The KPRF has long been a risible marionette of Putin's autocracy. If it shows a glimmer of independence, or, worse still, if one of its candidates wins an election for a seat earmarked for Edinaya Rossiya, it gets stamped on. The RKRP, which is outside the 'system', takes much more recognisably communist positions. Unsurprisingly, its actions tend to be broken up by the police with the usual brutality.