JRL NEWSWATCH: “Lenin would be baffled: Russia’s once-tame Communist Party is becoming an opposition force: The Kremlin and the party’s own leader are worried” – The Economist
“… many Russian democrats, desperate to get Yeltsin’s successor [Putin] out of the Kremlin, find themselves voting for the Communists. … aware of the irony. … With nearly all forms of politics banned and [] Navalny behind bars, the Communist Party … [has benefited the most from Navalny’s] ‘smart voting’ strategy. … Had … votes been counted honestly in parliamentary elections … the Communists would have got roughly the same number as [Putin’s ruling party] ….
[The communists include] young politicians … [with some positions reminiscent of] a European-style social democratic party. … The Kremlin is … directing Soviet-style repression against [them], … trying to paint them as Stalinists. … [despite their] standing up for human rights, [e.g., by] demanding investigations into reported [Russian prison] torture …. [] Putin’s Russia is indeed a looking-glass world.”