Wikipedia

Gennady Zyuganov

"Zyuganov" redirects here. For other people with this surname, see Zyuganov (surname).
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Andreyevich and the family name is Zyuganov.

Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (Russian: Генна́дий Андре́евич Зюга́нов; born 26 June 1944) is a Russian politician who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and served as Member of the State Duma since 1993. He is also the Chair of the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU) since 2001. Zyuganov ran for President of Russia four times, most controversially in 1996, when he lost in the second round to Boris Yeltsin.

Gennady Zyuganov
MP
Геннадий Зюганов
Zyuganov in 2022
Chair of the Union of Communist Parties
Incumbent
Assumed office
22 January 2001
Preceded byOleg Shenin
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Incumbent
Assumed office
14 February 1993
Preceded byValentin Kuptsov
Parliamentary Leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the State Duma
Incumbent
Assumed office
13 January 1994
Preceded byPosition established
Member of the State Duma (Party List Seat)
Incumbent
Assumed office
11 January 1994
Personal details
Born (1944-06-26) 26 June 1944 (age 80)
Mymrino, RSFSR, USSR
Political party
SpouseNadezhda Vitalyevna
Children
  • Andrey
  • Tatiana
RelativesLeonid Zyuganov (grandson)
Education
Awards
Signature
Military service
Allegiance Soviet Union
Branch/serviceSoviet Army
Years of service1963–1966
RankColonel

Early life and education

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Zyuganov was born in Mymrino, a farming village in Oryol Oblast, on 26 June 1944. The son and grandson of schoolteachers, he followed in their footsteps. His father fought at the Soviet-German front of WWII and returned home with serious injuries. After graduating from a secondary school, his first job was working there for one year as a physics teacher in 1961.[1][2]

In 1962, Gennady enrolled into the Department of Physics and Mathematics of the Oryol Pedagogical Institute. From 1963 to 1966, he served in a Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Intelligence unit of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. Zyuganov joined the Communist Party in 1966.[3][4]

He returned to the teachers' college in 1966. Three years older than most members of his class, he was already a party member and a popular college athlete. On his return, he married his wife, Nadezhda. He completed his degree in 1969.[1][5]

CPSU career

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Zyuganov taught mathematics but soon turned to Communist Party of the Soviet Union work in Oryol Oblast, beginning in 1967. He became the First Secretary of the local Komsomol and the regional chief for ideology and propaganda. He emerged as a popular politician in the area. Among many other functions, Zyuganov organized parties and dances as a local Komsomol leader while he was rising through the ranks of the party. Zyuganov rose to be second secretary, or second in command, of the party in Oryol.[6]

He enrolled at an elite party school in Moscow, the Academy of Social Sciences in 1978, completing his doctor nauk, a post-doctoral degree, in 1980. He then returned to Oryol to become regional party chief for ideology and propaganda until 1983. In 1983, he was given a high-level position in Moscow as an instructor in the Communist Party propaganda department.[1][5]

Zyuganov emerged as a leading critic of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost in the party's Agitation and Propaganda division (later the Ideological division), a hotbed of opposition to reform. As the party began to crumble in the late 1980s, Zyuganov took the side of hard-liners against reforms that would ultimately culminate in the end of CPSU rule and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In May 1991, he published a fiercely critical piece on Alexander Yakovlev.

Head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation

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Zyuganov wrote several influential papers in the early 1990s attacking Boris Yeltsin and calling for a return to the socialism of the pre-Gorbachev days. In July 1991, he signed the "A Word to the People" declaration. As the Communist Party of the Soviet Union fell into disarray, Zyuganov helped form the new Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), and became one of seven secretaries of the new group's Central Committee. In 1993, he became its chairman. Outside observers were surprised by the survival of Zyuganov's Communist Party into the post-Soviet era.

Zyuganov emerged as post-communist Russia's leading opposition leader. He argued that the collapse of the Soviet Union led to a decline in living standards, that economic power was left concentrated in the hands of a tiny share of the population, that violent crime increased, and that the Soviet collapse allowed ethnic groups throughout Russia to embark on campaigns, sometimes violent, to win autonomy.

Russians who felt left behind in the new Russia emerged as Zyuganov's supporters, including a number of workers, clerks, bureaucrats, professionals, and the elderly. As Zyuganov succeeded in combining Communist ideas with Russian nationalism, his new Communist Party of the Russian Federation joined hands with numerous other left-wing and right-wing nationalist forces, forming a common "national-patriotic alliance."

