The Communists' leader, Petro Simonenko, is even more stuck in a Soviet time-warp than his Russian counterpart, Gennady Zyuganov.

ECONOMIST: Ukraine

So when Mr Yeltsin's election campaign looked in danger of floundering, and his Communist challenger, Gennady Zyuganov, was leading him by 20 percentage points in the opinion polls, a group of nervous tycoons made clear they would put up any amount of money and procure any amount of favourable media coverage for Mr Yeltsin.

ECONOMIST: The humbling of Chubais | The

Although their leader, Gennady Zyuganov, remains the most popular alternative to Mr Yeltsin, there is no enthusiasm for a wholesale return to communism.

ECONOMIST: Russia

Tweak the scenery a bit, and Mr Chernomyrdin could conceivably find himself teamed up with the Communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, or his current preferred choice Alexander Lebed, a popular former general.

ECONOMIST: Viktor Chernomyrdin, student of survival | The