President Dmitry Medvedev found an unlikely ally Wednesday in Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, who praised the president and criticized Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a presentation of his own plan to modernize Russia.
Even the title of Zyuganov’s program, “Go Russia, Toward Socialism!” mirrored Medvedev’s “Go Russia!” article, which was released in September and served as the backbone for the president’s recent state-of-the-nation address calling for Russia to modernize.
“President Medvedev speaks about modernization, while Prime Minister Putin endorses conservatism,” Zyuganov told reporters as he sought to highlight political differences between the two leaders who say they run the country in tandem.
Zyuganov noted that Putin’s Cabinet and United Russia, chaired by Putin, had yet to draft a modernization program providing substance to Medvedev’s broad initiative. “The program of innovations offered by the president in the state-of-the-nation address has not been supported by the United Russia party and government,” he said.
The substance offered by the Communists’ modernization program includes abolishing the flat 13 percent income tax, boosting state support for agriculture, nationalizing raw material industries and giving tax holidays to medium-sized businesses.
Zyuganov said he agreed with Medvedev’s call to disband state corporations, which were created during Putin’s presidency and do not have to follow the same rules as other companies.
“President Medvedev said state corporations work ineffectively, but the prime minister provides cover for this ineffectiveness,” Zyuganov said.
He urged the State Council, a policymaking group comprised of federal government officials, governors and lawmakers and chaired by Medvedev, to review the Communists’ program at its next session in January.
Zyuganov used a book of comic strips to present the program during a news conference at the offices of Interfax.
While Zyuganov has grown increasingly critical of Putin during the economic crisis, he has taken a softer stance toward Medvedev in what analysts said could be a sign that the Communists prefer Medvedev in the ruling tandem. “I am not saying the Communists will make Medvedev their leader, but they will take each other’s interests into account” in the next State Duma elections, said Alexei Mukhin, an analyst with the Center for Political Information.
Mukhin said the Communist Party was the only major political group left for Medvedev because the others were controlled by Putin and his retinue.
Zyuganov denied on Wednesday that his party would merge with A Just Russia, an idea proposed by A Just Russia leader and Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov earlier this week.