Leonid Slutsky became a presidential candidate and received expanded powers as leader of the LDPR

The XXXV Congress of the LDPR on Tuesday nominated its leader Leonid Slutsky for president of Russia, rotated the Supreme Council and approved changes to the charter. Now the party chairman will be able to suspend the powers of members of the Supreme Council and coordinators of regional branches for failure to comply with instructions from above and “actions that discredit the reputation of the LDPR.”

The congress was held in three locations at once: first, the delegates laid flowers on the grave of the LDPR founder Vladimir Zhirinovsky, then at the Crocus Expo exhibition center they nominated the current leader Leonid Slutsky as a presidential candidate, after which, moving to the building of the central office of the party, they held it behind closed doors rotation of the Supreme Council and amendments to the charter.

As a source close to the organization of the congress told Kommersant, it was initially planned that Mr. Slutsky’s candidacy for the post of president would be proposed to the delegates by the political algorithm “Zhirinovsky.”

But a few days before the event, the organizers tested it and decided that the neural network “does not look good” in the interior of the hall, so it was decided to abandon the futuristic surroundings. At the same time, there were many young people in the hall wearing sweatshirts with portraits of the current leader of the LDPR.

Lib Dem conventions usually open with the party anthem. This time the Russian anthem also played in front of him. After this, Leonid Slutsky made an announcement: “This is more important than everything that happens next. The coordinator of our Saratov branch, Dmitry Pyanykh, had a third son!”

All subsequent speakers listed the achievements of Mr. Slutsky and agreed that a better presidential candidate could not be found in the party. “Elections are an opportunity to convey our ideas, our program, our position, and no one will do this better than Chairman Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky,” insisted Khabarovsk Governor Mikhail Degtyarev.

The coordinator of the LDPR branch in the Komi Republic and a member of the SVO, Maxim Krain, thanked the party leader for helping the front and highly appreciated his international activities (Mr. Slutsky heads the International Affairs Committee in the Duma): “Leonid Eduardovich, like a rock, rose above his dwarf European colleagues in PACE . His voice made our so-called partners tremble and shrink into their chairs.” Ulyanovsk Legislative Assembly deputy Viktor But noted such qualities of the chairman as “phenomenal memory” and “deep understanding of what is happening in geopolitics.” And the coordinator of the Chechen branch, president of the Academy of Sciences of the republic Dzhambulat Umarov called Leonid Slutsky the “true brother” of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, “a friend of the Chechen people”, “Minin and Pozharsky of our time” and at the same time assured of his readiness to “shed his own blood for him.”

Mr. Slutsky responded by thanking “the best political party in the world” for nominating him for the presidency and reminded that the LDPR has been living without its founder for 20 months.

“There were so many voices that Slutsky was the gravedigger of the LDPR, that the party would not survive without Zhirinovsky. We have not only survived, we are in a growth trend together with the party of the parliamentary majority, United Russia,” the leader proudly told the delegates who listened to him while standing.

At the same time, the party got rid of “those who considered themselves to be more the heirs of Zhirinovsky than the rest,” the chairman emphasized (previously, Vasily Vlasov, who was deprived of his powers as a Duma deputy, was expelled from the party, who claimed that the founder of the LDPR saw him as his successor).

Leonid Slutsky also said that party members are going to visit about 30 regions and based on the results of these trips and conversations with people, an election program will be formed. “We are going into the campaign with the slogans “LDPR is always there” and “LDPR shoulder to shoulder,” explained the party leader. His presidential nomination was supported by secret ballot by 106 delegates out of 108 registered, two ballots were spoiled.

Then the congress approved the new composition of the Supreme Council. Its maximum number was increased from 15 to 25 people, with at least five places to be occupied by regional branch coordinators.

The updated composition of the council did not include State Duma deputies Yaroslav Nilov, Alexey Didenko and Boris Paikin, senator Elena Afanasyeva, ex-State Duma deputy Sergei Natarov, who is in a pre-trial detention center on suspicion of embezzlement, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who was still listed as a member of this body.

The new members of the Supreme Council were former Smolensk governor Alexei Ostrovsky, member of the Central Election Commission Alexander Kurdyumov, State Duma deputies Andrei Lugovoi, Vladimir Koshelev, Sergei Leonov, Vasilina Kulieva and Evgeniy Markov, senator Vadim Dengin, ex-Duma deputy Elena Strokova, Dzhambulat Umarov, Viktor But, Mikhail Degtyarev, head of the department of organizational and party work of the LDPR Dmitry Novikov, as well as deputies of regional parliaments Vladimir Kostin (Kirov region), Andrey Kramar (DPR), Evgeny Mishin (Kaliningrad region) and Alexander Balberov (Tula region). Finally, in addition to Mr. Slutsky, State Duma deputy Sergei Karginov, Duma Deputy Speaker Boris Chernyshov, adviser to the head of the LDPR Duma faction Nikita Berezin and its chief of staff Maxim Zaitsev, senator Ivan Abramov, and ex-State Duma deputy Anton Morozov retained their seats on the council, in addition to Mr. Slutsky. There are currently 24 people in the Supreme Council.

Leonid Slutsky explained these changes to journalists: “The rotation of the Supreme Council was necessary due to the departure of a number of members. In addition, we needed to update the composition so that it corresponds to the pace of work that we took back in 2023. The new composition of the Supreme Council has been assembled to solve large-scale tasks in various, including only planned areas of the party’s work. All people are of a very high caliber, consisting of those who, with the support of each other, will cope with the tasks facing the party.”

In addition, the delegates adopted changes to the party charter, according to which the chairman of the LDPR forms the presidium of the Supreme Council of no more than seven members. The party leader will also be able to suspend the powers of members of the Supreme Council, the Control and Audit Commission and coordinators of local branches for non-compliance with the charter, decisions of higher governing bodies or committing “actions that discredit the reputation of the LDPR.”

Ksenia Veretennikova