COMMUNISTS FIRST TO CLEAR ELECTION PROCEDURAL HURDLES.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation announced September 28 that it became the first party to complete all the requirements necessary to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, including the collection of the mandatory 230,000 signatures. The Communist Party also published its full list of candidates, topped by party chairman Gennady Zyuganov, the former deputy chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet , current district prosecutor Svetlana Goryacheva, Sovetskaya Rossiya editor-in-chief Valentin Chikin, former Gosplan chairman Yuri Maslyukov, St. Petersburg businessman Anatoly Ionov, Lt.-General Valeri Tarasev, and lawyer Yuri Ivanov, who has defended prominent hardliners on trial. (8)

Another General Gains High Profile in Election Campaign.