Federal guests began to visit Khakassia

Supporters of the main candidates for the head of Khakassia – Sergei Sokol (State Duma deputy from United Russia) and Valentin Konovalov (governor from the Communist Party) – began to show them “federal support”. For example, State Duma deputy Vladimir Kashin, Gennady Zyuganov’s deputy in the party and head of the agrarian committee in the lower house, came to Abakan last week on a working trip. Before that, deputies from the Communist Party Viktor Sobolev, Anzhelika Glazkova, Kazbek Taysaev, Nikolai Kharitonov, Sergey Kazankov visited Khakassia. In the near future, Nina Ostanina, Yuri Afonin, Leonid Kalashnikov will go.

Deputies of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation visit Khakassia to report on their work in the State Duma and support the projects of the government of Khakassia, Afonin told Vedomosti: “The government of Khakassia has a development strategy for the next five years, we support it.” These trips are connected not only with the elections, they are in general such a lively work, he says. According to him, in one of the polls, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was interested in how the inhabitants of the region relate to the “constructive connection – the governor Konovalov and the deputy from the Sokol region.”

Trips of deputies and senators to pre-election regions are a common practice, it’s just that, as a rule, it is not used on such a scale, says Mikhail Vinogradov, president of the Petersburg Politics Foundation: “Traditionally, there are two options – either to hold a large pre-election event, or to send high-status people” .

In total, more than two dozen federal parliamentarians may come to Khakassia by the end of September, four Vedomosti sources said. According to one of them, among the tasks of United Russia is an assessment of the work of the executive branch, which has been “ruled by the Communists” for five years now, an assessment of the level of provision of state employees (complaints about this periodically pop up in regional and federal media). For example, on August 17, Sokol reported that he had “about 300 requests from our teachers to reduce wages” in the region. He also criticized the stimulating allowances in the health care of the region.

The work of federal parliamentarians in the region intensified after the visits of the head of the presidential department for ensuring the activities of the State Council Alexander Kharichev (the media reported on his visit to the region on August 4) and Secretary of the United Russia General Council, First Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Andrey Turchak. Turchak was last in Khakassia on August 18.

Senator Alexander Karelin came to the region with Turchak, local media wrote that he visited the republic at the invitation of Sokol. Before that, Andrey Isaev, deputy and deputy chairman of the FNPR, came to the region, with whom Sokol met with representatives of trade unions. State Duma deputy Svetlana Razvorotneva also came to the region, who, together with Sokol, met with the “labor team” of one of the regional enterprises, where she criticized the high tariffs for the electric power industry and the debts of the utility complex to the electric power industry.

Deputies and senators, according to one of the interlocutors of Vedomosti, will disperse in the republic to all cities and villages, where they will meet with citizens from different social groups. Most likely, they will stay in Khakassia until the end of September. Among those who can visit the republic during the campaign, another source names State Duma deputies Nikolai Valuev, Yevgeny Popov, Alexander Mazhuga and other well-known parliamentarians.

Kharichev, during a visit to the region, said that the elections in the Russian Federation this year are being held “correctly, competitively,” only Khakassia raised questions in him. “I am very concerned about what is happening here with the elections. What is happening in the information field is so much dirt, I would say slanderous information,” the official said (quote from Pulse of Khakassia).

In Khakassia, Sergei Perminov, deputy secretary of the General Council of United Russia, states that a highly competitive campaign is underway, when each side does its best to achieve victory. “There is little time left before the elections to win the trust of the voters. On our part, there is an honest, open game, and on the part of competitors, there is an obvious administrative campaign,” says Perminov.

He confirms that State Duma deputies and senators will visit the region in order to assist the United Russia candidate.

In addition to Sokol and Konovalov, the deputy of the Supreme Council of Khakassia from the LDPR Mikhail Molchanov and the candidate from the Communists of Russia Vladimir Grudinin also participate in the elections. All candidates participate in the debate, which is now taking place on television.

In 2018, Konovalov, who had just become the first secretary of the Communist Party Republican Committee, was, in fact, a technical candidate put up against the current head of the region, United Russia Viktor Zimin. In the first round, Konovalov received 45% of the vote, Zimin – 32%. A few days before the second round, United Russia, and after it the rest of the candidates, withdrew from the elections. And only Konovalov participated in the re-elections. For his victory, it was necessary that he scored more than 50% of the votes of the voters who participated in the voting. As a result, 58% voted for him.

That year, government candidates lost in the first round in three more regions – also in the Vladimir region (Vladimir Sipyagin from the Liberal Democratic Party won there, he moved to the State Duma ahead of schedule), in the Khabarovsk Territory (Sergey Furgal from the Liberal Democratic Party won there, in 2020 he was arrested for organizing murders in the 2000s), as well as in Primorye.

In Primorye, the government’s candidate Andrey Tarasenko failed to win the elections in the first round against his rival, the Communist Party candidate Andrey Ishchenko. After the second round, the election committee of Primorsky Krai, on the recommendation of the Central Election Commission, canceled the election results, explaining them as “significant violations.” Repeated elections in the region then took place on December 16, but with new candidates (there were no communists among them), and the Far Eastern old-timer politician Oleg Kozhemyako was elected head of the region.

A similar scenario in Khakassia is seen as extreme, Vedomosti sources say. One of them draws attention to the fact that the mayor of Abakan Alexei Lemin, who heads the Abakan branch of United Russia, studied at the fifth stream of the “school of governors”.

Now the parties have come together in a complex campaign, each is trying to use maximum resources to win, says Rostislav Turovsky, vice president of the Center for Political Technologies: “The trips of deputies to the regions have been traditional since the 1990s. tactics. But in recent years it has only been used in really competitive campaigns. Khakassia turned out to be such an example.” But it is much more important for candidates to participate in the elections in person, he says.

Now there is a “measurement of forces, testing of technologies,” says political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko: “And we see that both United Russia and the communists in the region are very resistant.” According to him, a strong debate campaign can be noted. According to him, “Sokol has won three out of five duels, and today one is devastating.” “Opponents are constantly changing tactics, finding some new moves,” Minchenko notes. At the same time, the fact that he is the current leader of the region sometimes plays a minus for Konovalov, the expert says.

“The conservative behavior of voters in the current period works for the nominee from the Communist Party, since he is the current governor – people see this as the preservation of stability and familiar life,” says Konstantin Kostin, head of the Civil Society Development Fund. At the same time, the last two weeks before the elections are crucial for the situational electorate to decide who they vote for, the expert says: “If he joins Sokol, then there is a high probability of a second round. And in the second round, it is always more difficult for the current heads of regions.”