In the 1993 and 1995 parliamentary elections, the newly revitalized Communist Party of the Russian Federation made a strong showing, and Zyuganov emerged as a serious challenger to President Yeltsin.

1996 presidential campaign

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Main article: Gennady Zyuganov presidential campaign, 1996
 
The results of the second round of the 1996 elections. Red highlighted regions where Zyuganov won

Zyuganov entered the 1996 presidential election, as the standard-bearer of the Russian Communist Party. Co-opting Russian nationalism, he attacked the infiltration of Western ideals into Russian society and portrayed Russia as a great nation that had been dismantled from within by traitors in cahoots with Western capitalists, who sought the dissolution of Soviet power to exploit Russia's boundless resources.

Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, along with Russian oligarchs such as Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Anatoly Chubais, and others feared a Communist resurgence in Russia while witnessing Zyuganov present himself as a kinder, gentler Communist while attending the World Economic Forum at Davos in 1996. Chubais recalled, stating "I saw many of my good friends, presidents of major American companies, European companies, who were simply dancing around Zyuganov, trying to catch his eye, peering at him. These were the world's most powerful businessmen, with world famous names, who with their entire appearance demonstrated that they were seeking support of the future president of Russia, because it was clear to everyone that Zyuganov was going to be the future president of Russia, and now they needed to build a relationship with him. So, this shook me up!".[7]

The oligarchs set aside their differences and held several private meetings in Davos hotel rooms, where they strategized how to defeat the perceived Zyuganov threat. The result was the "Davos pact", an agreement between Chubais and the oligarchs that he would lead an anti-Communist campaign against Zyuganov, that they agreed to fund. The subsequent months saw a massive media offensive as "money poured into advertising campaigns, into regional tours, into bribing journalists", all supported by the oligarchs who owned the major media. Yeltsin's subsequent victory in that election can be traced back to the events that took place in Davos between Chubais and those Russian oligarchs.[7]

In the election on 16 June, Zyuganov finished second with 32%, trailing only Yeltsin, who captured 35%. Yeltsin gained from the elimination of the many smaller parties, as well as the support of Alexander Lebed, and eventually won the two-man showdown by 53.8% against 40.7%.

It has been alleged that Yeltsin may not have legitimately won the 1996 presidential election, but instead employed electoral fraud. Some results, largely from Russia's ethnic republics of Tatarstan, Dagestan and Bashkortostan, showed highly unlikely changes in voting patterns between the two rounds of voting.[8][9] At a meeting with opposition leaders in 2012, then-president Dmitry Medvedev was reported to have said, "There is hardly any doubt who won [that race]. It was not Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin."[10]

After 1996 election

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After the December 1999 parliamentary elections, the number of Communist seats in the Duma was reduced. Communist support started to decline, given the widespread electoral support at the time for the government's invasion of Chechnya in September 1999 and the popularity of Yeltsin's new prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who was widely seen as Yeltsin's heir apparent.

2000 presidential campaign

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Main article: Gennady Zyuganov presidential campaign, 2000

Zyuganov placed a distant second behind Vladimir Putin in the March 2000 presidential election.[citation needed]

After 2000 election

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Vladimir Putin and Zyuganov
 
Dmitry Medvedev and Zyuganov

Zyuganov has additionally served as the Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU) since 2001, replacing Oleg Shenin.

In November 2001, in an open letter to Putin ahead of the summit between the US and Russian presidents in the United States, Zyuganov said that Russia was betraying its national interests. "It is blindly following US policy which has been characterized recently by open aggression". Zyuganov criticized Putin for his decision the previous month to close a Cuban listening post that eavesdropped on US communications and a key naval base in Vietnam, as well as Russian support for Washington using bases in former Soviet Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for its Afghan strikes. "Russia's national state and national interests may be betrayed" at the upcoming summit between Putin and US President George W. Bush, Zyuganov warned.[11]

On 23 September 2003, Zyuganov sent a deputy request to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, in which he demanded to initiate an administrative case against Putin as an official of category "A" and to fine him in the amount of 22,500 rubles for conducting election campaigning outside the campaign period of the United Russia party.[12] However, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, Alexander Veshnyakov, and the Chairman of the Federation Council, Sergey Mironov, objected that they did not see anything illegal in the President's speech.[13] The head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation tried to file a complaint with higher authorities, but not a single court examined the complaint on its merits.[14]

In 2004, Zyuganov declined to run against Putin, who secured a landslide reelection victory.

