Parties began to accept residents of the former Ukrainian territories into their ranks

Since the end of February, more than 15,100 Russian citizens living in Donbass have joined United Russia, State Duma deputy from the Rostov region Viktor Vodolatsky told Vedomosti. Another 28,000 people are now issuing membership cards, he added. These are local residents who received Russian passports, he explains. But since the DPR and LPR are still foreign states, United Russia cannot open branches there and keep voter records. Party coordinators on site help with paperwork, says United Russia State Duma deputy Artem Turov, and people are already registered with the party in the Rostov region.

Other territories (Kherson, Zaporozhye and Kharkiv regions) do not apply to the simplified procedure for admission to party membership, says Vodolatsky: there, local residents are first recorded as “supporters” of United Russia. Donbass is spared the need to be a “party candidate” because it has proven its loyalty to the Russian Federation, the deputy adds. On purpose, according to Vodolatsky, they are not lured into United Russia, but people see that humanitarian centers of the party are being opened in the Donbass regions, and its leaders are themselves ready to integrate into this work.

Nikolai Yukhanov, deputy director of the Institute of Regional Problems, says that there are virtually no other parties on the territory of the DPR and LPR, “despite the support of these two republics from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party, and other systemic parties”: “This can be tracked by visits [в Донбасс] party secretary, etc. There can be no other party, except for the party of the president.” According to lawyer Oleg Zakharov, if a person has Russian citizenship, then nothing prevents him from being accepted into any party. The influx of people into United Russia may encourage local politicians to get Russian passports sooner, he notes, but in general, all parties involved in humanitarian aid have already acquired understandable counterparties in the Donbass, which will allow them to “quickly form an asset and create branches.”

Interlocutors in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and the New People emphasize that their parties also work in the territories. On August 6, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation accepted into the party 25 communists from the DPR and LPR, who have already obtained Russian citizenship, Kazbek Taysaev, secretary of the Central Committee, State Duma deputy (responsible for the delivery of humanitarian supplies from the party to Donbass), told Vedomosti. They were also accepted into the party in Russia – in the capital branch of the Communist Party. There, in the future, new Russians will be accepted into the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Taysaev says: “When the referendum passes and the republics become part of the Russian Federation, party cells will be created, and work will go on the spot.”

Autonomous communist parties now operate in the DNR and LNR. “They cannot declare themselves to be structural divisions of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Each communist, each member of the communist parties of the DPR and LPR will be personally determined by himself: write an application for membership in the Communist Party, fill out a questionnaire, ”adds Taysaev. In May, DPR Communist Party leader Boris Litvinov called his organization “a single component of the communist movement throughout the post-Soviet space” and said that until February the organization had 1,080 registered people, but noted that “the ranks had thinned out” (quote from the CPRF website). According to Taysaev, there are 1,500 people in the DPR Communist Party, and 1,000 people in the LPR.

State Duma deputy Dmitry Gusev from A Just Russia told Vedomosti that so far there are no party cells in the DPR and LPR. “But we work with people, we have opened centers for the protection of the rights of citizens in Donetsk and Luhansk, on their basis distribution of aid is being carried out (humanitarian bridge “Force of Goodness”), we are planning to open deputy receptions,” he continued. Work is underway with people and the Liberal Democratic Party, said the source in the party, without specifying details. The New People, according to a source in the party, is not in a hurry to recruit to the party ranks, but the deputies visit Donbass and provide assistance with humanitarian aid.