08 June 2004 04:36
Zyuganov`s Deputy Says He Will Quit
In a move likely to lead to further fierce infighting, veteran Communist Valentin Kuptsov has announced he will step
down as party leader Gennady Zyuganov's deputy at a congress next month and has called for new leadership.
Kuptsov is likely to call for wholesale changes in the party leadership at the congress, after falling out with
Zyuganov over the party's poor electoral showing, a party source familiar with the situation said.
The announcement came days after a letter from six members of the party's Central Committee called on Zyuganov
to quit. In a statement, the party leadership dismissed the letter as a provocation by Gennady Semigin, Zyuganov's
main rival, who was expelled from the party last month.
Semigin, the head of a left-wing umbrella group dominated by the Communists, had been accused of cooperating with the
Kremlin to try to destabilize the party.
Speaking at a regional party conference in Nizhny Novgorod, Kuptsov said the July 3 party congress would be difficult
for Zyuganov and other party leaders. "It's about time to bring new people into the party leadership and help
them," Kuptsov told RIA-Novosti on Saturday.
Kuptsov, 66, said he wants to concentrate on his work as a deputy speaker in the State Duma.
"I hope that congress delegates and my colleagues understand that this is not a game, but a well thought-out
decision," he said.
Kuptsov, a former Soviet Politburo member, was a founder of the Russian Communist Party before it was banned in 1991,
and led the re-registered party briefly before Zyuganov took over as leader in 1993. Since then, he has held the post of
first deputy chairman, responsible for controlling the party's finances and organization.
Party spokesman Andrei Andreyev said that Kuptsov had made the decision to step down after last December's Duma
elections.
But Sergei Reshulsky, coordinator of the Communists' Duma faction, said it was not clear whether the party
congress would accept Kuptsov's resignation.
Nikolai Kharitonov, the party's Zyuganov-backed candidate in the presidential elections, described
Kuptsov's decision as an easy way out.
"Instead of working on the party's modernization ... he has taken the easy decision to leave,"
Kharitonov said.
The party source said that Kuptsov had timed his announcement to signal that congress delegates should oust Zyuganov
and other senior leaders, so that the party leadership could be "strictly rejuvenated."
"He wants the old guys to follow his example and leave their leading posts," the source said.
While Kuptsov has not said who he would like to see lead the party, he told RIA-Novosti that the letter calling for
Zyuganov's ouster was likely "to cause heated debates" at the congress.
Alexander Shabanov, a former party chairman close to Kuptsov and one of the authors of the letter, is likely to raise
the issue of Zyuganov's resignation at the congress, the source said.
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[The Moscow Times] |
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