The CPRF IS NOT controlled opposition. STOP spreading western propaganda. The CPRF tried to overthrow Boris Yeltsin during the mass protests in 1993. The CPRF regularly criticises Putin for his liberal policies. Point to ONE shred of evidence on the CPRF being “controlled opposition” please. The leader of the CPRF Gennady Zyuganov was a fierce critic of Gorbachev and perestroika. He supported the antiGorbachev faction of the CPSU and the failed August Coup that tried to remove him and save socialism. He has always been a fierce critic of Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin.
This is literal western propaganda whose purpose is to say “oh you see, the CPRF is controlled by Putin too, the only REAL opposition is Navalny who is western funded”. You probably didnt mean it in that purpose, but thats the purpose of these arguments. To promote views of Russia as a “totalitarian hellhole”.
Also not buying the criticism talks. Case in point: CPRF was the only party allowed to organize anything on this May 1st in Moscow where Zyuganov with militaristic fervor echoes Russian imperial/fascist theories blaming “globalist Anglo-Saxons” for attacks on Russian world and pays homage to solidarity of labor and government as the defining factor of the Soviet’s victory in WW2. Nice class analysis there, just a few days after the arrest of “Courier” labor union organizer Kirill Ukraintsev (not a good last name these days) that he decided to ignore. Though that’s not particularly surprising from somebody who straight up praises the now-infamous philosopher of Russian fascism, I.A.Ilyin in his book.
Then again, I’ve been watching Russian political sphere for about a decade and apart from minutae feuds and shedding light on some abuses of Russian power, CPRF seems to have done nothing significant during all that time. Sure, there have been rallies (some pro-Putin though) but it amounted to the same as Democrats in BLM movement. In 2011 CPRF and “A Just Russia” parties had enough mandates that they could refuse to participate and thus strip the parliament of legitimacy, Bolshevik-style, but they chose not to. Even in local cases where UR was in a minority like in Tomsk in 2021 somehow the city Duma had both supported the speaker to be from UR and then acted in favor of construction monopolist against the wishes of local populace, according to local ex-secretary of ideology in CPRF who left the party. I also haven’t particularly seen them supporting organized workers specifically.
I doubt I’ll be changing your mind with any of this, but I’ll leave this for other readers to judge as to what informs my opinion as long as they bother to use translators. I wouldn’t also debate anything based on talks and not action, and there’s a lot of positive light about individual CPRF deputes one can find. Even so I think CPRF as a whole, today, is communist in name only.
[*] - I swapped the source from this, which I still believe provides a decent outline of protests development, to official CPRF site that contains just a short statement.
Lmfao bro, one of the sources you posted, Ovdinfo, is literally a prowest NGO funded by the European Union and Memorial (yes, the anticommunist NGO created in 1989 by Sakharov the liberal to “investigate stalinist crimes” and which greatly contributed to the collapse of the USSR). It literally took me 2 minutes of googling to find this out. If you wont even bother to make sure the sources you are using arent literally western propaganda, then im sorry but i wont take anything you say seriously. I dont have time to look at who funds the other sources but i invite you and any other comrade to do so.
The CPRF gets funded by the russian government because it gets votes, all other parties do. This is not a sinister conspiracy, its the norm in all liberal “democracies”. The Communist Party of Greece, a very based party, also gets such funding for the same reasons. How is this a bad thing? Should we make the work of the party even more difficult by not even accepting this small unconditional funding while the bourgeois parties get billions from corporations? Also you are literally debunking your own argument. How is the CPRF controlled opposition if they are denouncing on their own website these acts of state repression? You are literally not making any sense. And no, Russia is not “totalitarian”, unless you consider the European Union to be totalitarian too, because they do the same shit or even worse. This was exactly my point, because prowest sources (like Ovdinfo that YOU cited) always ramble about Russia doing these things but stay silent when the west does, thus giving the image that Russia is “totalitarian” while the west is “democratic and free”. This was exactly my point when i talked about “Russia isnt totalitarian”.
Edit: Yeah sure, just downvote me instead of addressing the fact you are spreading literal western propaganda funded by the European Union and US proxies in a communist space. Great praxis.
Oh so you will not say anything then? You slip in literal western propaganda as it were honest facts and you wont even apologise or recognize it? Im not saying you have to agree with me, but at least dont go peddling western propaganda dude. If it was an honest mistake then just say it, we all make mistakes. But instead you downvote me and move on, as if im lying, while you were literally peddling criminal western propaganda used to justify war against Russia. Very disappointing.
