtun brought polonium from Moscow.”

British detectives, currently in Moscow for their probe into Litvinenko’s murder, earlier spoke with Kovtun through their Russian counterparts.

A team of investigators from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office began questioning Andrei Lugovoi, another key witness in the Litvinenko case, December 8 in the presence of Scotland Yard experts. Lugovoi went to see the former Russian agent in London together with Kovtun.

>USA File: Top-level insiders furiously dumping stock, Nepman Bill Gates treks to Moscow for third time; Microsoft code shared with Kremlin in 2003

>In November Nepman “Microsoft Bill” visited Russia, for the third time, to confer with First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Information Technology and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman. Perhaps this (not so) naive Western capitalist was following up on Microsoft’s 2003 transfer of the Windows code to Russia, reported in Wired News: “Software giant Microsoft is giving the Russian government access to its secret source code for Windows operating systems as part of a global effort to improve information security, company officials said Monday.” Dumb question: How does one improve information security by handing over the keys to the communists? No doubt Comrade Patrushev’s Chief Hacking Directorate at the FSB has put that secret coding to good use for a little pre-Missile Day Internet shutdown.

With respect to the article below, I wonder if the Kremlin manipulators planted a bug in his ear . . . after all, the Leninist masterminds in Moscow urged Russians to dump their dollars a couple of months before the 911 terror attacks.

The West’s treasonous Nepmen have made their dutiful pilgrimages to Moscow ever since the 1917 American Red Cross Mission.

Top-level insiders selling their stock
By PAUL THARP

December 7, 2006 — America’s corporate chiefs are unloading their own stocks at one of the boldest paces in 20 years.

In cases of the very rich, such as Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Google’s top brass, the executives are selling a whopping $63 for each $1 of stock they bought, says a report by Bloomberg.

In November alone, leaders of public companies dumped $8.4 billion worth of stock they owned as insiders, most of it awarded as compensation, bonuses or other management incentives.

But the vast majority of the executives put their windfall cash to work elsewhere, with just $133 million being plowed back into purchases of more company stock.

Analysts say a take-the-money-and-run flight from their own companies signals a growing lack of confidence in the economy’s future course, as well as fears of a possible global meltdown if the Iraq crisis escalates across borders.

It’s also a good time to take profits, with the Dow Jones industrial average up nearly 15 percent this year, the S&P 500 ahead 13 percent, and the Nasdaq 11 percent higher.

Wall Street investors are displaying fresh worries that the Federal Reserve might pull the trigger too quickly on hiking rates again, possibly plunging the U.S. into a recession as the Fed did in 2000.

Just before the worst of the 2000 recession, insider sales were also at a near record.

Leading the latest wave of insider selling is Microsoft, with $594.2 million of stock sold by insiders during November, with Gates unloading $581.1 million.

Gates has been selling shares regularly – including $2.1 billion last year – as he whittles down his once mammoth stake, putting a big chunk of his wealth to work in a not-for-profit foundation that invests in a wide range of securities and other deals.

Billionaire Paul Allen also sold off 28 percent of his stake last month in DreamWorks Animation SKG for $224.2 million, keeping about 21 million shares.

Insiders at Seagate sold $311.8 million in November, while Google insiders unloaded $182.1 million in the four weeks.

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt and its co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have usually led the insider-selling parade with sales of hundreds of millions as the stock rose steadily to break the $500 mark.

>Red Terror File: Controversy swirls around Litvinenko’s deathbed conversion to Islam and links to Chechen terrorists; little Muslim content in funeral

>The Northeast Intelligence Network, which acknowledges to some extent the intrigues of the Kremlin, rejects the contention that FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko’s former employer orchestrated his murder. Rather, NEIN director Douglas Hagmann holds to the theory that Litvinenko was facilitating the transfer of suitcase nukes, which use Polonium 210 triggers, from Russia to Chechen terrorists. In the process of coordinating one such transaction, the ex-FSB officer contaminated himself. Hagmann writes: “Could it have been, as rumors are now beginning to circulate, that Alexander Litvinenko might have been party to such dealings?”

Ex-spy buried as witness falls into coma
08 December 2006
By Neville Dean

THE funeral of the poisoned Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko was held yesterday as it was claimed a key witness in the murder inquiry had fallen into a coma.

The former spy was laid to rest yesterday afternoon at Highgate Cemetery in north London.

However, the burial service was overshadowed by an unscheduled interruption by an Islamic imam.

This was specifically against the wishes of Mr Litvinenko’s widow.

The burial service was supposed to be a strictly non-denominational ceremony.

After Mr Litvinenko’s father had spoken at his graveside, an Islamic associate of his Chechen friend Ahmed Zakayev interrupted and said a Muslim prayer.

Alex Goldfarb, one of the former spy’s closest friends, described it as an unfortunate detraction and said it was yet another thing Mr Litvinenko’s wife Marina had had to deal with.

It followed controversy over whether Mr Litvinenko had converted to Islam on his deathbed.

Mr Litvinenko’s father Walter said earlier this week that his son had requested before his death to be buried according to Muslim tradition.

However, his closest friends say they have “strong reservations” about this.

In another development last night, it was disclosed that all seven staff who were working at the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel — where Mr Litvinenko had a meeting on the day he fell ill — had tested positive for low levels of radiation.

Prof Pat Troop, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency, said there were no short-term risks, but there was a “very small” increased long-term risk of cancer.

Following the results, the HPA will offer urine tests to more than 200 other people who were in the bar on that day, November 1, which is when Mr Litvinenko was first taken ill.

It was claimed last night that the Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun, who met the former spy on the day he was allegedly poisoned in London, was critically ill. A Russian news agency claimed Mr Kovtun had fallen into a coma immediately after being questioned by Russian investigators and Scotland Yard detectives.

“By the doctors’ diagnosis, Kovtun’s condition is critical,” Interfax said.

Mr Kovtun is said to have met Mr Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square on November 1, together with his business associate Andrei Lugovoi, another key witness in the case.

Earlier yesterday, Russian prosecutors released a statement saying that Mr Kovtun had “developed an illness also connected with the radioactive nuclide (substance).”

