For the Liberal Democratic Party, the 2022 regional elections will be the most difficult in many years

Regional elections will show whether the LDPR can exist without its leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died in April 2022. It was he who led the LDPR party lists in elections at all levels during past campaigns. His image, quotations, etc. helped the propaganda machine of the party. Now Zhirinovsky at the head of the lists has been replaced by other party members, with a lower rank.

The campaign has also changed a lot, says State Duma deputy, head of the central office of the Liberal Democratic Party Alexei Didenko: “We [теперь] we cannot use images or video sequences with Zhirinovsky. In order to use his quotes, we must accompany each one in small print, when it was said and in what media. That is, due to severe restrictions, the Liberal Democratic Party is forced to use the “legacy of Zhirinovsky” not so actively, complains Didenko.

The lists are now headed by regional leaders and deputies of various levels, who in the last elections did not run in the first positions, says Didenko: “Everyone understood that Zhirinovsky would not become a deputy in [какой-нибудь] the village council. The one who followed him was the de facto leader of the list. But it made it easier to use the image of a leader who was a registered candidate.”

Didenko calls these elections “very difficult” because they are the first time they are held without the founder of the Liberal Democratic Party: “It’s difficult, but we still implement the slogan” Zhirinovsky forever “.

Elections of deputies to legislative assemblies are held in six regions, and only in the Saratov region there is no all-regional part of the list. Only in elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnodar Territory, the list is headed by State Duma deputy Yuri Napso. In elections to the legislative assemblies of Sakhalin, the Penza region, North Ossetia and Udmurtia, the lists are headed by regional deputies and coordinators of regional departments. Lists in the city councils of the administrative centers of the party are mainly headed by deputies of the legislative assemblies of the respective regions and coordinators of the regional departments.

The option for the lists to be headed by the new leader of the party and faction, Leonid Slutsky, was not discussed, said an interlocutor close to the State Duma. The LDPR was not sure that he would “pull the ratings” of the party up. Another interlocutor notes that Slutsky became party chairman only in May, before the campaign, so when discussing the course of the elections, it was decided that the lists were headed by locals: “No locomotives, because Zhirinovsky is not there.”

It is unlikely that the first elections without the founder of the party will be a disaster for the LDPR, political scientist Rostislav Turovsky believes: “The party has residual support and a familiar brand, local activists have not fled. By momentum, this year’s campaign may even turn out to be quite good.” Problems with the image and organizational resources will develop gradually, he believes.

Since this year’s elections have a fairly wide geography, the results of the Liberal Democratic Party will be very “uneven”, says political scientist Vladimir Slatinov. “The Zhirinovsky factor played a role in mobilizing supporters,” he says. According to the expert, “patriotic exaltation from the SVO” plays in favor of the “party of power”, and the proportion of “angry patriots” who are ready to vote for the Liberal Democratic Party is still difficult to assess.

“But the party’s performance will be higher where its regional branches and leaders are stronger and where the LDPR brand is used by local elite groups, such as in Kirov,” Slatinov said. According to his forecast, the result of the game will be about 6-7%.