Companions of Maxim Suraykin returned to him the post of leader of the “Communists of Russia” and decided to nominate him for mayor of Moscow

The return of Maxim Suraykin to the post of leader of the “Communists of Russia” was unanimously supported by all 57 delegates of the extraordinary party congress, which was held on May 14 in Moscow. Suraykin was deprived of his party card and dismissed on March 18, 2022 at the initiative of a number of party members headed by Sergei Malinkovich (who led the party) allegedly “for connection with pro-Western financial and political circles and a bourgeois lifestyle.” The new old leader of the “Communists of Russia” himself called them at the congress “traitors and turncoats.” It was decided to expel such “traitors” Suraykin from the party.

Malinkovich previously told Vedomosti that the party is not officially holding any congress, and Suraykin’s statement about his intention to return to leadership is a “provocation.”

“With our party, you know what they did. Authorities registered a non-existent congress on March 18 [2022 г.]where the impostors were registered. For a year they terrorized the party and continue to terrorize,” Suraykin said. Now, according to him, “more unpleasant processes have begun”: “The main part of the party – 95% – began to fall into depression, because we went [отменять решение прошлогоднего съезда] by judicial means. Therefore, according to Suraykin, more than 60 regional branches of the Communists of Russia demanded an extraordinary congress in order to return him to the post of chairman of the Central Committee.

“Having entered into a criminal conspiracy with bourgeois political technologists, the anti-party group has actually handed over to them all the election campaigns and the actual management of a number of regional branches,” the congress’s resolution says. The “Communists of Russia” recognized such actions as “openly wrecking and contrary to the interests of the party” and appealed to all regional branches “with an appeal to actively protect their political rights in lawsuits against the anti-party group”, and also decided to “continue the legal struggle to challenge the illegitimate decisions of the anti-party group and documents submitted by them to state bodies.

There are currently more than 30 lawsuits filed by the Communists of Russia in various courts, including a demand to cancel the decision of the congress to expel Maxim Suraikin from the party. The Secretary of the Central Committee for Legal Affairs, Konstantin Toporkov, told the congress that he had allegedly never seen a judge in the main lawsuit: “Every time we come to court, for some unknown reason, the process is postponed.” On May 12, according to him, the judge once again went on sick leave.

The “Communists of Russia” also decided at the congress to take part in the election of the mayor of Moscow, which will be held on a single voting day on September 10th. As Suraikin said, “now there is not a single party for which the patriots would vote.” Such a political force, in his opinion, should be the “Communists of Russia”. He also noted that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation can nominate the 34-year-old grandson of the permanent party leader Leonid Zyuganov to the capital’s mayors. On April 19, Vedomosti reported that such a decision was made by the personnel commission under the presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, headed by Gennady Zyuganov’s first deputy in the Central Committee of the party, Yuri Afonin.

Suraikin acknowledged that it is difficult to register in the Moscow mayoral elections because of the municipal filter (at least 110 signatures of deputies must be collected in support of the nomination). “But the history of our party shows that we have always done the impossible. We need to take part in the Moscow mayoral elections, fight for registration,” he said. According to the newly elected leader of the “Communists of Russia”, participation in the elections will give “a platform on which we can declare our party, our struggle, our political position.”

The Communists of Russia decided to make Maxim Suraykin a candidate, but the decision on his nomination will be made at another congress. However, in order to nominate a recommended candidate, it is necessary that the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation registers the decisions taken at the congress on May 14. Andrey Nikolsky, the head of Maxim Suraikin’s press service, told Vedomosti that “if it happens according to the law,” then the probability of a positive outcome for the new old leader of the party is 100%. “But since the situation is not clear, the chances are difficult to estimate,” Nikolsky added. An interlocutor close to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation noted that Suraykin’s activity does not correspond to his real potential.