Mr Kovtun had not previously been reported to have fallen ill.

It was the latest dramatic twist in the Litvinenko investigation.

>Africa File: South African Communist Party dominates ministerial portfolios; 1992 video shows Mandela and Kasrils chanting death to whites

>Nelson Mandela’s comrade-in-arms Ronnie Kasrils, Minister of Intelligence, is only one of many members of the South African Communist Party who hold important posts in the government of that country. The African National Congress is little more than a front for the SACP.

In addition to Kasrils, other ANC/SACP members with ministerial portfolios include: Nozizwe Madlala Routledge, Deputy Minister of Health; Malusi Gigaba, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs; Mlueki George, Deputy Minister of Defense; Rob Davies, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry; Geraldine Fraser Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and Administration; Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency, speechwriter for President Mbeki; Jeff Radebe, Minister of Transport; Sydney Mufamadi, Minister of Provincial and Local Government; Jeremy Cronin, Chair of parliament’s Standing Committee on Transport; Charles Nqakula, Minister of Safety and Security; and Raymond Mhlaba, High Commissioner to Uganda and Rwanda.

Although President Thabo Mbeki is not known to be a member of the SACP, he is a self-proclaimed Marxist. His father Govan held dual membership in the ANC/SACP. Mandela is not known to have held membership in the SACP, but he was a self-avowed communist and wrote the tract: “How to Be a Good Communist.”

The video mentioned in the article below can be accessed in this blogsite’s Multimedia Section (right column).

Nelson Mandela Singing About Killing Whites

November 26, 2006

A short film showing former South African president Nelson Mandela singing about killing whites has recently been made available on the web by the organisation African Crisis.

The film, which was shot in 1992, shows Nelson Mandela together with members of the ANC, the ANC’s military fraction the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and the South African Communist Party singing a war song of how they have pledged to kill the white inhabitants of the country.

The song is mainly performed in Xhosa, the language spoken by the African tribe to which Mandela and the majority of the ANC belong. To the right of Mandela in the picture stands the present South African Minister of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, who is among the first to clench his fist in a so-called black power salute during the song.

”We the members of M.K…”

”… have pledged ourselves…”

”… to kill them…”

”… the ama-bhulu (Eng. the whites.)”

The second part of the film shows how women and children, all members of the ANC, are singing the same song during a political meeting.

Fuelling the masses with war songs is common in Africa. It was used for example in former Rhodesia, presently Zimbabwe, where they were called ”Chimurenga” (Eng. war songs).

Former leader of the ANC Youth League, Peter Mokaba, was a major driving force behind the agitation among blacks against whites in South Africa, using songs that encouraged the murdering of whites. Mokaba, also a former South African Environmental and Tourist Minister, was one of the most energetic song and dance leaders during the meetings held by the ANC prior to the elections in 1994 where slogans like ”Kill the Farmer!” and ”Kill the Boer!” were chanted openly:

“Hamba kahle mkhonto we Sizwe, Tihna Abantu bomkhonto Sizimisele Ukuwa bulala woma lamabunu”
– We members of Umkhonto are prepared to kill all the Boers.

“Khwela phezukwendlu Ubutshele umanishaya Ibhunu umama vyajabula”
– Get on the roof and tell them that when I hit the Boer, my mother becomes happy.

”Amabhunu ahlupha abazali Ekhaya bathi ziphi Izingane zabo Sizbashaya nge Nge bazooka”
– Whites and Boers are troubling our parents at home: we are going to hit them with our Ak-47’s and bazookas.

Though he later on maintained that the songs were just a sort of ”campfire songs”, these statements by Peter Mokaba made during a meeting with black students, published in The Johannesburg Star on the 25th of April in 1993, tell a different story:

– They are complaining that in our songs, in our chants, we have been saying ”Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer.” I repeat: ”Kill the Boer, the Farmer, Kill the Boer, the Farmer. Shoot to kill – nyamazano” (Eng. the prey).

– Whether they like it or not, this is our chant. This is our song. This is our tradition. This is our culture, whether they like it or not…

Songs encouraging the killing of South Africa’s white farmers, of which almost 2000 have been murdered by blacks since the ANC took over power in 1994, are still common in South Africa. Even the president of the country, Thabo Mkebi, has been witnessed when taking part in these dances and songs.

During the trial earlier this year against South Africa’s then vice president Jacob Zuma, who was charged with rape but acquitted, crowds of blacks were singing Zuma’s personal favourite song ”My Machine Gun” outside the courthouse.

Zuma is generally considered to have the biggest chances of becoming South Africa’s next president.

Black woman starts to dance outside the courthouse where Zuma’s trial is being held.

The dancing woman pretends to fire her machine gun.

Cartoon depicting Jacob Zuma singing and dancing to his favourite song ”My Machine Gun”.

>Red Terror File: Russian witness comatose after meeting British police, suspected poisoning; Kremlin’s top prosecutor ("ex"-CPSU) to "investigate"

>The deserved punishment reached the traitor. I am sure his terrible death will be a warning to all the traitors that in Russia the treason is not to be forgiven. I would recommend to citizen Berezovsky to avoid any food at the commemorative feast for Litvinenko.
— Sergei Abeltsev, Deputy, Russian Federation State Duma, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia; quoted in parliamentary hansard, November 24, 2006

The Kremlin body count is about to grow yet again as Dmitry Kovtun (pictured here), a Russian suspect in the Litvinenko assassination case, has reportedly slipped into a poison-induced coma following a meeting with British and Russian investigators. State-run Novosti reported on December 5: “British newspapers earlier reported that in Russia, Scotland Yard detectives were to question a businessman and former KGB and FSB colleague, Andrei Lugovoi, businessmen Dmitry Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, and several other people.” These are the three Russians that Litvinenko met at the Millennium Hotel in London on November 1. Later, at the Itsu sushi restaurant Litvinenko met Italian security expert and former Mitrokhin Commission consultant Mario Scaramella.

