RUSSIA: Communists campaign in southern Siberia ahead of Russia's parliamentary polls

Record ID: 575047

  • Title: RUSSIA: Communists campaign in southern Siberia ahead of Russia's parliamentary polls
  • Date: 24th November 2007
  • Summary: (EU) IRKUTSK, RUSSIA (NOVEMBER 22, 2007) (REUTERS) GENNADY ZYUGANOV, RUSSIA'S COMMUNIST PARTY LEADER WALKING IN TO MEET JOURNALISTS AND PARTY ACTIVISTS LENIN'S BUST ZYUGANOV SHOWING NEWSPAPER WITH PHOTOS OF HIS PARTY MEMBERS AND ACTIVISTS JOURNALISTS LISTENING
  • Embargoed: 9th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAIPGTXQJUYAJXA6VLZXB5973I
  • Story Text: Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov campaigns in southern Siberia ahead of Russia's Parliamentary polls.
    With just over a week to go to elections for Russia's lower house of parliament (State Duma), Russian Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov was campaigning in Irkutsk, on the shores of Lake Baikal on Thursday (November 22).
    The Communists expect to form the main opposition in the new parliament, and Zyuganov maintained one of his main campaign themes, that the Kremlin's hold on all levers has led to the squandering of Russia's resources.
    "We all (party members) unilaterally voted for education, for science and we all unilaterally voted for scientific and technical progress.
    Today Russia produces only one percent of high technology products, only one while the USSR used to produce 30 percent of them. We are not a scientific and technological power any more!," he told his audience in Irkutsk.
    President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party will get an overwhelming majority in next month's parliamentary election and three other parties will also win seats, according to poll forecasts released on Thursday.
    Russia's FOM pollster said its forecasts, based on poll results and respondents' answers to additional questions, gave a clearer picture of voting behavior on Dec 2, when Russians vote for a new parliament, than just a straight poll.
    FOM said United Russia would get 62 percent of the vote, the Communist party would get 12 percent, nationalist LDPR would get 9 percent and the pro-Kremlin Fair Russia would get 7 percent.
    None of Russia's liberal parties would get more than 2-3 percent of the vote, the forecast showed.
    FOM polled 1,500 people on No Nov. 10-11. There was a error margin of 3.6 percent.
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