RUSSIAN COMMUNISTS READY TO ATTEMPT BREAKING INTO TV
STUDIO
MOSCOW, 5 October 2002. -

Russian Communists claiming they are silenced intend to follow the example set by their Ukrainian comrades and will air their views by breaking into a TV broadcasting studio.
The direct action plans come after a successful coup by a collective of opposition government officials in the Ukraine where they gained access to the national television station and aired their alternative opinions.
Leader of the KPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), Gennady Zyuganov, told journalists after the end of a closed meeting of the KPSS (Union of Communist Parties) Political Council held in Moscow: "The left forces are going to step up their activity and avail themselves of their Ukrainian colleagues' experience". Zyuganov said the Communists would set the mass media as the main target of their resolute actions.
"We are given no opportunity to speak out in live TV broadcasts, we are entitled, as State Duma deputies, to come straight to a TV studio and demand we be given a chance to put our message across," claimed the KPRF leader.
"There is nothing illegal about it," he . added.
Zyuganov did not specify which channels had denied him or other KPRF leaders an opportunity to go on the air, nor when such incidents had taken place.
Leader of the Ukrainian Communists, Pyotr Simonenko, whose said his main objective is to change the country's political system through forcing President Leonid Kuchma and his entourage to step down, was part of a collective that blocked broadcasting on Ukraine‘s first national TV channel UT 1.
Alongside Alexander Moroz, Chairman of the Socialist Party and Ylia Timoshenko, leader of the political bloc bearing her name, they were granted unrestricted access after arriving unannounced to the channels‘ studio on the strength of their MP status. The opposition leaders agreed to leave the studio after they were allowed on air.
Russian Zyuganov also said representatives from all Soviet states have been invited to attend the left-wing parties congress of the peoples of Russia and Belarus in Minsk this December. The decision on holding the congress was made at the closed meeting of the KPSS (Union of Communist Parties) Political Council.
Representatives of the Communist Parties of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, South Ossetia and Georgia attended the meeting.
Commenting on the results of the meeting, Zyuganov told journalists that the forthcoming congress "would contribute to further integration of the peoples of Russia and Belarus and help establish peaceful relations among the peoples of the former Soviet Union".
In addition, participants of the meeting adopted a separate resolution on the situation around Iraq whereby they demanded that "no steps should be taken to facilitate unleashing a new war between the USA and Iraq", the war which, in their opinion, "would develop into a world war."