03 December 2003 01:51
Communists seek to attract younger voters and shake off Soviet legacy
As son of a liberal Moscow physicist, a successful computer programmer and a
one-time ardent supporter of democratic parties in Russia, Ilya Ponomarev
makes an unlikely member of the Communist party.
But this Sunday Mr Ponomarev, along with 15m others, is set to help the
Communists become the second largest party in the Russian parliament.
Unlike most of the party's 564,000 comrades, the 28-year-old Mr
Ponomarev does not lament the end of Soviet communism. He has not lost out in
Russia's transition towards a market economy. And he is half the age of
the average communist voter. His communist attributes are limited to a red
tie and a mobile phone which plays the Marseillaise.
By background and social status he would fit more easily into one of the more
liberal parties such as Union of Right Forces or Yabloko.
His father was a professor of theoretical physics who worked with Andrei
Sakharov, Russia's most famous dissident. His mother works for Roman
Abramovich, the Russian oligarch and owner of Chelsea football club in
Britain.
Mr Ponomarev himself graduated from the Moscow State University, and worked
for the Shlumberger oil services company and for Yukos, Russia's
embattled oil group, before setting up a venture capital fund.
But instead of supporting one of the liberal parties that his parents vote
for, he heads the IT centre of the Communist party.
His task is to modernise its image to attract young radicals who wish to
express their opposition to the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. "I
don't identify this Communist party with the Soviet system. Today it is
the only real opposition party in Russia," he says.
"The political elite has not changed since the end of the Soviet
Union."
The fact that a well-heeled Mr Ponomarev joined the party which for the past
decade has been seen as the biggest threat to democracy in Russia testifies
to the changing role of the Communists in the country. It is also a powerful
indictment of the rightwing democratic parties - and a sign of the utter
confusion in the Russian political landscape.
In 1991 Mr Ponomarev and his parents defended the White House - the seat of
the Russian government - against the Communist-led coup against Mikhail
Gorbachev, former Soviet president. "When he (Ilya) joined the Communist
party it was a real shock to me," says Vladimir Ponomarev, Ilya's
father, who quit the Communist party in 1990.
But Ilya says the Communist party is the only chance to build a viable
opposition to the Kremlin. "The right-wing parties are virtual parties
held together by their leaders. If these leaders went the parties would fall
apart."
Russia's two main right-wing parties - the Union of Right Forces and
Yabloko - are struggling to get above the 5 per cent threshold.
The Communist party, in contrast, has the most members in Russia and is still
hoping to get about 20 per cent of votes.
Its biggest advantage, according to Mr Ponomarev, is its established brand
and infrastructure. "We should do to the Communist party what the New
Labour did to its predecessor in the UK: they took an old party which was in
crisis and gave it new ideas and a new image."
The crisis of Russia's Communist party is real. Its rating have fallen
from almost 35 per cent last year to 20 per cent and the party is torn by
internal conflict between nationalists and more liberal members such as Mr
Ponomarev.
The typical Communist voter is male, over 55, a pensioner or blue-collar
worker with an income of less than Rbs4,000 (Dollars 134) a month and living
either in a small town or a rural area, according to VTSIOM-A, the pollster.
Mr Ponomarev believes that even if he cannot change the statistics, he can at
least help transform the image of the Communist party. He has recently
launched a number of schemes, including a rock concert in front of the KGB
building under a slogan "Rock against Dictatorship".
Only 15 years ago such action would have landed Mr Ponomarev in prison. He
says his task is to prevent this kind of ideological repression in the
future. The bloody history of the Communist party says otherwise.
[FTI [The Financial Times]] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
