ZYUGANOV PUBLISHES ELECTION PROGRAM.

Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist and nationalist coalition in the Russian presidential elections, yesterday unveiled his long-awaited economic program. (Interfax, Itar-Tass, May 27; Financial Times, May 28) The 20-page program, called "From Destruction to Creation — Russia’s Path into the Twenty-first Century," covers the period until the year 2010. It aims to reverse the "catastrophic results" of the Yeltsin years by stimulating domestic production and ensuring "social justice" for all members of society. While it pledges to maintain a "multi-layered economy" (Zyuganov’s codeword for an economy that tolerates private property but prefers state and cooperative forms of ownership), the program envisages strong state intervention to stimulate investment, control prices, and defend domestic producers. Import tariffs would be raised and controls introduced over energy and transport prices. While the program belies fears that it would call for widescale renationalization of private property, it does promise that a stop will be put to further privatization. The program predicts that such policies will stimulate economic growth of 5-6 percent in 1996-97 and 8-9 percent in 1998-2003. They may also prove inflationary and bring the Russian government into conflict with the International Monetary Fund and other international bodies such as the World Trade Organization. The full text of the program is to be published in today’s issue of the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya.

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