Communist paper seized on first day of Russia campaign

Russian police on Saturday impounded a truck full of Communist Party literature without explanation as the country officially kicked off its campaign for December 4 parliamentary polls. The State Duma elections are expected to return Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia to power for the third time running and leave the Communist Party trailing in distant second place. But Kremlin officials fear that growing discontent with political cronyism and corruption may dampen voter turnout and keep United Russia from securing the super-majority it holds today. That in turn could spoil the mood around Putin's expected return to the Kremlin in March elections in which he swaps jobs with President Dmitry Medvedev and potentially keeps power for another 12 years. The Communist Party has never won more than a quarter of the vote in any Duma election and is now targeting a performance of about 15 percent. Its hopes have historically rested on support from the struggling central regions of industrial Russia such as Tula -- once a famed tsarist fortress 190 kilometres (120 miles) south of Moscow. A local Communist Party official told the Interfax news agency that police had intercepted a truck travelling from the city with 84,000 copies of a left-wing newspaper detailing the group's electoral platform. "I think they are looking for an excuse to exclude us from these elections," the Communist Party official said. Local police officials confirmed the incident but gave conflicting accounts as to why the Communist Party paper was seized. Tula police spokesman Andrei Yartsev said the party was suspected of making false accusations against one of its chief rivals -- an unambiguous reference to United Russia. "We have confiscated all the print material as part of an investigation," Yartsev told Interfax. Another official said the very idea of Communist Party literature being trucked into the region seemed illegal. "We are now studying whether the Communists had the right to bring in this literature," the unnamed local official said. The party's leaders meanwhile encountered their own problems as they gathered under an old statue of Lenin in central Moscow for an impromptu meeting with about 150 potential voters. Party boss Gennady Zyuagonov -- a gruff 67-year-old who was soundly beaten in three past presidential polls -- said the event had to be halted within minutes when a group of machine-gun toting policemen rushed to the scene. "They accused us of staging a demonstration. This was no demonstration -- we are handing out literature and material to all our country's citizens," Zyuganov said in a statement. "We have a campaign on. All the parties do this. In the end, United Russia does this every day," he said. Saturday marked the formal start of the month-long campaign season -- an occasion that allows parties to start using up the one hour of free air time they get on each of the main television channels and radio stations. Each of the seven registered parties are also allowed to use their own funds to publish advertisements in the press. Analysts believe this free airtime and extra publicity is unlikely to level the playing field in a media that devotes faithful daily coverage to the meetings attended by Putin and other top United Russia officials.