News From the Soviet Union

New Legislation Will Guarantee Putin's Position In Russia!

From Targets monthly

Once the following series of bills are adopted, this will rework the country's political structure and make it nearly impossible for Putin to be deposed by any constitutional means.

Putin has submitted a series of Bills to his Cabinet or his United Russia Party that, once adopted, will make Putin undisputed ruler-dictator.

The First Bill seeks to revamp the distribution of the federal tax revenue to allow the government to keep more of the money, previously both regional governments' budgets (and regional governor's slush funds). It will be the most controversial of the three.

The Second Bill tinkers with laws that govern the disciplining of regional governors. Specifically it seeks to empower the Kremlin to replace the Governors with Putin's own people.

When combined, these two Bills give the Kremlin the de facto right to assert budgetary and personnel control, and it does not matter that these people were elected. By withholding budgetary money, any region that is not to the liking of Putin's government politically can be the justification to remove all the personnel and appoint Putin's own cronies. This way it is absolutely not possible for any left-wing member to gain the Governor's position, even if the majority of people voted for him or her.

The Third Bill has the greatest significance, as it will rewrite Russia's electoral laws, raising the percentage of the popular vote that political parties must garner in elections, to gain seats in the Russian Duma from the present 5% to 12.5 %. The new law would totally purge the Duma of small parties. This would leave Putin's United Russia Party, which is the largest faction in the Duma. This means that the passage of these Three Bills is practically assured.

The country's other major party, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Zyuganov) is strongly supporting Putin in this bid, as it would disenfranchise many of the smaller communist and workers parties that have siphoned off votes, and therefore Duma seats, in the past decade.

Considering the communist (CPRF) weakness and cooperation in all matters with Putin, a two-party Duma would be just putty in Putin's hands. That guarantees that each appointment by Putin's government will get quick passage, and Putin never has to worry about getting impeached. This will insulate Putin from any political threat, aside from revolutionary change.

Putin has managed to tame the media, exile some troublesome oligarchs and limit any challenge from inside the Duma or the regions of Russia. But there is a possibility that the new bourgeois clans, centered in Leningrad and the ambitions of the Yeltsin Family Combine, will in the future show their heads... depending of course as to which Western Power backs which clan for the riches of Russia.

On Degeneration of Worker’s Leaders

When three years ago Oleg Shein had won in the race for the seat in the State Duma, it was seen as a big victory for all those who stood on the left of the CPRF. We all hoped that Shein would not only carry on the work begun by previous left deputies like Grigoriev and Avaliani, but that he would raise it to a new level of militancy. We can now say that our hopes have failed to come true. But even worse.

One cannot say 100% that Shein’s tenure in the Duma was entirely useless for the left and labour movement in Russia. We should not belittle his role in the campaign against the World Bank sponsored Labour Code. Shein also helped a number of labour collectives. But that was all, no advancement to a new level of militancy has taken place or has even been attempted.

It seems that instead, Shein had been much more interested in the advancement of his career in the system of bourgeois government rather than advancing the left and labour movement in Russia. This may explain why Shein is also willingly parting with any mention of communism but embracing some sort of neutral "Laborism." (The founding documents of the recently established Labour Party of Russia by Shein) together with the notorious anti-communist and Yeltsinite Sergei Khramov and he doesn’t mention the even word "capitalism" or "class".

You see, by not mentioning these two words makes it easier to get in favour with the Kremlin and the government, doesn’t it? Western social-imperialists too prefer dealing with a pure Labourite, rather than a revolutionary and a communist. Having made this choice, Shein will inevitably find himself on the other side of the barricades and will become the enemy of the genuine Left, even if against his own will, because the very logic of his politics will push him into the fold of reactionary bourgeoisie. We can already see this happening in Shein’s recent vote in favour of banning a referendum.

The program of his own created his own Labour Party they purged anything that even looked like or smelled like the word Red. It was a betrayal because his is the attempt to lead the movement away from the communist influence, way from the struggles of common interests of the working class. After this betrayal we could expect anything from Shein, because that was his decisive step.

There was a time when Shein preached the need to promote workers in elections to public office and, we must not forget that Shein criticized Stalin that he did not allow the workers to have "democracy" in their union.

It is unpleasant and disheartening to see the degeneration of the labour leader, who only recently gave us so much hope. We have to acknowledge that Shein now stands firmly on the path that has been traveled before him by far too many labour leaders. History knows many examples in the world of this sort, and alas, Oleg Shein will not be the last.

Globalization and the Kaliningrad Problem

The quick development in the world and the drive towards Globalization, the tendency towards a one-polar world, and the establishment of the New World Order, causes a real problem for Russia in the Kaliningrad Region of Russia, the only outlet for Russia to the Baltic Sea. The safeguarding of the territorial integrity and sovereignty if Russia is at stake now, under the real threat of globalization.

With EU demands and with Poland and Lithuania demanding territorial change, it is now a crucial battle over the Kaliningrad territory, which must be defended.

Zbigniew Brezinski who still commands much influence in Washington, was the architect of Globalization. He influenced US foreign policy by demanding that the United States undertake two objectives: Secure a predominant position and the necessity to create a geopolitical structure that can soften the tensions caused by the forced remaking of the word during the establishment of the New World Order.

Let us also not forget the secret speech made by the ex-president of the USA to the HG commanders on October 25, 1995. He outlined concrete steps and objectives to bring the ex-USSR to the level of a third-world country, and he directed the American military and political elite to split Russia into small states by waging international and inter-regional wars, the way it was done in Yugoslavia.

It was also extremely cynical of Zbigniew Brezinski to speak a t a recent US-Ukrainian Advisory Committee dedicated to conferring on him the rank of a Lvov Citizen of Honour, when he said that the US-led New Word Order was created specifically against the Russians.

So, the Kaliningrad Region and the South Kurile Islands that Japan wants are a snare to test Russia’s will to give up territories. It is against this background that the Kaliningrad Region is being pushed to the fore by the European Union and US imperialism.

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