Date:20/11/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/11/20/stories/2002112008041100.htm

National

`Communists should change with the times''

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 19. The Communist Party of Russia today said it was not fair to write off communist parties the world over, especially in their country and suggested that they take a lesson from China by gradually changing with the times.

Dispelling doubts over the growth of the Communist Party of Russian Federation (CPRF) in the past decade amid reports of the "demise" of communist parties in the country, the CPRF Vice-Chairman, Leonid Ivanchenko and Sergei Afanasiev, MP and member of the Control and Audit Committee, told correspondents here that the CPRF was active both inside Parliament and in the districts.

The party had a membership of over 5.80 lakhs in all the districts and had increased its vote share from 13 per cent in the first Duma (Parliament) to 25 per cent in the current third Duma, having the largest vote share.

The two-member delegation which is in India at the invitation of the Communist Party of India, said at a press conference here that the CPRF, which at present had 126 members in the Duma aimed to come to power through the Parliamentary route. The members said one of their demands was that the party with the largest vote share should be asked to form the government.