Ok, what happened is that I looked for sources describing events as I remember it since I don’t store the links regarding every single news piece, and it happened that this site provided an outline that seemed decent at a glance. I’ve replaced it with the statement on CPRF official site now as they describe the same events making the same point, though I would have to go through dozen of articles to give an equally decent outline which I won’t.
And yeah, I do think US, EU and Russia all have state political repression, and none of them is “democratic and free”. I’m concerned particularly about Russia starting to openly attack labor organizers and fledging communists in past years.
But also, I don’t enjoy communicating with you, and at this point I’m happy to resign to history having to prove one of us wrong.
Fair enough, i apologize if i was rude to you, but we cannot tolerate western propaganda here, its very harmful (i think you will agree). I still want to warn you to be careful with newssites that label themselves as “independent anticorruption” and so on. They are very often funded by the west through NGOs. They are very common in eastern europe and southeast asia. Look im not saying CPRF is perfect, but frankly it looks clear to me that they are running a fine balance between opposing anticommunist repression in Russia and support Putin for antiimperialism. Hardly an easy task. Saying that they are “just like Putin/controlled by Putin” diminishes their struggle and achievements and supports western narratives that the only real opposition in Russia is the prowestern one. I hope you will understand my position and why i hold it. I dont think you understand how much of an achievement it is to have the 2nd biggest party in a country as big as Russia be the Communist Party with all the pervasive anticommunist narrative in East Europe since 1991. Here in Western Europe we are lucky if the Communist Party even gets into the parliament, and most big Communist Parties are completely reformists and proUS anyway. Even if CPRF has big problems, to just throw the whole party away seems irresponsible and incorrect to me. It reminds me of how maoists said USSR was completely corrupt and revisionist and opposed it.
And my major gripe with CPRF is that has over and over failed to do anything that would notably improve the standing of working class in Russia and it’s totally fine with being a springboard to power for the class enemy while higher officials spreading right-wing-ish idealism raking in millions of rubles yearly to personal account. While I’m not advocating for “throwing the whole party away”, and I would want to point again that many of lower ranking members are actual MLs and at some earnestly try to use the parliamentary system and the deputy rights for the social benefit and not the personal, I don’t see them being a party of proletariat in their current form — which too is subject to change based on material conditions.
Fair enough then, i can agree with that position. Happy we came to an understanding. Still you should be careful with certain sources, its bad for communism and it delegitimises your position. Thank you for sharing your thoughts Comrade! O7
Its as “socdemmy” as the Communist Party of China, so not at all. They literally advocate the same economic policies. The CPRF wants a socialist market economy in Russia based on Deng Xiaoping Theory and how the CPC runs China. They basically wanna import socialism with chinese charachteristics to Russia, with some differences ofc. Sure, they are not advocating for immediate revolution against Putin in Russia, but how would that be a good thing now? Russia is fighting an existential war right now in Ukraine against the west. If Russia falls to the west, its game over, China would have no chance of standing up to US imperialism. In these conditions, advocating for revolution against Putin is counterrevolutionary and reactionary, since it only favors US imperialism. This is why the CPRF does not advocate for immediate revolution right now. Instead, they advocate for supporting Putin for antiimperialism while trying to push him to the left with reformism to increase living standards of the russian working class. Once US imperialism has been defeated and/or the russian government becomes reactionary, then it will be the time for revolution.
I hope the stakes aren’t that high for China. I see that China should have absolutely no tolerance for western backed regime change in Russia. If I were in their administration I would see it that way. So the chance of that happening and the potential fallout should be aggressively minimized.
The stakes are that high. Just think about it, if Russia was still in the Yeltsin era, proUS neoliberal, wtf would China do? It would be encircled by hostile enemies from all sides, unable to get the cheap oil and gas it desperately needs for its economy and unable to defend itself from a blockade or a local war. It would be the end. China and Russia are each others lifeline against the west.
And I have rabid liberals all around me having their fantasies at how to get back at Putin. It must not be tolerated on our part either (I assume you are also a westerner…).
The CPRF IS NOT controlled opposition. STOP spreading western propaganda. The CPRF tried to overthrow Boris Yeltsin during the mass protests in 1993. The CPRF regularly criticises Putin for his liberal policies. Point to ONE shred of evidence on the CPRF being “controlled opposition” please. The leader of the CPRF Gennady Zyuganov was a fierce critic of Gorbachev and perestroika. He supported the antiGorbachev faction of the CPSU and the failed August Coup that tried to remove him and save socialism. He has always been a fierce critic of Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin.
