"I will ask the July congress not to reelect me to the post - I want to clear the way for the party's renewal, to clear the way for the young," Kuptsov told RIA Novosti on Monday.
He said he would like Ivan Melnikov, 53, or Vladimir Kashin, 56, to be his successors as No. 2 leaders. Incumbent leader Gennady Zyuganov, 60, he believes, will remain the supreme leader.
"I think Gennady Andreevich will win a confident victory. I feel the party and it's line-up... The atmosphere around his leadership is artificial," a KPRF patriarch said.
Despite Zyuganov's pension age he looks young to Kuptsov.
"I am 66. Zyuganov is 60... We are in various age groups," Kuptsov said cheerfully.
The letter by the six members of the Central Committee who demand that the KPRF leader resign and hold him responsible for the failure at the elections and contacts with oligarchs, Kuptsov believes, will not be on the official agenda of the congress, though will somehow "pop up" at discussions.