In a classic case of communist hypocrisy and double standards, moreover, the Kremlin refuses to permit Britain to extradite Russian suspects in the Litvinenko assassination–such as Andrei Lugovoi, former KGB agent, bodyguard for former Prime Minister of Russia Yegor Gaidar (who was poisoned one day after Litvinenko’s death), and former head of security for exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky. On December 4 Lugovoi checked into a Moscow hospital for medical tests. At the same time, the Kremlin insists that Britain permit Russia to extradiate exiled Chechen foreign minister Akhmed Zakayev (whose boss President Aslan Maskhadov was rubbed out by FSB special forces in 2005) and Berezovsky.

On December 7, state-run ITAR-TASS reported that the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office would institute a criminal investigation into the murder of Litvinenko and the attempted murder of Kovtun. Don’t expect the investigation to go far. Appointed in June 2006, the new Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika is “ex”-CPSU.

One is hard pressed to see how pro-Soviet leftist/faux rightist agitators like Justin Raimondo and Patrick Buchanan will successfully continue to defend Comrad Czar Putin and his Chekist regime against charges of political murder.

Witness in Litvinenko case in coma after suspected poisoning

MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) – A witness in the case of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence agent poisoned to death by a radioactive substance in London, fell into a coma on Thursday, is in critical condition and shows symptoms similar to those Litvinenko had, a Moscow source said.

Dmitry Kovtun, a Russian who met with Litvinenko in London in October 2006, “was able to give important testimony” to Russian and British investigators before slipping into a coma, “after which the Russian investigators decided to launch criminal proceedings on charges of attempted murder,” the source told Interfax.

The source said Russian investigators would be in contact with their British counterparts in the probe of Kovtun’s suspected poisoning.

A spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office told Interfax: “We don’t make comments at this stage of the investigation.”

Interfax has been unable to obtain comments from any lawyer involved in the case either.

Earlier, Prosecutor General’s Office spokeswoman Marina Gridneva said the Russian prosecutors “had every reason to believe that Dmitry Kovtun and Russian Federation citizen Litvinenko were poisoned with radioactive nuclides.”

She told Russia’s First Channel television that the Prosecutor General’s Office had checked some of the circumstances of Litvinenko’s death to help British detectives.

“Russian citizen Dmitry Kovtun is one of the persons Scotland Yard investigators planned to question. What explains the interest of the British investigators in Kovtun is the fact that he met with Litvinenko in London in October 2006. After interrogating Kovtun and speaking to doctors, the prosecutors have every reason to believe that Dmitry Kovtun and Russian citizen Litvinenko were poisoned with radioactive nuclides,” Gridneva said.

Sources in Moscow said Kovtun fell into a coma almost immediately after talking to Russian and British investigators.

>USSR2 File: Stalinists at Soviet Belarus forum list "counter-revolutionaries" and "Western puppets" to be executed when restored CPSU assumes control

>Within the last several weeks, Stalinists at the Soviet Belarus forum have revealed what appears to be a very likely scenario for a communist putsch in Moscow between now and Russia’s 2008 presidential election. Oleg Shenin, August 1991 coup plotter and chair of the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union, announced his intention in August of this year to run in that election. In view of the CPSU’s objective–as published in party documents since 2004–to overthrow the Putinist regime, do not be surprised if the “ex”-communists below are in fact liquidated during the 2007-2008 political season in Russia. We highlight in red those persons who have survived communist- or FSB-orchestrated assassination attempts at various times since the “collapse” of the Soviet Union.

It is interesting to note that some of the oligarchs below are Jewish. Although the Bolshevik Party cynically welcomed the involvement of Russian Jews such as Leon Trotsky in the early decades of the Soviet Union, for the most part, communists excel the Nazis in their genocidal opposition to Zionism and Israel.

ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE:
COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES AND WESTERN PUPPETS

ENEMY #1 Mikhail Gorbachev, last Soviet President

ENEMY #2 Boris Yeltsin, presided over dismantling of Soviet Union

ENEMY #3 Stanislav Shushkevich, presided over dismantling of Soviet Union

ENEMY #5 Alexander Milinkevich, Belarusian opposition politician

ENEMY #4 Leonid Kravchuk, presided over dismantling of Soviet Union

ENEMY #6 Alexander Kozulin, Belarusian opposition politician

ENEMY #8 Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukrainian oligarch (accused of being Jewish)

ENEMY #7 Viktor Yushchenko, Ukrainian politician

ENEMY #9 Mikhail Sakaashvili, Georgian politician

ENEMY #10 Anatoly Chubais, Russian oligarch, Jewish

ENEMY #11 Yegor Gaidar, former acting prime minister of Russia, Jewish

ENEMY #12 Alexander Yakolev, “Godfather of Glasnost” and Gorbachev ally

ENEMY #13 Eduard Shevernadze, Georgian politician and Gorbachev ally

ENEMY #14 Boris Berezovsky, Russian oligarch, Jewish

ENEMY #15 Vladimir Gusinsky, Russian oligarch, Jewish

ENEMY #16 Roman Abramovich, Russian oligarch, Jewish

The Soviet Belarus forum introduces itself in the following manner:

This group is dedicated to the defense of the Byelorussian people’s right to self determination of their political and social course of development.

We strongly support the resolve of Belarus to remain loyal to the ideals of Soviet Socialism during this dark period of temporary occupation of the USSR by the Western imperialists.

Communists and Socialists who support comrade Lukashenko and the Soviet system in Belarus, and oppose the establishment of the “Globalism” of the Western imperialists are welcome to join our group. Non-Communists/Socialists who are interested in learning the truth about what is going on in Belarus are also welcome.

The Soviet Belarus forum is linked to the website of the Toronto-based International Council of Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People, which serves as the CPSU’s primary propaganda center in North America. On November 27, the forum moderator offered the following three-stage battle plan in the event that Comrade Shenin wins the 2008 election: 1) the CPSU must first pretend to be social democratic for several months to fool the West, 2) install communists in all key positions, 3) arrest and execute all counter-revolutionaries, and 4) seize total power.

COMRADES!

Comrade Gosha made a number of excellent points in his post and I would agree that we should pursue a discussion on what strategy to pursue in the event of a Communist presidential victory at the polls.