This is literal western propaganda whose purpose is to say “oh you see, the CPRF is controlled by Putin too, the only REAL opposition is Navalny who is western funded”. You probably didnt mean it in that purpose, but thats the purpose of these arguments. To promote views of Russia as a “totalitarian hellhole”.
CPRF gets up to 89% of its funding from Russian state (152 RUB yearly per vote per RF Federal law N95 Article 33 pt. 5-6) and there are grand bourgeoisie donors who then get elected as CPRF deputes (CPRF had “sold” the most of deputy places of all other parties in 2021 election lmao).
CPRF doesn’t shy from dissatisfied electorate through populist opportunism like engaging with anti-vax protests. Meanwhile when low-ranking members have been arrested in anti-fraud protests* after the 2021 State Duma election, Zyuganov shortly went to denounce them and deepthroat Putin’s boot.
Also not buying the criticism talks. Case in point: CPRF was the only party allowed to organize anything on this May 1st in Moscow where Zyuganov with militaristic fervor echoes Russian imperial/fascist theories blaming “globalist Anglo-Saxons” for attacks on Russian world and pays homage to solidarity of labor and government as the defining factor of the Soviet’s victory in WW2. Nice class analysis there, just a few days after the arrest of “Courier” labor union organizer Kirill Ukraintsev (not a good last name these days) that he decided to ignore. Though that’s not particularly surprising from somebody who straight up praises the now-infamous philosopher of Russian fascism, I.A.Ilyin in his book.
The folks who prefer other philosophers aren’t so lucky. A CPRF deputy was fined for reposting Sartre quote saying “Every anticommunist is scum”. Though that’s nothing compared to how five members of a Marxist reading group in Ufa have been arrested and accused of terrorism, including a CPRF deputy. Somewhat totalitarian hellholish, according to the western propaganda outlet that is the official site of CPRF.
Then again, I’ve been watching Russian political sphere for about a decade and apart from minutae feuds and shedding light on some abuses of Russian power, CPRF seems to have done nothing significant during all that time. Sure, there have been rallies (some pro-Putin though) but it amounted to the same as Democrats in BLM movement. In 2011 CPRF and “A Just Russia” parties had enough mandates that they could refuse to participate and thus strip the parliament of legitimacy, Bolshevik-style, but they chose not to. Even in local cases where UR was in a minority like in Tomsk in 2021 somehow the city Duma had both supported the speaker to be from UR and then acted in favor of construction monopolist against the wishes of local populace, according to local ex-secretary of ideology in CPRF who left the party. I also haven’t particularly seen them supporting organized workers specifically.
I doubt I’ll be changing your mind with any of this, but I’ll leave this for other readers to judge as to what informs my opinion as long as they bother to use translators. I wouldn’t also debate anything based on talks and not action, and there’s a lot of positive light about individual CPRF deputes one can find. Even so I think CPRF as a whole, today, is communist in name only.
[*] - I swapped the source from this, which I still believe provides a decent outline of protests development, to official CPRF site that contains just a short statement.
Lmfao bro, one of the sources you posted, Ovdinfo, is literally a prowest NGO funded by the European Union and Memorial (yes, the anticommunist NGO created in 1989 by Sakharov the liberal to “investigate stalinist crimes” and which greatly contributed to the collapse of the USSR). It literally took me 2 minutes of googling to find this out. If you wont even bother to make sure the sources you are using arent literally western propaganda, then im sorry but i wont take anything you say seriously. I dont have time to look at who funds the other sources but i invite you and any other comrade to do so.
The CPRF gets funded by the russian government because it gets votes, all other parties do. This is not a sinister conspiracy, its the norm in all liberal “democracies”. The Communist Party of Greece, a very based party, also gets such funding for the same reasons. How is this a bad thing? Should we make the work of the party even more difficult by not even accepting this small unconditional funding while the bourgeois parties get billions from corporations? Also you are literally debunking your own argument. How is the CPRF controlled opposition if they are denouncing on their own website these acts of state repression? You are literally not making any sense. And no, Russia is not “totalitarian”, unless you consider the European Union to be totalitarian too, because they do the same shit or even worse. This was exactly my point, because prowest sources (like Ovdinfo that YOU cited) always ramble about Russia doing these things but stay silent when the west does, thus giving the image that Russia is “totalitarian” while the west is “democratic and free”. This was exactly my point when i talked about “Russia isnt totalitarian”.
Edit: Yeah sure, just downvote me instead of addressing the fact you are spreading literal western propaganda funded by the European Union and US proxies in a communist space. Great praxis.
Good thing we don’t have any more time to waste on each other then.
