CHERNOMYRDIN’S “PARTY OF POWER” MAY USE STALIN AS A PATRIOTIC SYMBOL.

Not only Duma chairman Ivan Rybkin’s bloc but also Prime Minister Chernomyrdin’s center-left electoral coalition are using increasingly nationalistic slogans to generate support,Izvestiya reported April 29. The paper noted that Chernomyrdin had twice paid tribute to Stalin’s role in the war and that his government recently had issued a stamp picturing Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. That is the first time the Soviet dictator has appeared on a Moscow postage stamp in 40 years. All of this is designed to isolate the pro-Western democrats who cannot use such symbols to tap into Russian patriotism.

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