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2002-04-20 02:16 MSK - Zyuganov blames officials for extremism
MOSCOW -
Russia's Communist Party chief blamed President Vladimir Putin's administration
on Thursday for policies that he said had spurred the growth of violent
extremism. Speaking in an interview just hours after Putin delivered a "state of
the nation" speech, Gennady Zyuganov said the Kremlin leader had failed to come
up with anything positive for Russians and had ignored the poverty and
lawlessness afflicting society. "It is the authorities' extremism which pushes
people towards extremism. People have nothing to eat. Young people graduate from
fine institutes and cannot find work. Entire generations are growing up knowing
nothing other than drugs, vodka and life on the street," Zyuganov told Reuters.
"It is extremism which begets extremism and this is inevitable. Our people are
calm and reasonable. But if they are pushed, it will be hard to stop."
Nationalist groups periodically stage organised attacks on ethnic groups,
particularly traders, from southern Russia and adjacent ex-Soviet republics.
Putin has called for a crackdown on nationalist gangs ahead of Saturday's
anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth. Zyuganov, 57, who has been beaten in two
presidential elections, said Putin had ignored his party's suggestions for
improving the economy. Communists, he said, wanted reforms and had drawn on the
experience of other countries, particularly China, in forming plans to develop
Russia's economy that took into account Russia's "very specific nature". He said
it was the "oligarchs" - industrialists who made money in the post-Soviet period
- who had put Russia in its current state, with "nearly 70 million people either
going hungry or reduced to begging". OLIGARCHS TO BLAME The Communist
Party chief singled out for criticism Anatoly Chubais, long a hate figure among
Russian communists for his role in mass privatisations in the mid-1990s, which
created vast fortunes for some industrialists. Zyuganov accused Chubais of
causing widespread misery in his current job as head of the country's
electricity utility, RAO.UES. "He cuts off power to maternity hospitals, to
rocket bases....in any other country he would be pushed to the wall," Zyuganov
said of Chubais. "This is extremism. Whole districts without power, patients
lying on the operating table and power cut off. Fascist Germany did not even cut
off power to its people." Zyuganov is credited with rebuilding the Communist
Party after a ban on its activity was lifted. He was defeated by Boris Yeltsin
in the 1996 presidential election and lost to Putin four years later. Latest
polls give the party a 34 percent rating - far ahead of pro-Putin centrists who
control the State Duma lower house. The Communists are the Duma's largest single
group, but lost much of their power base when deputies removed them from top
positions on key committees, prompting Zyuganov to declare the party in "all-out
opposition". In his interview, the barrel-chested Zyuganov said the party
remained united despite its recent setback in parliament. He was confident
recent good results in local elections would lead to mass support in next year's
parliamentary polls. "What is sad is that the party in power has no ideology.
Its base is made up of officials looking after their own interests. Once Putin
is gone, everyone will simply run off," he said. "We, on the other hand, have an
idea, an organisation, in even the most remote village." He said enduring
hardship for millions of Russians would mean a big turnout for street rallies he
has called for May 1, international workers' day, and May 9, when ex-Soviet
states mark the anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany. "I think there
will be many more people turning out this year," he said. "In the past year,
because of Putin's policies, no one has seen improved living standards except
the oligarchs."
-Reuters
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