COMMUNISTS DEMAND LEADING DUMA POSTS.

The Communist Party expects to form a faction numbering about a third of the members of the new Duma, and party officials say they will demand that several key parliamentary posts should go to their members, including that of Speaker. The party also wants to keep control over committees that were chaired by communists in the previous Duma, namely the Committee on Security chaired by Viktor Ilyukhin and the Committee for Public Associations and Religious Organizations chaired by Victor Zorkaltsev. The Communist Party got a further boost December 21 when Viktor Anpilov, leader of the radical left-wing Working Russia party, announced that his party would back the mainstream party’s candidate in next year’s presidential elections. (2)

Zyuganov and Zhirinovsky Disagree on Duma Chairmanship.