I believe the following outline is a rough example of a basic strategy that could be utilized in the event of a Communist presidential victory in the Russian Federation.

1. PLAY BY THE BOURGEOIS RULES – TEMPORARILY

a. The President calls for reconciliation of all political parties in order to “heal wounds” and “work together” for the betterment of the Russian nation.

b. The President makes overtures to the US and EU in the name of peace and cooperation ala Gorbachev.

c. Absolutely no provocative or revolutionary pronouncements are issued from the Kremlin.

d. The President plays the role of the “Communist turned wussy Social Democrat.”

(BELIEVE ME, THIS IS AS NAUSEATING TO ME AS IT IS TO MOST OF YOU!)

2. CONSOLIDATE LOYAL SOVIET SUPPORT

While the country and the West are trying to figure out where the revolutionaries went, the President and his inner circle will quietly:

a. Replace the Defense Minister and top echelons of the officers’ corps with loyal Soviet military men.

b. Replace the head of the FSB (former KGB) and top ranking officers with loyal Soviets.

c. Replace the heads and top ranking officers of local militias (police departments) with Communists.

d. Dismiss the regional governors and replace them with loyal Partymen. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that the regional governors are now appointed by the President, not elected.)

e. Put Communists in key positions in the state controlled television and radio sector.

f. Target the most influential oligarchs and their “security” forces.

3. THE SECOND BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION!

Without ANY warning or fanfare, on a pre-arranged date the President will:

a. Declare Martial Law.

b. Simultaneously arrest the entire Duma (Parliament), the heads of all political parties, the former top ranking officers of the military and FSB, and the targeted oligarchs and their gangs.

c. Any resistance is met with immediate summary execution.

d. Any street demonstrations result in the immediate summary executions of ALL persons arrested after the declaration of Martial Law. This MUST be communicated to the public LOUD and CLEAR!

e. In Moscow and St. Petersburg (Leningrad) the barricading and defense of key government buildings, railways, airports, communications centers, etc.

f. That evening on prime time television the President will announce the reformation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics while television viewers watch the RED FLAG with HAMMER & SICKLE raised above the Kremlin.

It probably sounds to many of you like I’ve been hallucinating or breaking into the vodka supply. But, anyone who was there will tell you, for all intents and purposes, MY SCENARIO IS VERY SIMILAR TO THE WAY THEY BROUGHT US DOWN!!!

This sounds revisionist, but the presidential election has to be won first. Then comes the revolution! They have too much firepower between the military, FSB, OMON, local gendarmes, etc. Once those are quietly put under our control the ball game is over!

The tone of the official documents of the restored CPSU and its youth wing, the Red Youth Vanguard–which we have republished at this blogsite–leads one to believe that the scenario for a “Second Bolshevik Revolution,” painted by the moderator of the Soviet Belarus forum, closely represents the intentions of Soviet communists today. Barring divine intervention, KGB defector Anatoly Golitsyn’s warnings about the fraudulent collapse of communism in Russia and her satellite states will very shortly come full circle.

Please see our November 29 blog in which we consider the possibility that the CPSU is preparing for a coup d’etat in Russia.

>Communism with Canadian Characteristics: Alleged SVR illegal in Canada denies espionage, admits Russian citizenship, agrees to deportation

>To express a willingness to return to Russia is, in effect, a signal to the Russian espionage agency that he has not betrayed their interests.
— Prof. Martin Rudner, Director, Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa

Canada’s doors are not open to those who threaten the security of Canada.
— Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety

In 1997 “Paul William Hampel,” who is accused by the Canadian government of being an agent of the Russian Federation Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), started an emerging markets consulting firm in Ireland. According to UK-based KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky–a friend of murdered FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko–the SVR regularly uses Ireland to train illegals for long-term espionage activities in North America.

Alleged spy says he’s Russian
Won’t admit espionage, but agrees to deportation
Stewart Bell and Adrian Humphreys

National Post
Tuesday, December 05, 2006

MONTREAL – A suspected Russian intelligence officer who spent more than a decade in Montreal posing as a Canadian agreed to return to Moscow yesterday, bringing an abrupt end to a spy caper that began with his arrest three weeks ago.

During a brief hearing in Federal Court, lawyer Stephane Handfield said his client would not fight the espionage allegations levelled by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and was prepared to admit he is Russian.

Judge Pierre Blais promptly ordered his deportation, ruling the government had presented a reasonable case the man is an elite spy. The suspected member of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service is expected to be deported later this week.

“Canada’s doors are not open to those who threaten the security of Canada,” said Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who along with Immigration Minister Monte Solberg signed a certificate on Nov. 9 calling the man a security threat because of his spying.

“As the outcome of today’s Federal Court proceedings demonstrate, this certificate was warranted. This is an example of how the security certificate process can and should work. The government is pleased with this result. The individual will remain in detention until his deportation.”

But the case ended leaving several key questions unanswered — notably the man’s true identity, which remains sealed by court order. Judge Blais ruled the spy’s family could be in danger were his name to be publicly revealed. No further explanation was offered.

It is also unclear whether Russia has admitted he is one of its intelligence officers.

And finally, while the man acknowledges he has been living in Canada under the false name Paul William Hampel, he has not publicly confessed to being a spy.

“My client admits that he is not Paul William Hampel, that he is a Russian citizen, born on Oct. 21, 1961, and that he has no legal status in Canada,” Mr. Handfield said.

“He is ready to leave Canada, but he does not admit being a spy.”

Wearing jeans and a blue shirt, the 45-year-old looked relaxed as he appeared in court under tight security to officially end his false life as a Canadian.

After the hearing, he smiled at reporters and shook hands with his two lawyers, telling them, “I hope to see you later.”

Intelligence expert Professor Martin Rudner said “illegals” like Mr. Hampel tend to give up minimal information when caught, offering only “tidbits” that might prompt authorities to reveal some of their operational secrets.

“To express a willingness to return to Russia is, in effect, a signal to the Russian espionage agency that he has not betrayed their interests,” said Prof. Rudner, director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies at Carleton University.

