KPRF Leadership Comes Out Against Constitutional Amendments, Undermining Putin’s ‘Systemic Opposition’ System

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 7 – KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov has called on his followers to vote against Vladimir Putin’s constitutional amendments in the July 1 referendum, an action likely prompted by his own concerns about keeping Russia’s communists united but one with potentially far reaching consequences for Putin’s political system.

            At the present time, Zyuganov faces opposition both from more liberal members of his party in major cities and with more radical members in the regions who believe that the KPRF leader has been too cozy with the regime and insufficiently ready to win the support they believe such a platform would attract.

            Whether the party leader can recover his standing (ura.news/articles/1036280373), although it is likely the more numerous radicals will be pleased by the expulsion of a liberal (novayagazeta.ru/news/2020/06/07/162127-deputata-mosgordumy-elenu-shuvalovu-isklyuchili-iz-kprf) and his opposition to the amendments (newsru.com/russia/04jun2020/kprfconst.html).

            But this action, clearly taken with an eye to the September elections, has another and more significant consequence. As Darya Garmonenko of Nezavisimaya gazeta puts it, by making this move “the KPRF is violating the agreement between the systemic parties and the powers that be,” a key element of Putin’s system (ng.ru/politics/2020-06-07/1_7880_kprf.html).

            Under that system, the systemic parties can disagree on many issues but they cannot challenge the Kremlin directly. Now, however, given the importance that Putin has attached to the referendum, the KPRF has done that directly, “violating” the existing rules of the game and opening the way for other “systemic” parties to follow.

            That could change the way business is done in the legislatures and the outcome of elections. She cites Konstantin Kalachev, head of the Political Experts Group, who says that it is now possible that “not only the left but the protest electorate as a whole will come together before the future elections.”

            That broader electorate, he says, “in large measure is disappointed in the actions of the liberal opposition which has turned out to be disorganized, divided and indecisive. But this will happen only if the [KPRF] conducts an active campaign and makes a real effort at mobilization,” something he suggests is now quite possible.