The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was banned by Yeltsin in 1991, and remained illegal for about a year. Hardcore Communists, who still believed in the ideology, formed the Communist party of Russian Federation as well as a few smaller parties and fractions.
Technically, it makes Putin and the other rulers past members of an illegal far-left political entity as per Nov 6, 1991. There are no records of their Communist allegiance after that date.
Boris Yeltsin, his team and other Communists who eyed new, bigger opportunities in the Capitalist Russia, threw out their membership cards and went on building their new careers. Some of them, like President Putin and his friends, ultimately became the super rich rulers of the modern Russian state-oligarchical system.
Here’s an abridged list of top politicians, bureaucrats and managers in today’s Russia who were card-carrying Party members under Soviet rule.
- President Putin, member of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) since 1975.
- Valentina Matviyenko, head of the upper chamber of Russian parliament: member of the CPSU since 1972.
- Sergey Naryshkin, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service: member of the CPSU since 1976.
- Dmitry Medvedev, PM: member of the CPSU since 1986
- Sergey Shoygu, defense minister: member of the CPSU since 1979.
- Sergey Lavrov, foreign minister: member of the CPSU since 1972.
- Sergey Sobyanin, mayor of Moscow: member of the CPSU since 1986.
- Alexander Bortnikov, FSB chief: member of the CPSU since 1975.
- Yury Chaika, Putin’s chief prosecutor: member of the CPSU since 1976.
- Igor Sechin, Putin’s oil czar: member of the CPSU since 1990.
- Anatoly Chubais, Putin’s innovation czar: member of the CPSU since 1980.
- Anton Siluanov, Putin’s economy czar: member of the CPSU since 1989.
- Vyacheslav Volodin, Putin’s former spin master, now chairman in the lower chamber of Duma: member of the CPSU since 1985.
- Vladislav Surkov, Putin’s special envoy in charge of Ukraine, former spin master: member of the CPSU since 1985.
- Tatyana Golikova, Putin’s chief auditor: member of the CPSU since 1986.
- Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court: member of the CPSU since 1970.