Lenin’s preserved body has been on public display in the Mausoleum on Red Square for over 90 years despite numerous calls for his proper burial. His interment remains an issue of heated debate since the time of Perestroika.

Speaking at a TASS press conference on Monday, Zyuganov said the decision to embalm Lenin in 1924 was endorsed by the supreme government body, the Congress, and confirmed by all federal Russian subjects. "This decision is in line with global and Orthodox practice."

"Today there is about a hundred burials of Mausoleum type on the planet," Zyuganov said, giving as an example the tomb of the 16th US President Abraham Lincoln.