2008 presidential campaign

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Main article: Gennady Zyuganov presidential campaign, 2008

In October 2005, Zyuganov indicated that he would run for president in 2008, making him the second person to enter the race for the Kremlin following former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. According to one report, Zyuganov pledged to quadruple pensions and state salaries, should he be elected.[citation needed]

In the presidential election on 2 March 2008, Zyuganov garnered 17.76% of the vote and came in second to Medvedev's 70.23%.[15]

Post-2008

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On Zyuganov's 65th birthday in June 2009, the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin presented him with a copy of the first Soviet edition of the Communist Manifesto.[16] On the occasion of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's birthday on 21 December 2010, Zyuganov called for the re-Stalinization of Russian society in an open letter to President Medvedev.[17]

After Putin's annual address to parliament on 20 April 2011, Zyuganov criticised it as inadequate in dealing with Russia's economic decline and warned that, "If the [parliamentary and presidential] elections are as dirty as before, the situation will develop along the North African scenario."[18] Zyuganov denounced election irregularities in the Russian legislative election of 2011 but also expressed his opposition to the organizers of the mass demonstrations of December 2011 who he viewed as liberals who exploited unrest.[19]

The communist party played only a minor role in the protests, with one of its speakers, who called for restoration of Soviet power, being booed off the stage. Party rallies on 18 December 2011, in protest of election irregularities in Moscow and St. Petersburg were attended by only a few thousand, mostly elderly, party supporters. According to The New York Times, it is questionable that Zyuganov, due to his age and association with Soviet policies, will be able to capitalize on the opportunity presented by popular disgust with the Putin regime, or mobilize mass popular support for his party.[19]

 
Communist protesters with a sign portraying an "order of dismissal" for Vladimir Putin for "betrayal of the national interests", Moscow, 1 May 2012.

Zyuganov is a harsh critic of President Vladimir Putin, but states that his recipes for Russia's future are true to his Soviet roots. Zyuganov hopes to renationalise all major industries and he believes the USSR was "the most humane state in human history".[20] On 29 November 2008, in his speech before the 13th Party Congress, Zyuganov made these remarks about the state that Russia under Putin was in:

Objectively, Russia's position remains complicated, not to say dismal. The population is dying out. Thanks to the "heroic efforts" of the Yeltsinites the country has lost 5 out of the 22 million square kilometers of its historical territory. Russia has lost half of its production capacity and has yet to reach the 1990 level of output. Our country is facing three mortal dangers: de-industrialization, de-population and mental debilitation. The ruling group has neither notable successes to boast of, nor a clear plan of action. All its activities are geared to a single goal: to stay in power at all costs. Until recently it has been able to keep in power due to the "windfall" high world prices for energy. Its social support rests on the notorious "vertical power structure" which is another way of saying intimidation and blackmail of the broad social strata and the handouts that power chips off the oil and gas pie and throws out to the population in crumbs, especially on the eve of elections.[21]

The CPRF cherishes the rule of Joseph Stalin.[22] Zyuganov and the party support social conservatism and voted in favor of the ban on the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors", commonly known as the Russian gay propaganda law.[23][24][25]

2012 presidential campaign

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Main article: Gennady Zyuganov presidential campaign, 2012
 
Zyuganov campaigning on Red Square

In September 2011, Zyuganov again became the CPRF's candidate for the 2012 presidential election. According to Zyuganov, "a gang of folks who cannot do anything in life apart from dollars, profits and mumbling, has humiliated the country" and called for a new international alliance to "counter the aggressive policies of imperialist circles."[citation needed]

In the 2012 Russian presidential election on 4 March 2012, Zyuganov once again came in second place by receiving 17% of the vote.[26]

Political views

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Main article: Political positions of Gennady Zyuganov
 
Zyuganov in the background of Nikolay Kharitonov meeting with Zhang Hanhui in June 2021
 
Zyuganov, Alexey Nechayev and Leonid Slutsky at the "Russia-Africa" parliamentary conference in Moscow on 20 March 2023

According to Zyuganov, Jesus Christ was the first communist, claiming that the Bible may be read through a socialist perspective.[27]

After Russia was sanctioned for systematic doping in the run-up to the 2018 Winter Olympics, Zyuganov proposed sending Russian fans to the Games with a Soviet Victory Banner.[28]