Russia’s intelligence service is now expected to begin an internal witch hunt that will endeavour to trace the source of the information that brought “Mr. Hampel” to the attention of CSIS.

The suspected spy was arrested at Montreal’s Trudeau airport on Nov. 14 as he was preparing to board a flight. He was carrying two digital cameras, a shortwave radio and $7,800 in five currencies.

The arrest followed a lengthy CSIS investigation that concluded he is a Russian “illegal,” an undercover spy who has been living in Canada under a fake identity. CSIS says he used a forged Ontario birth certificate to obtain Canadian passports in 1995, 2000 and 2002.

An investigation by the National Post found he had used his passports to travel throughout Eastern Europe, where he posed as a Canadian businessman and amateur landscape photographer who had become entranced with the Balkans.

Friends said he lived in Belgrade from 2001 until 2003, staying at a hotel in the city while he photographed the region and assembled his pictures into a self-published coffee-table book titled My Beautiful Balkans.

Those who knew Mr. Hampel in the Serbian capital said they recalled him as a quiet, pragmatic and amiable Canadian photographer and were surprised to hear of his arrest for espionage.

“The news I heard yesterday about Paul really came as a shock,” said Igor Barandovski, who was working in a photo lab in Belgrade when he first met Mr. Hampel in the fall of 2003.

“Paul was a customer. I didn’t ask him too many private questions since our relationship was strictly a business one. I only knew that he was travelling a lot on his business and he is a passionate amateur photographer.

“There wasn’t anything strange on his negatives, only regular stuff which you would expect to see on a hobby photographer’s negatives — exactly the type of pictures published in his book,” Mr. Barandovski said.

Later, Mr. Hampel asked him to help him set up a Web site. “I helped him to select and prepare his photos for Internet use and also found [him] a programmer and a designer who would build his Web site,” he said.

Mr. Hampel was displeased with the Web designer he had hired and was looking for a replacement, he said. “I called my friend who is a good graphic designer and, basically, we built the Web site ourselves. I did the scanning, adjusting and Web optimization for photos, and my friend did the design part and the little bit of programming.”

They met at Mr. Barandovski’s store or at a coffee shop nearby to discuss the site’s progress. “After that job, I’ve seen him in Belgrade sporadically. I don’t know if he was here all of the time or he was travelling and then coming back.

“He would just drop by the store with some new material that he wanted us to put on his Web site. He seemed like a decent and well-mannered person, always polite but very pragmatic, like all businessmen — or I thought that he was one.”

Friends in Belgrade say they reached him by calling him on a cellphone registered in Serbia and with a Belgrade area code whenever they needed to speak with him, several said. The cellphone number is no longer in service.

The man who called himself Mr. Hampel gave fellow photographers the impression he spent most of his time travelling and did not have a permanent address, said Aleksandar Andjic, a photographer with Vreme, a magazine in Belgrade.

“I think he was staying in hotels here in central Belgrade, not in an apartment. The hotels in Belgrade are not expensive. You don’t need a huge amount of money to rent,” Mr. Andjic said.

Newspapers in Serbia have used a few of Mr. Hampel’s photographs because he was constantly travelling to locations and often had the most up-to-date images, Mr. Andjic said.

“I think we published some of his photos from Kosovo, pictures of buildings, a church or monastery. The last time I was in Kosovo was in 2002, so four years [went by] without [us shooting new] images.”

>EU File: The Litvinenko Assassination’s Italo-Soviet Connection; Polonium 210 traced to Russia, Italy’s communist FM D’Alema visits Putin

>Mr. President, I should like to pay tribute to my constituent, Mr. Alexander Litvinenko. Alexander was fearless in exposing the political gangsters that now run Russia, and the creatures of the KGB and FSB that still hold political office in Europe. For his bravery, he paid the ultimate price. In April, I made two speeches in this Parliament repeating allegations made to me by Alexander that Romano Prodi had been an agent of some kind of the KGB. Alexander told me that the key figure to understanding Mr Prodi’s alleged relationship with the KGB in the 1970s was a man named Sokolov, also known as Konopkine, who worked for TASS in Italy.

Since Alexander can no longer testify to this effect, as he was ready, willing and able to do, I am pleased to provide this service for him posthumously.
— Gerard Batten, Member of European Parliament, United Kingdom Independence Party; speech made November 29, 2006, Brussels

Italy: the Soviet Union’s latest conquest, without firing a shot. Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, “ex”-CPSU, KGB officer, FSB director. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, alleged KGB/FSB agent. Italian Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema, member of Italian Communist Party and “ex”-communist Democrats of the Left.

On December 5 Foreign Minister D’Alema (pictured above with Putin) faithfully trekked to Moscow to confer with President Putin on mundane issues such as Italo-Soviet bilateral relations in the high tech, energy, and aerospace industries. In view of Moscow’s stealthy absorption of Western Europe via the “new European Soviet” (European Union), we must ask: Did Comrades D’Alema and Putin also discuss the Litvinenko assassination as it impinges on communist strategy?

Prodi is threatening to sue those who have accused him of being a KGB agent. This presumably includes Mario Scaramella, a consultant to the Italian Parliament’s Mitrokhin Commission–which investigated Cold War-era KGB espionage in Italy–and one of the last contacts that deceased FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko met on November 1, 2006. The commission completed its investigation before Agent Prodi’s left-communist coalition squeaked into power with a marginal victory in April. The Financial Times reported on December 1: “Mr Prodi was so offended by Mr Scaramella’s allegations, which appeared in the Italian press this week, that he announced on Thursday night that he planned legal action against the people behind them. He named no one in particular.”

