The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has decided on the shortlist of candidates for mayor of Moscow

The Communist Party has decided on the short list of candidates for mayor of Moscow. According to a Vedomosti source in the Central Committee of the Communist Party, it included the first deputy chairman of the Central Committee, Yuri Afonin (he was elected to the State Duma on the federal part of the party list), as well as two more deputies. These are Vadim Kumin and allegedly Denis Parfyonov (they were elected on the Moscow part of the party list). Earlier, Kommersant wrote about the beginning of the selection of candidates. An interlocutor in the Central Committee calls Afonin a likely party candidate “with an eye” to participate in the federal elections in 2024. An interlocutor close to the presidential administration told Vedomosti that Afonin’s candidacy is being discussed as the most likely.

The first deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation himself did not confirm, but did not deny the possibility of nomination in the capital. “Now in the media and social networks there are different candidates, including [первый секретарь Московского горкома КПРФ, депутат Мосгордумы Николай] Zubrilin, Kumin, Parfenov. There is another position, which is that the campaign may need to be given a federal connotation (in 2013, another federal politician participated in the elections – the first deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Ivan Melnikov. – Vedomosti),” he said. According to another source close to Staraya Ploshchad, Afonin may be pushed to participate in a difficult campaign within the party itself: this will reduce his career prospects, including leading the Communist Party.

Before that, Afonin’s career had been rapid: at the age of 23 he was elected a deputy of the Tula Regional Duma, and in 2007 he moved to the federal parliament. In 2017, he became deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for personnel, replacing the now former first secretary of the Moscow City Committee Valery Rashkin (in 2021 he was deprived of his mandate after he was convicted of illegal hunting). And in 2021, Afonin was promoted to the first deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who is actually responsible in the party and for the elections. The former entrepreneur Kumin can also be called an experienced politician. He was a deputy of the Moscow City Duma of the 5th convocation, and then of the State Duma of the 6th convocation, although he was elected on the lists, in 2018 the non-party Kumin, and not the first secretary of the city committee Rashkin, took part in the election of the mayor of the capital.

The party’s bench itself is long, Zubrilin claims. In any case, according to him, the city committee has already received lists of recommended candidates for participation in the elections from 22 out of 34 local branches of the party. Among the nominees are not only Afonin, Kumin and Parfenov, but also the head of the party organization, Moscow City Duma deputy Pavel Tarasov, a former deputy, and now the governor of the Oryol region Andrei Klychkov, Rashkin (now an adviser to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation) and the director of the state farm. Lenin Pavel Grudinin, who ran for president in 2018.

Moscow is not the most electorally favorable region for the Communist Party, says political consultant Grigory Kazankov. “A candidate from the Communist Party in the elections will undoubtedly draw attention to his person, but there will also be risks that in the event of a low result in the elections, these results will be remembered for a long time later. Therefore, there is a double-edged sword,” says Kazankov. In the capital, it would be more logical for a representative of the “Moscow party” with relevant experience to speak, says Oleg Bondarenko, director of the Progressive Policy Foundation, a candidate who ran in the city. But, as the expert notes, not a single candidate for mayor of Moscow will pass the “municipal filter” (that is, they will not collect signatures of local deputies in favor of their nomination) without the support of the ruling party.