USSR2 File: Russian Communist chief heads off challenge from dissidents, aged former Soviet Politburo member Ligachev, secures re-election as party leader; Zyuganov vows “reset” in strategy, target youth, “red bloggers” for recruitment; “ex”-red President Putin sends message to party congress, praises Communists’ “principled policies based on a clear ideology”

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Yegor Ligachev bio

Eurocrisis File: Italians vote against austerity as “ex”-communist’s center-left coalition wins Chamber of Deputies, fails to secure Senate; political horsetrading begins as Bersani confronts upstart, electorally successful populist Five Star Movement; European markets shudder in wake of inconclusive election results in Rome

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Italy’s Five Star Movement

Eurocrisis File: Outgoing Bulgarian PM hospitalized, Socialist Party returns mandate to national president, refuses to form caretaker government, insists upon new elections, threatens to re-nationalize Czech-owned power company; investors wary of “ex”-communists, 2009 credit bubble burst under Stanishev’s watch

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EU File: Thousands of Bulgarians take to streets of Sofia, denounce “energy mafia” amidst high power prices, unsatisfied by resignation of PM Borisov’s government; opposition Socialist Party demands “radically left measures,” rightist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria embraces “ex”-communists’ solutions for national crisis

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Latin America File: Russian PM Medvedev visits left-wing presidents in Brazil and Cuba; discusses “strategic partnership,” missile defense cooperation with ex-guerrilla Rousseff; supplies passenger aircraft to Cuba’s Castro, partly writes off Havana’s US$30 billion Soviet-era debt to Moscow, Russia’s Zarubezhneft drilling for oil off Cuba’s shores

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EU File: Tens of thousands of protesters take up banner of “Citizen Tide,” march through cities of Spain, denounce deep austerity cuts, privatization of public services, corruption scandals in royal family, ruling People’s Party; march coincides with anniversary of failed right-wing coup in 1981

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Flashback: Paramilitary Civil Guard storms Spanish parliament on February 23, 1981, takes 350 deputies hostage

USSR2 File: Municipal government of Volgograd responds to Kremlin-backed campaign of nostalgia for Soviet Union, unanimously votes to restore city’s Soviet-era name of Stalingrad for six days each year, city buses display Stalin’s mugshot; Communist Party presents 50,000 signatures to President Putin, demands permanent renaming of Volgograd

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has misplaced the original copy of the document announcing the demise of the Soviet Union and the formation of its placeholder, the Commonwealth of Independent States . . . Viva Golitsyn!

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EU File: “Ex”-communist poised to form Italy’s next government; rightist wins first ballot in Cypriot presidential vote, communists still dominate parliament; Greek unions declare general strike as 15,000 reds, 25,000 others rally in Athens, protest austerity; amidst hyper-unemployment, weekly protests, allegations against ruling party, Spanish PM unveils new anti-corruption law

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Middle East File: Car bomb containing up to 1.5 tons of explosives detonates in central Damascus, killing 35, latest casualties of civil war; blast occurs near ruling Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party HQ, blows out Russian embassy windows; two car bombs explode outside security centers in city’s NE district of Barzeh

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Gray Terror File: European People’s Party leader “alarmed” ex-PM Stanishev dismissed government report implicating Hezbollah in murder of Israeli tourists at Burgas airport in July 2012; Bulgarian Socialist Party boss also chief of Party of European Socialists; Bulgaria’s Cold War role in international terrorism not mythical

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Flashback: Terrorist attack against Israeli tourists in Bulgaria

Blast from the Past File: Bulgaria: Terrorist and Espionage Activities during Cold War

EU File: Bulgarian government resigns in wake of nation-wide protests against high energy prices, Czechs blamed; Socialist Party boss vows to implement progressive income tax, increase minimum wage, pensions; outgoing PM Borisov “ex”-red, calls Putin to rescue nuke plant deal; father of ex-PM Stanishev high-level functionary in Communist Bulgaria

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Middle East File: Assad’s troops, rebels battle for control of Aleppo airport, Damascus suburbs as Russian Defense Ministry vows navy will “maintain presence” in Mediterranean Sea after official maneuvers, but “no troops in Syria”; Kremlin dispatches strategic airlifter, airliner to Latakia to evacuate expats

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Event Convergence Alert: Two Russian nuclear-armed bombers circle Guam on Feb. 12, same day as N. Korea conducts third n-bomb test, hours before Obama delivers State of the Union address; Russian fighter jets probed Japanese airspace on Feb. 7; US, Japan and Australia hold Cope North military drills around Guam earlier this month, while Red China’s navy carries out exercise in W. Pacific

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End Times File: Signs in the heavens: Meteor explodes over central Russian city of Chelyabinsk, produces shockwave, 500 injured, mostly by shattered windows, some buildings buckle; 1908 meteor strike in Siberia devastated 2,000 sq. km.; lightning strikes dome of St. Peter’s Basilica hours after pope announces resignation

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End Times File: Pope Benedict XVI shocks world, resigns for health reasons, follows weekend bash in Rome for 900th anniversary of Sovereign Military Order of Malta; first papal resignation since Gregory XII ended Western Schism in 1417; Kremlin ponders future of relations between Orthodox and Catholic churches, exchanged ambassadors with Vatican first time in 2009

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Flashback: Russia’s President Medvedev Visits Rome, Exchanges Ambassadors with Vatican City State

Event Convergence Alert: Russia to deploy air defense-evading Iskander-M tactical missiles with 20th Army in Western Military District, Iskander can deliver 480 kg conventional warheads, including penetration and EMP; Kremlin becomes world’s largest gold buyer, amasses 570 metric tons

Comrade Fedorov’s comments would also apply to the chaos generated by a nuclear exchange between Russia and the West . . .