In addition to Scaramella, earlier this year Litvinenko alleged that Prodi is the “KGB’s man in Italy.” Litvinenko acquired his information from an unimpeachable source, FSB Deputy Chief, General Anatoly Trofimov, who prior to Litvinenko’s defection in 2000, warned the spy: “Don’t go to Italy, there are many KGB agents among the politicians: Romano Prodi is our man there.” General Trofimov and his wife were gunned down in Moscow in 2005. The Trofimov and Litvinenko icings evince the strong likelihood that this information was reliable. Notwithstanding Comrade Czar Putin’s protests, MI5, MI6, and Scotland Yard have publicly announced that they suspect that the FSB is responsible for the Litvinenko murder since the “signature” of the Polonium 210 that killed Litvinenko has been traced to a Russian nuclear power plant. British investigators, moveover, have acknowledged their awareness of a Russian law, enacted in February 2006, that sanctions the use of preemptive measures by the Russian Federation security and intelligence agencies to eliminate “terrorist threats.” That law might have provided a constitutional pretext for assassinating Litvinenko.

Much speculation and possible propaganda has swirled around the reasons for the assassination of Litvinenko–such as his alleged current involvement in the smuggling of nuclear materials for his “former” employer and the Chechen rebels with whom he sympathized, his alleged knowledge of Kremlin designs on Russian oil giant Yukos, and his alleged deathbed conversion to Islam. The death plot, however, might very well be part of a larger operation by the Kremlin to eliminate future revelations regarding the neo-communist puppet government in Rome.

The Kremlin media release on the Putin-D’Alema conference follows:

Beginning of the Meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema
December 5, 2006
The Kremlin, Moscow

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: Dear Mr Minister, dear colleagues. I warmly welcome you to Moscow.

I am very pleased that relations between our countries are developing independently of the changes that take place in our internal political environments. We are very happy that you came and glad to continue our contacts within intergovernmental organisations. I think that this will act as a good step for preparing intergovernmental consultations that will take place next year in Italy. I hope that before then we will be able to meet with Prime Minister Prodi. We have things to talk about and our relations are developing in a great many fields – in energy, in high tech, in aviation and in the space sector. And today you will certainly also have a lot of work to do.

ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MASSIMO D’ALEMA: As a matter of fact, we held very positive meetings that emphasised our very intensive relations. Relations that are quickly becoming stronger. We are Russia’s third biggest trading partner. If one were to refer to the Olympics, then one could say that third is already on the podium. We want to continue to participate in this competitive struggle and to raise ourselves to the next step. However, in my opinion, we need to give special acknowledgement to the quality of our relations, since their quality is very high. For example, in the energy sector we have a strategic partnership – our relations are more than relations between countries in which one buys and the other sells. And we are also working together in the high-tech field. I consider precisely the quality of our relations to be very high. And both parties should probably work towards increasing the exchange of information.

>Latin America File: Chavez re-elected president of Venezuela, promises to expand communist revolution throughout Western Hemisphere

>We have to do something. My country is being stolen. This is the last chance we have. Communism is coming here.
— Dona Bavaro, supporter of failed presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, December 3, 2006

It’s another defeat for the devil [George Bush], who tries to dominate the world. Down with imperialism. We need a new world.
— Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, December 3, 2006

Latin America’s Red Axis will be greatly strengthened by Comrade Hugo’s second re-election. Mexico and Colombia are the two major hold outs against the red spread south of the Rio Grande. Expect the Mexican Left, especially, to be emboldened in its extralegal assault on the Institutional Revolutionary Party-National Action Party establishment. The main components of the Mexican Left include the disgruntled parliamentarians of the Party of the Democratic Revolution and the communist insurgents in Chiapas and Oaxaca. We have documented before the covert support that the Bolivarian regime in Caracas is channeling to Mexican revolutionaries. As noted by New Zealand blogger, Trevor Loudon, the Communist Party USA is freely admitting that Mexico is teetering on the verge of communist revolution. The CPUSA has republished an analysis of Mexico’s revolutionary climate, originally produced by the leftist Council on Hemispheric Affairs, in its theoretical journal Political Affairs.

Re-election win emboldens Chavez agenda
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer
December 4, 2006

Emboldened by a resounding re-election, President Hugo Chavez pledged to shake up Venezuela with a more radical version of socialism and forge a wider front against the United States in Latin America.

Opposition contender Manuel Rosales accepted defeat Sunday night, but promised to continue countering a leader whom he accuses of becoming increasingly authoritarian.

Touting his victory in a speech to thousands, Chavez said Venezuelans should expect an “expansion of the revolution” aimed at redistributing the country’s oil wealth among the poor.

“Long live the revolution!” Chavez shouted from the balcony of the presidential palace. “Venezuela is demonstrating that a new and better world is possible, and we are building it.”

With 78 percent of voting stations reporting, Chavez had 61 percent of the vote, to 38 percent for Rosales.

Chavez has won a loyal following among the poor through multibillion-dollar social programs including subsidized food, free university education and cash benefits for single mothers.

Chavez, who says he sees Fidel Castro as a father, dedicated his victory to the ailing 80-year-old Cuban leader, and called it a blow against President Bush.

“It’s another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world,” Chavez told the crowd of red-shirted supporters, who listened to him under pouring rain. “Down with imperialism. We need a new world.”

Even before polls closed, Chavez supporters celebrated in the streets, setting off fireworks and cruising Caracas honking horns and shouting “Chavez isn’t going anywhere!”

Since he first won office in 1998, Chavez has increasingly dominated all branches of government, and his allies now control congress, state offices and the judiciary. Current law prevents him from running again in 2012 but he has said he plans to seek constitutional reforms that would include an end to presidential term limits.

Chavez has posed a growing challenge to the United States while leading a widening bloc of Latin American leftists, influencing elections across the region, and allying himself with U.S. opponents like Iran and Syria.

The United States remains the top buyer of Venezuelan oil, but Chavez has sought to gradually diversify to new clients in Latin America and as far away as China.

Partial results from Sunday’s vote showed Chavez had nearly 6 million votes versus 3.7 million for Rosales. Final turnout figures among the 15.9 million eligible voters weren’t available but an official bulletin of partial results showed turnout at more than 70 percent.

“We recognize that today they defeated us,” Rosales told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. “We will continue in this struggle.”

Some aides wept. Others were angry.

“We have to do something,” said 36-year-old Dona Bavaro. “My country is being stolen. This is the last chance we have. Communism is coming here.”

