LDPR nominated Vice Speaker of the State Duma Boris Chernyshov as candidate for mayor of Moscow

On Wednesday, the Moscow branch of the Liberal Democratic Party nominated State Duma Vice Speaker Boris Chernyshov as a candidate for the autumn mayoral elections in Moscow. The delegates of the pre-election conference held in Filevsky Park supported his candidacy by an overwhelming majority of votes. The chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, approved the choice of associates and stressed that the party nominee will not only have to increase his personal rating, but also improve the party’s electoral indicators in Moscow as a whole.

The conference of the metropolitan branch of the LDPR was held in Filevsky Park in the west of Moscow: this is how the party members, according to them, demonstrated their openness to a potential voter and Muscovites in general. Numerous party banners fluttered in the alley leading to the summer open stages from early morning, under which, closer to the beginning of the event, members of the LDPR youth cell lined up. “Be sure to go to the stage, Boris Chernyshov will perform there!” they promised the strolling citizens. But passers-by did not try to bypass the police inspection and the frames of metal detectors (they let everyone in, without checking any lists), preferring to listen to the political action a little further away. Neither the exhortations of the volunteers, nor the visible table with tea, cherries and pies helped.

The idyllic picture, supplemented by the sun peeping by the beginning of the meeting, was emphasized in the welcoming speech by the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky. “The weather is beautiful today: Moscow is ready to make an important decision, to elect a candidate for mayor from the best political party of modern Russia,” the politician thundered. “A year has passed since Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky is not with us. It is hard for us, but, following his precepts, for the sake of his memory, for the sake of people in the country living with dignity in this very difficult time, we have strengthened and grown! We have become much larger, we have overcome various party barriers, united shoulder to shoulder today, consolidated in the name of our great victory!”

Mr. Slutsky introduced 31-year-old Boris Chernyshov as a young, outstanding, courageous, daring, highly educated person and, what is especially important, familiar to the youth of Moscow, and indeed to people of all ages. “The task that is worth it is to get a high percentage, to win the support of Muscovites, people who are very critical in nature,” the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party pointed out. “We are sure that Boris will cope with this task, that he will receive the support of Muscovites, that he will solve the problem of the arrival of the Liberal Democratic Party to the Moscow City Duma. The whole party is called upon to help the candidate, because Muscovites will judge the work of the Liberal Democratic Party as a whole by the way he performs in the election campaign, the leader recalled: “This campaign has a landmark character for us. I set the task to achieve qualitatively worthy results. To show that in Russia there is a party that can be relied upon in solving the most difficult tasks. And Muscovites will have to believe it. Believe in Boris Chernyshov. Believe in the Liberal Democratic Party.

The party members themselves seemed to have believed in their candidate long before the conference. The metropolitan activists, who followed the leader, assured the delegates of the effectiveness of Mr. Chernyshov’s political work and especially noted his ability to win over ordinary citizens. The moment when the counting commission stated the absolute victory of Boris Chernyshov in the secret ballot (57 for the nomination, one against), the “warmed up” participants met with a deafening ovation. “What the result will be depends on him first of all, but also on all of us,” Leonid Slutsky reminded once again. “Let’s support Boris Alexandrovich Chernyshov every day, at every event, understanding that the result of September 10 is our result.”

Mr. Chernyshov himself made a very long keynote speech. “I am sure and I know that everyone did not come here for me,” he began. “You came for your own sake. In the same way, I will fight, fight not for myself, but for each of you, for each Muscovite, for each person of word and deed who will work in the great city. The campaign, the candidate recalled, is taking place at a special time when Russia opposes the entire collective West, and under these conditions, the demand for justice, the government’s concern for people, an increase in living standards and much more has increased. The LDPR will talk about this during the campaign, Boris Chernyshov promised. “Certainly, there is a demand for change,” he also noted. “Many people feel this demand more than ever. They ask themselves what has changed in my life for the better during this time, and they cannot find it. Yes, the city has changed, new schools, road junctions, new houses are being built … But people remain lonely, they lack communication with their neighbors, with city officials. And people today do not want to build concrete walls between each other. They want to break down those barriers. And together we have to overcome the pandemic of loneliness and hatred that has swept our city and our country.” Then Mr. Chernyshov switched to more tangible matters and, referring to the policy statements of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said that the interests of the inhabitants of the outskirts of Moscow should come first for the authorities.

These interests, judging by the program briefly presented by the politician, are quite numerous. The attention of the LDPR candidate was paid for parking, the behavior of taxi drivers and couriers on electric bicycles, the provision of pensioners, the condition of basements and entrances, issues of coexistence with migrants, and much more. Mr. Chernyshov promised to deal with these and other “pain points” in Moscow as soon as he became mayor. He sees the current mayor Sergei Sobyanin (nominated for a new term by United Russia) as the only competitor on the way to this goal, while the rest of the candidates, according to the liberal democrat, simply lack political experience.

The politician did not publicly doubt the likelihood of success. “The political situation in Russia opens up an opportunity for us to show a very good result and even win,” says Boris Chernyshov. representative of the ruling party. Taking into account this forecast, the candidate asked the participants of the conference personally (since trust in the media, in his opinion, is declining) to reach out to their acquaintances and tell them about “Boris Chernyshov’s program and the principles of the Liberal Democratic Party.” He promised to include the most active agitators and volunteers among the party’s candidates in the elections to the Moscow City Duma. “I ask the supreme council and the chairman to support this idea,” Mr. Chernyshov said. “The election campaign for the Moscow City Duma has begun right now, here. I ask you to mobilize all your forces and conduct a powerful, bright, uncompromising election campaign in the style of the founder of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky.”

At the end of the conference (the candidate summed it up with the impromptu slogan “Boris is for your dreams, and Chernyshov is for Muscovites”), the deputy admitted to a Kommersant correspondent that, if necessary, he would not fail to use during the campaign not only the style of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, but also the one developed by the party neural network “Zhirinovsky”. “And you can use it too!” the candidate strongly recommended. As a source in the Liberal Democratic Party explained to Kommersant, campaign materials have not yet been approved, but there is, of course, an idea to include the legacy of Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the campaign: “It’s obvious, it’s on the surface, the party constantly appeals to his image.”

Grigory Leiba, Ksenia Veretennikova