Moscow, Pushkin Square, September 25, 2021. A few days earlier, the election to the eighth State Duma had ended. United Russia won 324 of 450 seats, while the CPRF received 57 mandates.
After the results were announced, activists and CPRF members unhappy with the outcome gathered in the center of the capital. As Novaya Gazeta reported, about 1,000 people came to the rally. The protest had not been approved by the authorities; police surrounded the square and repeatedly ordered participants through loudspeakers to disperse.
Those addressing the crowd included Valery Rashkin, first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPRF, and Denis Parfyonov, a deputy of the seventh State Duma.
According to Parfyonov, the gathering was supposed to celebrate the communists’ victory in the election, but instead party supporters were forced to protest because, he said, their “honestly won victory” had been taken away through electronic voting. He also argued that there had already been many violations and that remote voting became their climax and changed the course of the election.
While some communists were protesting on Pushkin Square, CPRF Central Committee chairman Gennady Zyuganov was taking part in a video conference with Vladimir Putin. Leaders of all parties that had secured any representation in the new State Duma were invited to that meeting.
During the discussion, Zyuganov quoted Yuri Gagarin, spoke about depopulation, called for narrowing the gap between rich and poor, and mentioned forestry, water, and land codes developed within the party. He also condemned Western sanctions, shared his views on rural development, and suggested that Putin watch a film about Russian sport.