Rosales, a cattle rancher who is now expected to return to his post of governor of the western state of Zulia, called the election a choice between freedom and increasing state control of people’s lives. He also decried rampant crime and corruption, widely seen as Chavez’s main vulnerabilities.

Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter and soaring oil prices have made it the continent’s fastest-growing economy — a fact that some voters said helped tilt them toward Chavez.

Many who voted for the president said they think the leader’s oil-funded social programs are making a difference.

“We’re here to support our president, who has helped us so much,” said Jose Domingo Izaguirre, a factory worker who lined up to vote and whose family recently moved into new government housing.

Some Venezuelans had predicted street protests and possibly violence after the vote, but Rosales’ quick concession appeared to defuse tensions.

Nevertheless, tempers flared in some places, including in Maracaibo, Rosales’ hometown, where a group of celebrating pro-Chavez teenagers was pelted with rocks and bottles while stuck in traffic. Four of the teens jumped out of their truck to chase the stone-throwers, and shots rang out but no one was reported hurt.

In newspapers splashed with photos of Chavez’s post-vote celebration, several commentators suggested that reconciliation should be a major goal. The newspaper El Nacional — often strongly critical of Chavez — said in an editorial that “we aren’t two countries but rather one country that should get back together” to seek coexistence and dialogue.

Venezuelan society remains sharply divided along class lines, with many middle- and upper-class Chavez opponents saying they fear what may be next in the president’s play book.

Conflict and ambition have marked the rise of Chavez, 52, from a boy selling homemade sweets in a dusty backwater to a failed coup commander in 1992, and now a leader who could set the tone of Latin American politics for years to come.

Constitutional reforms he oversaw in 1999 triggered new elections the following year that he easily won. Loyalists helped him survive a 2002 coup, a subsequent general strike and a 2004 recall referendum.

The president insists he is a democrat and will continue to respect private property–though he has boosted control over the oil industry and has said he might nationalize utilities.

>Feature: Transnistrian state media congratulates Castro on his 80th birthday celebration, and lauds Latin America’s neo-communist states

>The Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (or Transnistria), like Belarus and Moldova, is a little oasis of overt communism in the Not-So-Former Soviet Union. Breakthrough, a political group in Transnistria, recently dispatched a joyful missive, below, to Comrade Fidel on the occasion of his 80th birthday celebration. It is not clear whether this organization affiliates with one of Transnistria’s two communist parties–one of which in turn associates with the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Olvia, it should be remarked, is the state media agency of Transnistria.

In any event, it is obvious, yet again, that Soviet communists are closely watching the red tide spread across Latin America. If you feel like partying with Comrade Fidel, check out Granma, the official publication of the Communist Party of Cuba.

As for the retro-Soviet symbolism of Transnistrian officialdom, don’t take it seriously, according to US investment manager Kevin Stillmock, who likes to hang out in the internationally unrecognized state: “The true Communists today don’t openly advertise it. If you use the old Communist symbols, you do so for nostalgia only. The real Communists have moved beyond the symbology, with the most canny operators hiding behind a different set of colors these days.” Thanks for the heads up, Kevin.

The Young People of Pridnestrovia Congratulate Fidel Castro on His Birthday
November 29, 2006

Solemn ceremonies in honor of the 80th birthday of the leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, have begun in Cuba. In these ceremonies, which are taking place in Havana, more than 1,300 well-known peace workers from 67 countries are participating.

In 1953 Fidel Castro raised the banner of the nation’s revolutionary fight for the overthrow of pro-American dictator Batista. He was subjected to arrest, torture, tribunal, prison, and expulsion. In 1956 he led the Cuban revolution. The group of revolutionaries headed by Fidel, which landed in the small yacht “Granma” in the province of the same name, very rapidly expanded into an insurgent army and advanced partisan warfare against the dictatorial regime.

On January 1, 1959 democratic forces headed by Fidel Castro assumed authority in Cuba. During the long decades Castro has been the flag officer of the fight against the yoke of the USA on the American continent. In these years the Republic of Cuba, which repelled the aggression of the US mercenaries in 1961, became the most reliable friend of the Soviet Union.

Fidel Castro did not roll up the banner of the fight even after the USSR collapsed, when the new Russia, surviving difficult times, lost the ability to render aid to fraternal Cuba. After proclaiming the slogan “Socialism or death!” Fidel Castro remained at his post. The people of Cuba continue to believe and trust in Castro. The fight has not been in vain. Today, throughout the entirety of Latin America, people’s democratic forces are assuming power–in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador. The Latin American continent is throwing off the geopolitical dictates of the USA and the yoke of transnational corporations. This process will not stop. The revolution, begun with Fidel, continues.

NDP and MMK “Breakthrough” congratulate Fidel Castro on his birthday and wish him strength and energy for the good of the revolution.

>USSR2 File: Russian FM Sergei Lavrov condemns Estonia’s new law banning Soviet and Nazi regalia as "morally disgraceful"

> I consider the Estonian government’s latest decision morally disgraceful, and it can engender fabricated political problems now that real problems, including those of the Russian-speaking population, should be resolved there.
— Sergei Lavrov, Russian Federation Foreign Minister, December 1, 2006

Parroting his superior’s condemnation of the Estonian government, Mikhail Kamynin–official spokesentity of the Russian Federation Foreign Ministry–declared, no doubt with a solemn Cold War-era demeanor: “The Estonian authorities are continuing their disgraceful attempts to re-write history and equate Nazi crimes and the heroism of the Soviet people, who made a solid contribution to Europe’s liberation from Fascism.” Kamynin recently condemned US nongovernmental organizations for interfering with Nicaragua’s presidential election, which led to the reinstallation of pro-Soviet Marxist dictator Daniel Ortega.

I expect that the collective leadership of the restored Communist Party of the Soviet Union is in agreement with the Foreign Ministry’s negative assessment of the Estonian desire to escape Moscow’s orbit. State-run Novosti, however, warns that the Baltic republic’s new anti-Soviet regalia regulation will “seriously damage” relations between the two countries. From time to time Comrade Czar Putin’s neo-Soviet state exposes its true color, RED.

