Russian Communist Party representative "challenges" President Putin in election
Unexpectedly trusted to be the party's candidate for the Russian presidential election, the Communist Party representative in this year's race to the Kremlin is considered a potential candidate to compete with current President Vladimir Putin.
 |
| Pavel Grudinin rose from an ordinary strawberry farmer to the position of presidential candidate of the Russian Communist Party (Photo: Fort Russ) |
As the Russian election enters its climax, a presidential candidate has emerged as a prominent figure on YouTube, the global video sharing site. As a frequent critic of the policies of current President Vladimir Putin on YouTube, this candidate represents a group of millions of voters who are dissatisfied with the current owner of the Kremlin.
President Putin, an independent candidate, is receiving overwhelming support and is likely to continue to win the Russian election on March 18 before starting his fourth term. However, there is one candidate who is expected to surpass all the remaining competitors to finish in second place. That is Pavel Grudinin.
In a surprise move, Pavel Grudinin, 57, was chosen by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation as its candidate to run for the Kremlin this year, replacing Gennady Zyuganov, the 73-year-old leader of the party and a four-time runner-up in the Russian presidential elections.
As director of the Lenin Collective Farm on the outskirts of Moscow, Mr. Grudinin transformed a former state-owned production farm into a thriving enterprise. According toWashington Post, which is also a testament to the socialist system that Mr. Grudinin wants to bring back to Russia today.
Like Alexei Navalny, the 41-year-old anti-corruption activist who was disqualified from the election race by Russia's Central Election Commission last month, Pavel Grudinin is a candidate who is appealing to a segment of Russians who want a change in the Russian government after 18 years of President Putin's rule.
In widely viewed videos, Mr. Grudinin publicly denounced President Putin’s trust in people “who everyone knows should have been in jail a long time ago.” He also promised to recover billions of dollars from offshore accounts held by Russia’s “elite.”
New Face
 |
| Mr. Pavel Grudinin speaks |
Like Mr. Navalny, Mr. Grudinin has also taken an interest in Russian nationalists. Both oppose economic immigration from Central Asia to Russia and are frustrated that Russians are not as well off as those in Western countries.
“I think the Russians should be living better than the people we defeated in the war,” Mr. Grudinin said on a popular television show last month, referring to Germany.
For Russians who still mourn the collapse of the Soviet Union 27 years ago, Mr. Grudinin is also a sympathetic figure. A recent survey showed that 58% of these Russians supported the Communist Party's presidential candidate.
Mr. Grudinin can “show” them what neither Mr. Navalny nor President Putin can: Lenin Sovkhoz, a Soviet-era collective farm that, as Pavel Grudinin claims, he built into a “socialist oasis in the capitalist jungle on the outskirts of Moscow.”
Lenin Sovkhoz supplied fruits and vegetables to high-end supermarkets in Moscow - which served around the clock people willing to pay a lot of money for fresh produce.
Mr. Grudinin, who has said he earns $350,000 a month, said his employees earn about $1,370 a month, more than double the average Russian salary, and also receive subsidies for housing, children’s education, and health care.
In a speech last month, President Putin also pledged to fight corruption, introduce better policies for businesses and spend money to improve Russia's underinvested education and health care systems.
“But making new promises is risky for the president, because it raises the question of what he has been doing for the past 18 years? Meanwhile, Grudinin satisfies the Russian people’s need for promises of a better life,” Russian journalist Andrei Pertsev wrote in a recent analysis for the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Pavel Grudinin is not an official member of the Communist Party of Russia - the largest opposition party in Russia. He was first elected by the Left Front movement on December 1, 2017, after winning the Communist Party primaries.
Previously, Mr. Grudinin was President Putin's representative in the 2000 Russian elections, then was elected to the Russian Duma (the Russian lower house) as a member of the ruling United Russia party in 2007. However, 3 years later, Mr. Grudinin decided to leave the party due to ideological conflicts.