He is considered by Russian scholars as a neo-Eurasianist.[29]

In August 2022, Zyuganov declared that the reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was a leader whose rule brought "absolute sadness, misfortune and problems [for] all the peoples of our country".[30]

Ukraine

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Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the CPRF published a statement in support of the invasion and accused NATO of planning "to enslave Ukraine" and thus creating "critical threats to the security of Russia". It called for the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine.[31]

The party officially supported the state-promoted narrative that Ukraine is governed by Ukrainian Banderites and "neo-Nazis", who have been allegedly perpetrating genocide against Russian speakers of the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, and liberating Russian forces.[32][33] The CPRF also accused the United States and NATO of deploying European fascist sympathizers and Middle Eastern terrorists to Ukraine to fight the Russian army.[34] Two members out of 57 of CPRF's Duma caucus, Vyacheslav Markhayev and Mikhail Matveev, have expressed opposition to the war, although they support the "protection of the people of Donbass".[35]

Some younger members of the CPRF spoke publicly against the war, condemning it as "imperialist" and contrary to Marxist–Leninist principles.[36] In September 2022, Zyuganov called in the State Duma for a general mobilization.[37][38]

Personal life

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His wife, Nadezhda Zyuganova (née Amelicheva) graduated from History Department of Oryol Pedagogical Institute. They have two children: Andrey (1968) and Tatyana (1974).[39][40] They have seven grandsons and one granddaughter.[41]

Sanctions

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In February 2022, Zyuganov, who voted for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, was placed on the sanctions list by the United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union.[42][43][44][45][46]

Electoral history

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Main article: Electoral history of Gennady Zyuganov

