The Communist Party of the Russian Federation rallied for broadcast equality – Newspaper Kommersant No. 151 (7352) of 08/19/2022

Deputies of the Communist Party faction on Thursday held a meeting with voters at the walls of the State Duma. Despite the ongoing ban on public rallies in Moscow, the event passed peacefully and without provocation. In addition to supporting the special military operation in Ukraine, the main topic of speeches was the problem of equal access to the media. The communists complained about the dominance of United Russia in the news and announced their intention to send letters on this issue to the presidential administration, the government and TV channels.

The meeting was scheduled for 16:00, but half an hour before that, several dozen citizens had already gathered at the second entrance of the Duma. Some were wearing red scarves and T-shirts with the inscription “USSR” or with a portrait of the deputy Anastasia Udaltsova. Soon her husband, coordinator of the Left Front, Sergei Udaltsov, appeared, and immediately began to give advice to his comrades: “If you have already taken the poster, drop everything and stand with a proud face!”

At that moment, a law enforcement officer approached the crowd. “The police, God forbid, they will rake in,” one voter said to another, cautiously taking her aside. However, the security officer did not “rake in” anyone, but greeted the deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kashin in a very friendly way. He warned that the police would not allow provocations against the deputies, but if illegal actions begin on the part of the voters of the Communist Party, they will also be reacted to. Recall that in Moscow there is still a “coronavirus” ban on mass actions, however, for meetings of deputies with voters, the authorities, as a rule, make an exception.

The participants raised the flags of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Lenin Komsomol, the Left Front, the Union of Soviet Officers and the banner “For elections without a DEG.” “We have gathered at the walls of the State Duma, because there are three weeks left before the elections, and we want to warn that fraud is being prepared,” Sergey Udaltsov explained to a group of supporters. “There is an active aggressive advertising of online voting. Prizes are drawn. Why is voter discrimination going on, prizes are promised only to those who vote online, and those who go to the polling stations with their own feet are not given prizes? We gathered to warn the authorities: on the one hand, you are calling for unification, on the other, you want to deceive us!”

However, Vladimir Kashin, who was the first to approach the microphone, outlined the main purpose of the gathering in a slightly different way: “to declare his resolute yes to support for a special military operation.” “Today we want to be with the president, with our army in solving this military-political task. But we want this task to be carried out more purposefully and systematically. We are for the whole territory (of Ukraine.— “b”) was liberated from Nazi elements,” the communist said. He also denounced the “elite public”, which partly “ran away, betraying the interests of our homeland”, and partly “hidden, sits in the Kremlin and the White House.” For some reason, the deputy cited the new Russian cinema as an illustration, where war heroes are shown as “cowardly and vicious people”, not forgetting to mention the “dominance of pornography” on television. Mr. Kashin did not forget to remind those present that the special operation began with the adoption by the Duma of an appeal to the president on the recognition of the DPR and LPR, prepared by the communists. Finally, he complained about the fact that the news does not cover the activities of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and promised to send corresponding letters to all TV channels.

Yury Afonin, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, began his speech with an assessment of world processes that mean the “end of US hegemony,” but then returned to the domestic political agenda. He called the abolition of the institution of members of election commissions with the right to consultative vote at the territorial and precinct levels “a blow to the democratic nature of the elections”. According to the deputy, election campaigns in a number of regions are taking place “under serious administrative pressure”, and the United Russia monopoly has reigned in the information space. Norms on equal presence in the media will be reflected in the electoral code, which is being prepared by the Communist Party, promised Mr. Afonin.

The leader of the Communist Party faction in the Moscow City Duma, Nikolai Zubrilin, also noted the injustice of the distribution of airtime and cited figures: for example, in January, the Communist Party, according to its calculations, received from 3% to 12% of airtime in the news, and United Russia – from 30% to 50 %. Anastasia Udaltsova proposed introducing fines for media that violate the law on equal access of election participants to air and print space, and criminal liability for repeated violations. “Let’s see: who manages our federal channels?.. These are liberal fosterlings. The fish rots from the head, and then we have the Ovsyannikovs and others who are against the patriotic movement in Russia, against our military operation!” Mrs. Udaltsova was indignant.

Deputy Mikhail Matveev spoke about the support for communist ideas in the Donbass: “Look how red banners appear from below. They appear on tanks, they appear in the hands of our citizens, grandmothers and so on. This suggests that people feel that it is the Soviet regime that is their support. Long live the red banner over the Kremlin!”

Deputy Denis Parfenov returned to the topic of unequal access to the media. “The media are in the hands of big business, which dictates its policy and is in no hurry to cover the activities of the Communist Party and the left-wing patriotic movement,” he offered his explanation of what is happening. % airtime. It is a shame to cover the activities of the second political force in the country at such a level, and in many respects the first, to hush up our active patriotic work!”

At the end of the meeting, Vladimir Kashin said that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation would send letters on access to the media not only to TV channels, but also to the presidential administration, as well as “to all those ministers who work with the media.” And the event ended with communication of voters with deputies and joint photography.

Ksenia Veretennikova