Respect for Lenin and Stalin is growing as Russian society becomes ever more fractured, the Communist Party leader said, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Saturday.
Gennady Zyuganov, speaking at a Communist Party event, claimed that “new generations are discovering the greatness and accomplishments of the Soviets and respect for Lenin and Stalin is growing,” RIA Novosti reported.
“The fifth column continues to encourage Russophobia and anti-Soviet feeling. The people however, have proved themselves wiser and stronger than this malicious propaganda,” Zyuganov said, RIA Novosti reported.
Zyuganov also criticized Russia’s former president and current prime minister, saying that “the neoliberal policies of [Dmitry] Medvedev’s government have run their course and are leading the country toward ruin.”
State Duma elections will take place on Sept. 18. The Communist Party, Russia’s second biggest political party, presented its list of Duma candidates at Saturday's pre-election convention.
According to an April poll by independent pollster Levada Center, 56 percent of Russian regret the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the 2011 Duma elections, the Communist Party received 19 percent of the vote, gaining 92 of the 225 Duma seats. According to political analyst Boris Makarenko, the Communist Party can expect to receive at least 15 percent of the vote this year, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
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