MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) - The Communist Party and its allies in the left-patriotic opposition plan to hold rallies in different parts of Russia in support of the armed forces and military pensioners.
"We will hold rallies everywhere to support pensioners of the army, navy and defense companies," Communist Party deputy leader and Duma Deputy Vladimir Kashin told Interfax on Friday.
Kashin is in charge of protest rallies being planned by the left-wing opposition forces, which include, besides the Communist Party, the Movement for Supporting the Army (DPA), the Union of Soviet Officers and other nongovernmental organizations.
"We cannot put up with the situation when 170,000 military pensioners have a paltry pension below the subsistence minimum. Nor can we put up with the enormous problems being experienced by defense enterprises over a lack of funding and state orders. There are many problems in the army and navy, which are not being tackled at all, or are dealt with poorly," Kashin said.