Smolensk deputies demand to stop the extremist activities of colleague Vladislav Zhivica
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In the Smolensk region, a scandal flared up around the separatist statements of the regional Duma deputy Vladislav Zhivitsa, who is in Poland. On Sunday, he held a press conference in Warsaw, at which he announced the creation of a movement for the “independence” of the region. In the Communist Party, from which the deputy was elected, they doubt that their former comrade “is aware of the consequences of his actions.” Mr. Zhivica was expelled from the party two years ago, but formally he is still a member of its faction. However, he will soon lose his mandate in any case, since elections for a new convocation of the Regional Duma will be held in September.
Igor Lyakhov, chairman of the Smolensk Regional Duma and head of the regional branch of United Russia, on August 14 turned to the regional prosecutor’s office with a request to study the statements of Vladislav Zhivitsa for compliance with Russian law. “In my opinion, they are of an extremist nature,” Mr. Lyakhov said.
A day earlier, Mr. Zhivica held a press conference at the Belarusian House in Warsaw, at which he announced the creation of a political organization advocating the independence of the Smolensk region. Flaunting the “crust” of the deputy of the regional Duma, he outlined the course for “cultural decentralization of the Smolensk region” and the restoration of “Smolensk statehood free from Moscow on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwealth.”
Among other clearly extremist ideas, the deputy declared a “humanitarian corridor for the Smolensk people” who are ready to fight on the side of Ukraine as part of the so-called Kalinouski regiment (a volunteer battalion of the Ukrainian territorial defense, formed in 2022 mainly from Belarusians and subordinate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine), and the creation of a separate military divisions. In conclusion, Mr. Zhivica called for tough migration measures: according to him, “persons who do not have Smolensk roots” after the creation of the “Smolensk Republic” should be considered as “uninvited guests” who will have to leave the Smolensk region or “go through naturalization in it”. The press conference was also attended by the former editor of the oppositional Belarusian Telegram channel Nexta Yan Rudik, who said that “Smolensk is a Belarusian land and along with the de-occupation of Belarus, it is necessary to demand the de-occupation of Smolensk.”
So far, there has been no public response from law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation to these statements.
Vladislav Zhivitsa was elected to the Smolensk Regional Duma in 2018 on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but soon quarreled with his party comrades. As previously reported by Kommersant, he accused the first secretary of the regional committee, vice-speaker of the regional duma Valery Kuznetsov of extortion: he allegedly forced him to give half of the deputy salary for the needs of the party. After that, Mr. Zhivitsa was expelled from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for “slander and serious damage,” but the communists could not expel him from the faction or deprive him of his mandate.
“Unfortunately, the obvious imperfection of Russian laws does not allow depriving the title of a people’s choice who, according to the court, did not commit a crime, but is one step away from it,” Mr. Kuznetsov wrote on the regional committee’s website on Sunday. He added that Vladislav Zhivitsa received the mandate of the deputy “by chance”, and he prepared in advance to escape to Poland, sculpting himself as a “defender of Catholicism in the Smolensk region.” The communist apparently had in mind Mr. Zhivitsy’s letter to the Pope with a request to contribute to the restoration of the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the deputy’s statement about the need to transfer the collapsing Smolensk Catholic Church to Poland.
“I doubt that Zhivitsa is fully aware of the consequences of his actions, because his statements were made not by a person who had a sunstroke, but by a deputy of the Smolensk Regional Duma, which, fortunately, he will not be in less than a month,” Kommersant said. Andrey Mitrofanenkov, a member of the Communist Party faction. “The reaction of the speaker of the legislative assembly, who demanded that law enforcement agencies give a legal assessment of Zhivica’s statements, speaks eloquently that nothing good is waiting for a fugitive in Russia.”
“After being expelled from the communists, Zhivica took a pro-government position, supported the ex-governor Alexei Ostrovsky (a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.— “b”) and actually ceased to be an opposition politician. All the more unexpected is his flight to Poland and his transformation into a radical, ”another deputy of the regional Duma from the Communist Party Andrei Shaposhnikov shared with Kommersant.
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