[R_G]

Interesting topic to bring up.

Gennady Zyuganov lost in the 1st round by a relatively small margin, later losing by a decent point spread in the runoff.

What is interesting to note is the ad campaign that was run by Yeltsin's team.

He was down in the polls by a hell of a lot and only a strong anti-communist campaign touting Zyuganov as Stalin saved Yeltsin.

Looking back, the commies could have won, and then what would have happened???

Scary, ain't it?

[Nattering Nabob]

What is interesting to note is the ad campaign that was run by Yeltsin's team.

He was down in the polls by a hell of a lot and only a strong anti-communist campaign touting Zyuganov as Stalin saved Yeltsin.

Yeltsin was in serious trouble at one time during that election.

He received campaign help in the form of media advertising advice from the Clinton administration.

They showed Yeltsin's campaign how to negatively frame a political opponant for maximum effect.

[pikachu]

Scary, ain't it?

Not at all. The current president of Moldova is a member of the Moldovan Communist Party, which also control the majority of seats in their parliament. So what? Did the end of the world happen when he won?

[peter_co]

Not at all. The current president of Moldova is a member of the Moldovan Communist Party, which also control the majority of seats in their parliament. So what? Did the end of the world happen when he won?

Indeed. You can't really take the "Communist" part of the party name (either in Moldova or in Russia) too seriously. Neither Voronin nor Zyuganov had any interest in actually bringing back any significant elements of the Communist era, they just use the name as a brand to appeal to those nostalgic for the "good old times," especially older voters. It's hard to tell exactly what would have happened if Zyuganov would have one, though I doubt anything would have differed significantly from what actually happened during Yeltsin's administration.

[Thunderhawk]

Was/is Zyuganov a stronger leader then Yeltsin was?

If so, then perhaps he would have stayed in power longer and the political situation and the reaction it caused would have been smaller/non-existant. If so, then Putin would not have come to power. And in that regard I wonder how Russia would be.

[Maxim Litvinov]

Yeltsin basically bought the election. Horrible, corrupt and incompetent politician.

[R_G]

Not at all. The current president of Moldova is a member of the Moldovan Communist Party, which also control the majority of seats in their parliament. So what? Did the end of the world happen when he won?

You really can't compare Molvoda with Russia.

Not a knock on the country but, it's like comparing Belgium to Germany.

Russia has a much larger global role, bigger economy, more natural resources.

My memory is a bit hazy but doesn't Moldova have the 2nd worst GDP Per Capita in Europe?