Estonia’s decision to ban Soviet symbols disgraceful -Lavrov
December 1, 2006

DEAD SEA (JORDAN), December 1 (RIA Novosti) – Estonia’s decision to prohibit Soviet symbols is disgraceful and can cause fabricated problems, the Russian foreign minister said Friday.

His words came after the Estonian government approved Thursday a law introducing criminal responsibility for the public use and distribution of symbols pertaining to “occupation regimes.”

Under the bill, drafted by the Justice Ministry, the demonstration and distribution of official symbols of the Soviet Union and its republics, as well as symbols of the German Nazi Party and SS troops, including easily recognizable fragments of such symbols, will be considered as attempts to stir up hatred and will entail penal consequences.

“I consider the Estonian government’s latest decision morally disgraceful, and it can engender fabricated political problems now that real problems, including those of the Russian-speaking population, should be resolved there,” Sergei Lavrov said.

The use of Soviet and Nazi symbols will be punished with fines or imprisonment of up to three years, depending on the circumstances. Legal entities will be fined up to 50,000 krones (some 3,200 euros).

The bill will soon be submitted for parliament’s consideration.

Mikhail Kamynin, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, has already reacted to the bill, calling it outrageous.

“The Estonian authorities are continuing their disgraceful attempts to re-write history and equate Nazi crimes and the heroism of the Soviet people, who made a solid contribution to Europe’s liberation from Fascism,” he said, adding that Estonia’s move could seriously damage relations between the countries.

The Baltic country was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, before World War II, and then re-conquered following the Nazi occupation of 1941-1944.

>Latin America File: Calderón sworn into office, warring deputies occupied speaker’s podium for three days; "President" Obrador holds protest

>Calderón will begin to fall from his first day.
— Subcomandante Marcos, Zapatista Army of National Liberation; quoted in The Narco News Bulletin, November 23, 2006

Will the Zapatistas and the assorted communist insurgent armies in Mexico follow through on their promises to overthrow the new National Action Party regime? Much depends on the extent of their manpower, their armament, and their domestic and foreign sympathizers.

Pictured here, Mexican demockracy: Legislators exchange blows in the Chamber of Deputies this morning.

Calderon takes oath as Mexican president amid catcalls
December 1, 2006, CNN.com

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) — Felipe Calderon took the oath of office as Mexico’s president Friday amid jeers and whistles in a chaotic ceremony reflecting a divided nation.

Physically protected by ruling party lawmakers and flanked by outgoing President Vicente Fox, Calderon quickly swore to uphold the constitution.

The national anthem was then played, momentarily stilling the catcalls and shouting. Calderon quickly left the chamber as Congress adjourned.

“He did it! He did it!” chanted ruling party lawmakers.

Before Calderon’s arrival, opposition lawmakers threw punches and chairs and tried to block the doors of the congressional chamber.

Ruling party lawmakers, chanting “Mexico wants peace,” seized the speaker’s platform.

The brawl was shown on live television across Mexico.

Democratic Revolution Senate leader Carlos Navarette had said his party would do everything it could to keep Calderon out.

Democratic Revolution’s former presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who claims he was robbed of the presidency, said he will march peacefully with his supporters to the National Auditorium, where Calderon is scheduled to address the nation.

Mexican law prevents security officials from searching lawmakers, and no police were allowed in the congressional chamber.

Amid the chaos, dignitaries began arriving, including former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Spanish Prince Felipe Asturias.

“The situation here at Congress isn’t worrisome,” Bolanos said. “These things happen all over the world.”

Mexico’s Constitution calls for Calderon to take the oath of office before Congress, and the leftists argued that he cannot become president without that formality.

Anticipating the standoff, the conservative Calderon took control of the presidential residence early Friday in an unusual midnight ceremony with outgoing President Vicente Fox, swearing in part of his Cabinet.

In that closed-door ceremony, broadcast live from Los Pinos, Fox handed the presidential sash to a military cadet as his term ended at midnight.

In the broadcast, Calderon called on Mexicans to leave behind the divisions that have dogged him and the country since the disputed July 2 elections.

“I have received the presidential offices from President Vicente Fox, the start of the process of taking possession of the presidency,” Calderon said. “Later, I will appear before Congress to take the constitutional oath.”

Lopez Obrador, who lost the presidency to Calderon by less than a percentage point, massed thousands of supporters nearby in the capital’s main Zocalo plaza as thousands of riot police surrounded Congress to block them from moving in.

The leftist has refused to recognize Calderon’s victory, setting up a parallel government of sorts and declared himself the “legitimate president” of Mexico.

“This shows once again the violence of the PRD,” said the ruling party’s Senate leader, Santiago Creel, who expressed confidence that Calderon would still be able to complete the constitutional ritual.

While Fox argues that Calderon automatically became president at midnight, some constitutional experts say Calderon wouldn’t be president until being sworn in. The constitution states that Fox’s last day in office was Thursday, while Calderon must be sworn in before lawmakers.

Even Creel, interviewed on television inside the chamber Friday, was left talking about “the two presidents of Mexico.”

Creel was referring to Fox and Calderon — not Lopez Obrador.

“I am not unaware of the complexity of the political times we are living through, nor of our differences,” Calderon said earlier. “But I am convinced that we today we should put an end to our disagreements and from there, start a new stage whose only aim would be to place the interests of the nation above our differences.”

PRD and ruling party legislators had camped out in the huge congressional chamber since Tuesday, wrestling and shoving for control of parts of the stage and later camping out with pillows, blankets and pizza.

Fox previously had aid he would go to Congress with Calderon to hand over the presidential sash, but PRD has objected to his presence, accusing the former leader of throwing the elections to Calderon. The midnight ceremony meant there was little reason for Fox to attend, although Creel said he was still welcome.

After his scheduled inauguration, Calderon was expected to address the nation at the massive and heavily guarded National Auditorium on the other side of Mexico City.

He then planned to go to an adjacent military parade ground where army commanders will swear allegiance to the elected head of state, symbolizing the military’s tradition of staying out of politics since the 1930s.