Former head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin may become a senator from the Zaporozhye region

This week, new constituent entities of the Russian Federation will decide on key personnel appointments. In addition to the official approval of the current acting governors, speakers of regional parliaments and representatives of territories in the Federation Council are expected to be appointed. One of the senators could be the former head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, who, according to Kommersant’s sources, will probably be delegated to the upper house by the head of the Zaporozhye region, Evgeny Balitsky. Also, the status of senator from the Legislative Assembly of the Kherson region will most likely be given to the current State Duma deputy Igor Kastyukevich, whose application for early resignation will be considered by the lower house on Tuesday.

According to an informed Kommersant source familiar with the situation, on September 21, the newly elected parliaments of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions will hold their first meetings, at which issues of vesting powers in the heads of the four regions may be considered ( all governors will be reappointed and will get rid of the prefix “acting”), as well as the appointment of speakers of legislative assemblies and senators. Another Kommersant interlocutor says that the meetings will be held on the 20th of September, but does not confirm the fact that the entire package of personnel issues will be considered at them.

According to a Kommersant source in the Russian Presidential Administration and a Kommersant interlocutor close to the leadership of the Zaporozhye region, the ex-head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin may become the representative of the Zaporozhye governor Yevgeny Balitsky in the Federation Council. His possible appointment to work related to new regions has been discussed for quite some time. Thus, some media reported that the politician was being considered for the position of plenipotentiary representative of the new federal district, which was supposed to unite the annexed entities in the fall of 2022, but such a district has not yet been created. Since the fall of 2022, Dmitry Rogozin, according to him, has been spending a lot of time in the special operation zone as the head of the Tsar’s Wolves group of military advisers.

Kommersant was unable to obtain a comment from Mr. Rogozin. A source in his circle tried to convey Kommersant’s request to him, but the politician, according to Kommersant’s interlocutor, was “out of reach”: “And this means that, most likely, he is now at the front.”

Let us remind youthat Dmitry Rogozin began his political career in the late 1980s, having worked in the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR.

In 1997, he was first elected to the State Duma in a single-mandate constituency in the Voronezh region, was re-elected for a new term in 1999 and 2003, and headed the Duma Committee on International Affairs. In the fall of 2003, Mr. Rogozin became co-chairman of the new electoral bloc “Rodina”, and then headed the party of the same name created on its basis. In 2008, deputy Rogozin moved to work in the executive branch: until 2011, he served as the permanent representative of the Russian Federation to NATO, and from December 2011 to May 2018, he served as deputy chairman of the Russian government, in charge of the defense industry. Finally, in 2018, Dmitry Rogozin was appointed general director of the Roscosmos state corporation and held this post until July 2022.

The rest of the leadership positions in the new regions are mainly being contested by politicians who are not so well known at the federal level.

Thus, the speaker of the People’s Council (NS) of the DPR, according to two Kommersant sources, could be the deputy secretary of the Donetsk branch of United Russia (UR), the head of the central executive committee of the social movement “Donetsk Republic” and an ally of the acting head of the DPR Denis Pushilin Alexey Muratov. True, Kommersant’s interlocutor in the regional leadership stipulates that this is not a final decision yet: according to him, a candidacy for the post of Speaker of the National Assembly is a “real problem.”

45-year-old Mr. Muratov is a native of the Kursk region, a former deputy of the Kurchatov City Duma from United Russia. In 2012, he became one of the activists in the revived MMM financial pyramid of Sergei Mavrodi, and in 2013 he was detained in India on suspicion of fraud. In 2014, together with Andrei Kramar, he called himself “the official representative of the DPR in the Russian Federation.” Later he appeared in the media as a crypto investor and founder of the PRIZM currency. Mr. Kramar now heads the Donetsk cell of the LDPR and was also elected to the National Assembly of the DPR.

The current speaker of the Donetsk parliament, Vladimir Bidevka, lost the United Russia primaries and did not participate in the September elections. The current senator from the legislative branch of the DPR, Alexander Ananchenko, also did not run for the National Assembly. It is still unknown who will take his place. But the representative of the head of the DPR in the Federation Council, the former head of the DPR Foreign Ministry Natalia Nikonorovaaccording to preliminary data, will retain his seat in the upper house.

The speaker of the National Assembly of the LPR will remain its current chairman, secretary of the Lugansk branch of United Russia Denis Miroshnichenko, says a Kommersant source in the republic’s leadership. Also, current senators will most likely retain their posts. Olga Bas (from the Legislative Assembly) and Daria Lantratova (from the head of the republic).

According to a Kommersant source in the regional leadership, the chairman of the regional court may be appointed speaker of the legislative assembly of the Zaporozhye region Roman Batrshin. The 46-year-old native of Engels (Saratov region) began his career as an investigator at the prosecutor’s office in Chita, in 2006 he got a job at the Industrial District Court of Smolensk, and in 2013 he received the position of deputy chairman of the Smolensk regional court. In 2018, he applied for the leadership of the Saratov Regional Court, but the High Qualification Board of Judges rejected his candidacy. In 2019, Mr. Batrshin was recommended by the panel to the Second Court of Cassation, but was not appointed.

However, Kommersant’s source stipulates that this personnel decision is also not final yet. Another Kommersant interlocutor names among the possible candidates for Zaporozhye speakers an adviser to the head of the executive committee of the Popular Front. Vladimir Rogov. At the same time, the current senator from the head of Zaporozhye Konstantin Voronawhose place can be taken by Dmitry Rogozin, will most likely remain in the Federation Council, but as a representative of the legislative assembly.

According to Kommersant sources, he will remain a senator from the executive branch of the Kherson region Konstantin Basyukbut a State Duma deputy can become a representative of the regional parliament in the upper house Igor Kastyukevich (ER). He entered big politics in 2017, heading the ONF Youth, and in 2011–2020 he simultaneously served as executive director of the National Aikido Council of Russia, the chairman of the presidium of which was the current first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko. Kommersant’s sources consider Mr. Kastyukevich to be a person who enjoys the trust of Mr. Kiriyenko. In 2021, he was elected to the State Duma on the United Russia list, oversaw the Kherson region in the party, and in the 2023 elections he was number two on the United Russia list for this region.

On Friday, Igor Kastyukevich submitted an application to resign as deputy. In his Telegram channel he explained that he “remains working” in the Kherson region, but did not specify in what capacity. The parliamentarian did not answer Kommersant’s calls. Previously “Vedomosti” reported that Mr. Kastyukevich could head the Kherson Regional Duma. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, in this case, the director of the Novokakhovsky bakery may run for the post of senator instead. Elena Dmitrukwhich occupied third place on the United Russia list in the 2023 elections.

Andrey Vinokurov, Andrey Prah