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Зюганов Геннадий Андреевич". Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  2. ^ Зюганов получил от Путина манифест Archived 2020-11-29 at the Wayback Machine Новости Владивостока
  3. ^ Марина Озерова. (10 August 2012). "Геннадий Зюганов: "Наша власть к сложной политике не готова"". «Московский комсомолец» № 26011. Archived from the original on 17 April 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  4. ^ "КПРФ Тула — Коммунисты провели стол по поддержке пчеловодства, на котором выступил Г. А. Зюганов. Фоторепортаж". Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  5. ^ a b Выпускники КВН: от Зюганова до Пельша Archived 2017-08-09 at the Wayback Machine // РИА Новости, 07.11.2008
  6. ^ "Зюганов, Геннадий Андреевич".
  7. ^ a b Rothkopf, David (3 March 2009). Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 268. ISBN 978-0374531614. Archived from the original on 1 August 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  8. ^ "Russian Elections: An Oxymoron of Democracy" (PDF). CALTECH/MIT VOTING TECHNOLOGY PROJECT. March 2008. pp. 2–7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016.
  9. ^ M. Steven Fish (2005). Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 33. ISBN 9781139446853.
  10. ^ Shuster, Simon (24 February 2012). "Rewriting Russian History: Did Boris Yeltsin Steal the 1996 Presidential Election?". Time. Archived from the original on 21 November 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  11. ^ Russian Communist leader denounces Putin for US alliance. Archived 21 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Press service of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (23 September 2003). "Зюганов потребовал оштрафовать Путина за попрание закона" [Zyuganov demanded that Putin be fined for violating the law]. Sovetskaya Rossiya № 106 (12449). Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  13. ^ Сергей Яковлев. Путина прервали 10 раз. Gazeta, (22 September 2003)
  14. ^ "Зюганову запретили жаловаться на Путина" [Zyuganov was banned from complaining about Putin]. Pravda.ru. 14 November 2003. Archived from the original on 17 April 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  15. ^ "Medvedev 'to continue Putin work'". BBC News. 3 March 2008. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
  16. ^ "Putin gives Communist leader surprise birthday gift" Archived 22 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine, AFP, 29 June 2009.
  17. ^ "Communists lay carnations for Stalin". Agence France-Presse. 22 December 2010. Archived from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
  18. ^ "Putin plan disastrous, opponents say". Agence France-Presse. 21 April 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2011.[dead link‍]
  19. ^ a b David M. Herszenhorn (20 December 2011). "Where Communists See an Opening, Many Russians See a Closed Door". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 December 2011. Retrieved 22 December 2011. He, [Gennadi A. Zyuganov], has joined in popular protests against Mr. Putin's government, while seeking to block the rise of the liberal reformers leading those rallies by denouncing them as a subversive threat to Russia's future.
  20. ^ "Kremlin has plan B for poll run-off". Financial Times. 9 February 2012. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  21. ^ Political Report of the CPRF Central Committee to the 13th Party Congress Archived 14 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, by G.Zyuganov, 29 November 2008.
  22. ^ "Зюганов отреагировал на слова генсека НАТО о Сталине". 4 April 2019. Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  23. ^ "В КПРФ предложили арестовывать совершивших каминг-аут гомосексуалистов". 23 October 2015. Archived from the original on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  24. ^ Antonova, Natalia (29 January 2014). "Russian State Duma: 'Possessed printer' or executor of the people's will?". themoscownews.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014.
  25. ^ "Russian MPs vote overwhelmingly to outlaw gay 'propaganda'". EuroNews. 11 June 2013. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  26. ^ "Результаты выборов президента-2012: Владимир Путин набирает около 64% Источник" [2012 presidential election results: Vladimir Putin gains about 64%]. sebesednik.ru (in Russian). 5 March 2012. Archived from the original on 12 January 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  27. ^ (in Russian) Christian Orthodox Communism in the Fascist Russia: who stands behind the back of Putin. "Argument". 25 July 2014
  28. ^ "Зюганов предложил отправить на Олимпиаду болельщиков со знаменем Победы". mk.ru (in Russian). 30 January 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  29. ^ Richmond, Yale (2008). From Nyet to Da: Understanding the New Russia. Boston: Intercultural Press.
  30. ^ "Praise and Blame: How Russia Reacted to the Death of Gorbachev". The Moscow Times. 31 August 2022.
  31. ^ "The People of Ukraine Must Not Be a Victim of World Capital and Oligarchic Clans. Statement of the CPRF CC Presidium – Communist Party of the Russian Federation". Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  32. ^ "Новые акты нацистского террора на Украине". Kprf.ru. 6 March 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  33. ^ Зюганов Геннадий Андреевич (4 March 2022). "Г.А. Зюганов: Нет фашизму на нашей земле!". Kprf.ru. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  34. ^ Зюганов Геннадий Андреевич (5 March 2022). "Фашисты из Европы и террористы с Ближнего Востока поддерживают нацистов-бандеровцев. Заявление Председателя ЦК КПРФ Г.А. Зюганова". Kprf.ru. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  35. ^ "Third member of Derzhavna Duma condemns the war against Ukraine". Ukrayinska Pravda. 26 February 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  36. ^ "'Defending the Donbas is one thing. Bombing Kyiv is another'. Russia's Communist Party officially supports the war against Ukraine. But its younger members are speaking out". Meduza. 10 June 2022.
  37. ^ Cuesta, Javier G. (15 September 2022). "Putin's entourage demands 'full mobilization' for the war in Ukraine". EL PAÍS English Edition. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  38. ^ ""It's a war, not a special operation. We need mobilization," Russian Communist Party leader says". The Insider (in Russian). Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  39. ^ "Зюганов Геннадий Андреевич" [Zyuganov Gennady Andreevich]. vesti.ru (in Russian). 2 October 2009. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  40. ^ "Biography of Gennady Zyuganov and children". Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  41. ^ "Зюганов Геннадий Андреевич" [Zyuganov Gennady Andreevich] (in Russian). Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Archived from the original on 17 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  42. ^ Flatley, Daniel; Follain, John; Morales, Alex (31 March 2022) [28 February 2022]. "The Sanctions Imposed So Far on Russia From the U.S., EU and U.K." Bloomberg. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  43. ^ From: Global Affairs Canada (24 February 2022). "Canada imposes additional economic measures on Russia in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine". Canada.ca. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  44. ^ "Autonomous Sanctions (Designated Persons and Entities and Declared Persons—Ukraine) Amendment (No. 4) Instrument 2022". Legislation.gov.au. 25 February 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  45. ^ "Gennady Zyuganov and Viktor Vekselberg are sanctioned by Japan". En.newizv.ru. 15 March 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  46. ^ Office of Foreign Assets Control. "Notice of OFAC Sanctions Actions" published 17 March 2022. 87 FR 15305
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Honorary titles
Preceded by First Secretary of the Central Committee of the
Union of Communist Parties
2001–present 		Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by First Secretary of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
1993–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by Communist Party presidential candidate
1996 (2 rnd), 2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Communist Party presidential candidate
2008, 2012 		Succeeded by
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