RUSSIA: Those disenfranchised by Russia's economic reforms yearn for the welfare and healthcare of former Soviet times, writes Chris Stephen
Hundreds of thousands of communists protested across Russia yesterday, using the traditional May Day holiday to accuse the government of failing to protect the poor. The protests are among the biggest that have taken place against the government of Vladimir Putin, reflecting anxiety over plans to cut welfare benefits.
In Moscow, red banners and portraits of Lenin and Stalin were brandished by protesters who marched to the statue of Karl Marx outside the Kremlin.
"In the Soviet era, you had the right to free education, free healthcare, and a guaranteed job," said Alexander Ivanov, a 22-year-old Communist Party organiser from the city of Vladimir. Sporting a red T-shirt with "Lenin, Party, Youth" written in gold letters, he said the poor were being ignored despite the country's new prosperity.
"Modern Russia means that some people get to live in London, buy Chelsea Football Club and spend time in Morocco. And other people have to survive on three thousand rubles (€110) a month. The state is supposed to regulate those questions," said Mr Ivanov.
After years in the doldrums, the Communists believe they have found a place as the party that speaks up for the poor. Huge revenues from oil and gas sales have widened still further the yawning gap between rich and poor, and growing numbers yearn for a return to the guaranteed basic living enjoyed in the USSR.
Communist Party leader Gennady Zuganov said rallies in Moscow, Omsk and Vladivostok were to highlight the proposed scrapping of government rent controls. Many fear the move will end the apartment-for-life deal enjoyed by millions.
Clutching portraits of Lenin and Stalin, both adorned with a purple spring flower, 63-year-old museum curator Svetlana Lexhnova said she is already having to postpone her retirement to be able to afford her current rent. If her block is sold to private developers, she will have to leave. "I will be forced out. I will have to live in one of those places for the elderly that are like army barracks." She is not alone. Last year, pensioners launched nationwide protests that saw the Kremlin temporarily reverse plans to slash a wide range of benefits.
"When Lenin took power, he gave the power to the workers and the peasants," said Ms Lexhnova. "I want the Soviet state back again." But the government says the benefits system, mostly unchanged from Soviet times, must be rethought because it distorts efforts to reform the economy.
The Kremlin organised counter-rallies for the ruling United Russia Party, with thousands of mostly young activists gathering outside Moscow City Hall to celebrate the rule of President Putin.
Yet even here there was muted criticism: Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, a party member, said the government must release some of its €60 billion emergency fund, amassed from oil taxation, to help the poor. "It is a disgrace, a real disgrace," he said.
Meanwhile, city authorities are debating whether to allow homosexuals to hold a gay pride march, the first in the city's history, at the end of the month, after skinheads throwing bottles and bricks attacked a gay nightclub in Moscow on Sunday night.