Paul Goble
Staunton, July 6 – At its latest party congress, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) denounced Khrushchev for his attacks on Stalin and rehabilitated the longtime Soviet dictator and at the same time moved into an ever closer alliance with the Kremlin.
The first of these actions, not surprisingly, has attracted greater attention; but the second may prove to be even more fateful because it will create a situation in the Russian Federation that is analogous to the relations between parties in East Germany during the Cold War, one in which one party dominated but all others were slavishly loyal to it.
Putin has been moving in that direction for some time, but the appearance of Sergey Kiriyenko, first deputy head of the Presidential Administration at the KPRF meeting, and the reception he received suggests that the leadership of the KPRF is fully prepared to accept that role (ng.ru/politics/2025-07-06/1_9287_kprf.html).
To the extent that is true, the KPRF is no longer an opposition party as it is usually described but an adjunct of the Kremlin and its ruling United Russia Party. Not all the members of the KPRF are likely to be happy with this – there have already been splits – and more divisions are likely to emerge as the consequences of this relationship becomes more obvious.
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