Electoral appointment – Newspaper Kommersant No. 204 (7405) dated 02.11.2022

Novosibirsk Governor Andrey Travnikov (United Russia) on Tuesday announced the appointment of Andrey Klyuzov, an experienced political strategist, who was previously responsible for the election campaigns of the heads of neighboring Siberian regions – Altai Territory, the Republic of Altai and the Tomsk Region, as his deputy for domestic policy. Experts agree that in this way, Mr. Travnikov began preparations for the extension of his powers, which expire in 2023. However, the governor’s press service is in no hurry to announce such plans.

Andrey Travnikov announced personnel changes in the leadership of the Novosibirsk Region at an operational meeting on November 1. According to his press service, Andrei Klyuzov, a native of the Altai Territory, has been appointed to the post of Deputy Chairman of the Regional Government – Minister of Regional Policy. Igor Yakovlev, who previously held this post, will continue to work in the status of vice-governor.

The governor did not explain the reason for appointing a new minister. According to a biographical note on the website of United Russia (ER), in 2012-2013, Mr. Klyuzov headed the department of electoral technologies of the central executive committee of the party, and in 2015-2016, the UR department for work in the Siberian Federal District (SFD). In the elections to the State Duma in 2016, he helped United Russia in “competitive districts.” The press service of the Novosibirsk government notes that since 2018, the party member has been “supporting election campaigns” of governors, deputies of the State Duma and regional parliaments, including in 2020-2021 he worked in the Novosibirsk region.

Andrey Travnikov is one of the current regional leaders, whose powers expire in September 2023 (there are 21 in total). As previously reported by Kommersant, several governors have already announced that they plan to be re-elected for a new term (see Kommersant of August 22). For example, such plans were announced by the head of Khakassia Valentin Konovalov (KPRF), the governor of the Oryol region Andrei Klychkov (KPRF), the governor of the Omsk region Alexander Burkov (“A Just Russia – For Truth”), the governor of the Voronezh region Alexander Gusev (ER). Mr. Travnikov has not yet publicly spoken about his desire to run for a second term, however, experts interviewed by Kommersant are unanimous in their opinion that political strategist Andrei Klyuzov has been appointed to the regional government with an eye to the 2023 elections.

“There were no big victories, but there were no big failures either: the state is low-dynamic, but ensures stability,” political scientist Alexei Osipov described the first term of the Novosibirsk governor. In his opinion, Mr. Travnikov “probably had some thoughts about moving vertically, but now it seems that it is not necessary to talk about this.” “So the decision (to run for a second term.— “b”) is quite natural,” he said.

Political technologist Konstantin Lukin told Kommersant that Andrei Klyuzov was previously responsible for electing United Russia governors in other regions of the Siberian Federal District: Viktor Tomenko in the Altai Territory (2018, won 53.6% of the vote), Oleg Khorokhordin in the Altai Republic (2019- th, 58.8%) and Vladimir Mazur – in the Tomsk region (2022, 84.9%). “All campaigns were successful,” the expert stressed. Recall that Andrei Travnikov himself won 64.5% of the vote in the elections in 2018.

In the Siberian branches of United Russia, the work of the new Minister for Domestic Policy of the Novosibirsk Region is complimentary. “You can evaluate the course of their conduct in different ways, but the results of both the 2017 municipal campaign and the 2018 gubernatorial election were positive for our party,” Denis Goloborodko, a member of the presidium of the EP’s Altai regional cell, told Kommersant, adding that Mr. Klyuzov “possesses extensive experience in technological work and professionally performs the assigned tasks, regardless of external factors.”

The press service of the United Russia branch in the Altai Republic highly appreciated Mr. Klyuzov’s ability to “build a technological process”, which helped United Russia not only win the gubernatorial race, but also take the majority of seats in the State Assembly in parallel. And the acting secretary of the Tomsk regional branch of United Russia, Senator Vladimir Kravchenko, stressed that the recent result of Vladimir Mazur was a record for the region. “Such indicators speak of the ability to organize the process even in a politically difficult region,” he concluded.

Sergey Neshumov, head of the Information Policy Department of the Administration of the Governor and the Government of the Novosibirsk Region, promised to provide Andrey Travnikov’s commentary on plans for a second term at a later date. It was not possible to contact Mr. Klyuzov “Kommersant” on Tuesday.

Valery Lavsky, Novosibirsk