Oh so you will not say anything then? You slip in literal western propaganda as it were honest facts and you wont even apologise or recognize it? Im not saying you have to agree with me, but at least dont go peddling western propaganda dude. If it was an honest mistake then just say it, we all make mistakes. But instead you downvote me and move on, as if im lying, while you were literally peddling criminal western propaganda used to justify war against Russia. Very disappointing.
Ok, what happened is that I looked for sources describing events as I remember it since I don’t store the links regarding every single news piece, and it happened that this site provided an outline that seemed decent at a glance. I’ve replaced it with the statement on CPRF official site now as they describe the same events making the same point, though I would have to go through dozen of articles to give an equally decent outline which I won’t.
And yeah, I do think US, EU and Russia all have state political repression, and none of them is “democratic and free”. I’m concerned particularly about Russia starting to openly attack labor organizers and fledging communists in past years.
But also, I don’t enjoy communicating with you, and at this point I’m happy to resign to history having to prove one of us wrong.
Fair enough, i apologize if i was rude to you, but we cannot tolerate western propaganda here, its very harmful (i think you will agree). I still want to warn you to be careful with newssites that label themselves as “independent anticorruption” and so on. They are very often funded by the west through NGOs. They are very common in eastern europe and southeast asia. Look im not saying CPRF is perfect, but frankly it looks clear to me that they are running a fine balance between opposing anticommunist repression in Russia and support Putin for antiimperialism. Hardly an easy task. Saying that they are “just like Putin/controlled by Putin” diminishes their struggle and achievements and supports western narratives that the only real opposition in Russia is the prowestern one. I hope you will understand my position and why i hold it. I dont think you understand how much of an achievement it is to have the 2nd biggest party in a country as big as Russia be the Communist Party with all the pervasive anticommunist narrative in East Europe since 1991. Here in Western Europe we are lucky if the Communist Party even gets into the parliament, and most big Communist Parties are completely reformists and proUS anyway. Even if CPRF has big problems, to just throw the whole party away seems irresponsible and incorrect to me. It reminds me of how maoists said USSR was completely corrupt and revisionist and opposed it.
And my major gripe with CPRF is that has over and over failed to do anything that would notably improve the standing of working class in Russia and it’s totally fine with being a springboard to power for the class enemy while higher officials spreading right-wing-ish idealism raking in millions of rubles yearly to personal account. While I’m not advocating for “throwing the whole party away”, and I would want to point again that many of lower ranking members are actual MLs and at some earnestly try to use the parliamentary system and the deputy rights for the social benefit and not the personal, I don’t see them being a party of proletariat in their current form — which too is subject to change based on material conditions.
Fair enough then, i can agree with that position. Happy we came to an understanding. Still you should be careful with certain sources, its bad for communism and it delegitimises your position. Thank you for sharing your thoughts Comrade! O7
I haven’t really looked into it, but I vaguely remember someone saying CPRF was very socdemmy.
Its as “socdemmy” as the Communist Party of China, so not at all. They literally advocate the same economic policies. The CPRF wants a socialist market economy in Russia based on Deng Xiaoping Theory and how the CPC runs China. They basically wanna import socialism with chinese charachteristics to Russia, with some differences ofc. Sure, they are not advocating for immediate revolution against Putin in Russia, but how would that be a good thing now? Russia is fighting an existential war right now in Ukraine against the west. If Russia falls to the west, its game over, China would have no chance of standing up to US imperialism. In these conditions, advocating for revolution against Putin is counterrevolutionary and reactionary, since it only favors US imperialism. This is why the CPRF does not advocate for immediate revolution right now. Instead, they advocate for supporting Putin for antiimperialism while trying to push him to the left with reformism to increase living standards of the russian working class. Once US imperialism has been defeated and/or the russian government becomes reactionary, then it will be the time for revolution.
I hope the stakes aren’t that high for China. I see that China should have absolutely no tolerance for western backed regime change in Russia. If I were in their administration I would see it that way. So the chance of that happening and the potential fallout should be aggressively minimized.
The stakes are that high. Just think about it, if Russia was still in the Yeltsin era, proUS neoliberal, wtf would China do? It would be encircled by hostile enemies from all sides, unable to get the cheap oil and gas it desperately needs for its economy and unable to defend itself from a blockade or a local war. It would be the end. China and Russia are each others lifeline against the west.
And I have rabid liberals all around me having their fantasies at how to get back at Putin. It must not be tolerated on our part either (I assume you are also a westerner…).
Yep, 100% agree. Im westerner too yes, from Spain
Thanks for clarifying