The more gold a country has, the more sovereignty it will have if there’s a cataclysm with the dollar, the euro, the pound or any other reserve currency .

— Evgeny Fedorov, State Duma deputy, United Russia

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Western Military District of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

Asia File: Tokyo asserts two Russian Su-27 fighter jets violated Japanese airspace near Hokkaido on Thursday; Moscow denies incident, which allegedly took place on “Northern Territories Day,” when Japanese call for return of S. Kuril Islands; Beijing denies locking weapons radar on Japanese warship, helicopter

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Final Phase Backgrounder: Former Belarusian leader (1991-1994), CIS co-founder Shushkevich writing memoirs, “shocked” to find historic document declaring death of Soviet Union missing; CIS archivist chief in Minsk: “We don’t know where the original is”; Belarusian communist at 2006 conference: “The USSR continues to exist”

All of this means that the USSR continues to exist not just de-facto as a real remaining economic unity, as a united territory of all the Soviet people, as a fact of undying self-consciousness of the Soviet people with their mutual language of communication Russian and with the Soviet socialist mentality, but also de-jure. It would be sufficient just to rebuild its state structures, by overcoming the bourgeois delusions and by coming back to the socialist path of development.

Under conditions of stabilization of the bourgeois power it will be extremely difficult to achieve, but the Soviet people under the leadership of a single, united and truly Leninist Bolshevik Communist party of the Soviet Union should be able to do that for the sake of his own future as well as for the future of the whole planet.

– Leonid Shkolnikov, First Secretary, Belarus Section, (restored) CPSU; Deputy Head, National Emergency Management and Response Center, Republic of Belarus; message delivered to 15th International Communist Seminar, Brussels, May 5-7, 2006

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Stanislav Shushkevich bio

15^th International Communist Seminar

EU File: Fascism resurgent amidst Eurocrisis: France’s anti-immigrant National Front goes mainstream, polls show support from 32% of electorate in 22-year high, 53% say far right no threat to French democracy; Hungarian Jews flee to Austria, alarmed by anti-Semitic rumblings of Jobbik’s sizable parliamentary faction

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EU File: Fascism resurgent amidst Eurocrisis: 5,000 black-clad, swastika-sporting Golden Dawn members attend peaceful rally near Greek PM’s office, neo-Nazi event attracts total of 30,000 self-avowed “nationalists”; Chrysi Avgi establishes links with Bavarian counterparts, forms cells in Nuremberg, NYC, Montreal

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Asia File: Tokyo accuses Red China’s navy of locking weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese destroyer and helicopter admidst dispute over E. China Sea islets, Japanese DM: Last month’s incidents “abnormal” and “dangerous”; PM Abe vows to defend Senkaku Islands “at all costs”

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USSR2 File: Russian Communists disregard pro-homosexual stance of Western comrades, support State Duma ban on “homosexual propaganda”; United Russia initiative endorsed by huge majority of deputies; Germany’s openly “gay” FM laments new Russian law while UK parliament passes “gay marriage” bill

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EU File: “Ex”-communists on offensive in E. Europe: Hungary’s Socialists unleash attack ads against ruling party’s “economic failure”; repackaged as Left Party, former GDR reds demand 100% tax on wealthy Germans; Poland votes down same-sex civil partnerships as Democratic Left Alliance champions “gay rights”

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EU File: Polls show Czechs “nostalgic for communism,” one third favor return to Stalinist regime; former PM Zeman’s direct election to presidency last month weakens Social Democrats, strengthens Communists; leftist daily Pravo: “Communists may be the only big stable party in the Czech Republic soon”; next parliamentary election to be held by May 2014

Got whistling emoticon?

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background DVD documentary

Middle East File: Outlawed Marxist group claims responsibility for suicide bombing at US embassy in Ankara, Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front denounces Washington for supporting Syrian rebels, brands USA as “murderer of peoples of the world”; Feb. 1 attack killed bomber, Turkish security guard

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Communism with Canadian Characteristics: Naval intelligence officer convicted of spying for Russia between 2007 and 2011, top Canadian Security Intelligence Service exec testifies Delisle’s treason “exceptionally grave,” Russian ambassador dismisses case as irrelevant; Ottawa’s Gouzenko Affair triggered Cold War in Sept. 1945

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Gouzenko Affair

Mexican Narco-State File: Huge explosion rocks state oil company HQ in Mexico City yesterday, death toll rises to 32, blast follows attempts by new PRI president Pena to modernize Pemex; main communist guerrilla army disavows responsibility as EPR obtains automatic rifles, RPGs via Guatemala, widens presence from Guerrero to 11 other states

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