Ukraine Ends Ban on Communist Political Activity
The leadership of Ukraine’s Parliament has decided to let Communists resume political activity for the first time since 1991, Ukrinform news agency reported Saturday.
It said the parliamentary presidium issued a statement saying: “Ukrainian citizens who share communist ideas can create party organizations on the basis of the law.”
Russia and Ukraine banned the Communist Party after it was heavily implicated in an abortive hard-line Soviet coup in 1991. Russia’s ban was lifted under a court ruling last year.
Both countries also confiscated the party’s vast property holdings after the coup attempt and Communists have not been allowed to reclaim them.
Ukrainian Communists said Parliament’s move did not go far enough because it did not reject the 1991 ban as unconstitutional.
“We can’t be satisfied with such a decision,” said Adam Martyniuk, editor of Comrade newspaper and a leader of the Ukrainian Socialist Party.
The party’s 50,000 members are mainly former Communists. It holds 90 seats in the 450-member Parliament.
Martyniuk said Ukrainian prosecutors investigating the possible role of the republic’s Communist Party in the Moscow coup had closed the case for lack of evidence.
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