The stage of nominating candidates for legislative assemblies ends in the regions

This week in most subjects of the Russian Federation, where elections to regional parliaments will be held in September, the nomination of candidates will be completed. The parliamentary parties have basically already decided on their members, and among them there were quite a few “locomotives”. In United Russia, as a rule, this role is played by the heads of regions, in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation they also rely on former communist leaders and State Duma deputies, and the Liberal Democratic Party, by tradition, will be led to the elections by its leader Leonid Slutsky. “Fair Russia – For the Truth” relies on the Yaroslavl region, where there are many defectors from other parties in its ranks, and “New People” – on Yakutia, where their list was headed by the ex-mayor of Yakutsk Sardana Avksentieva. In addition, voters will see many candidates on the ballot this year who are members of the Special Military Operation (SVO).

In half of the “old” regions, the nomination of candidates ends on July 10, in the Nenets district and the Arkhangelsk region – on July 11, and the Rostov region will be the last to complete this stage on July 28. Four new entities exercised their legislative right and shortened the nomination period: there it will begin on July 24 and last until mid-August.

Party lists of United Russia (ER) in most regions are expectedly headed by governors: Alexander Tsybulsky (Arkhangelsk region), Radiy Khabirov (Bashkiria), Alexei Tsydenov (Buryatia), Alexander Avdeev (Vladimir region), Igor Kobzev (Irkutsk region), Sergey Tsivilev (Kemerovo region), Batu Khasikov (Kalmykia), Vasily Golubev (Rostov region), Vasily Anokhin (Smolensk region), Aisen Nikolaev (Yakutia), Yuri Bezdudny (NAO). In Khakassia, which is led by communist Valentin Konovalov, United Russia members will be led to the polls by State Duma deputy and head of the regional branch Sergei Sokol, who is also running for governor. United Russia does not have “steam locomotives” in three regions where there is no “head” part of the list – in Ivanovo, Ulyanovsk and Yaroslavl regions.

An exception to the general rule was also the Trans-Baikal Territory, where the list of United Russia was headed by Senator Bair Zhamsuev instead of the governor. The head of the region, Alexander Osipov, explained this decision by saying that the United Russia in the region is the governor and his team, whom he trusts. “Transbaikalia is a serving hinterland. Many Transbaikalians take part in a special operation at the call of duty. In the current conditions, elections of this nature are of little interest to people. Everyone thinks that we need to unite, and not have more discussions and disputes,” said Mr. Osipov. The top five of the UR regional party list also included State Duma deputy from Transbaikalia, General Andrey Gurulev and deputy chairman of the regional government Inna Shcheglova, as well as the former city manager of Chita, a member of the SVO Alexander Sapozhnikov. By the way, United Russia included participants in the special operation among the candidates in many regions. For example, in Bashkiria, this is Artur Galeev, a 22-year-old holder of the Order of Courage, in Buryatia, the head physician of the republican hospital, Vyacheslav Dondokov, in Yakutia, Hero of Russia Alexander Kolesov, and in the Rostov Region, Ataman Dmitry Suvorov.

Not without “locomotives” and the Communist Party. In Khakassia, this role is played by the head of the republic, Valentin Konovalov, who turned out to be the only party member in the top four of the list: the speaker of the Supreme Council, Vladimir Shtygashev, left the United Russia in mid-June, and the chairman of the budget committee of the Supreme Council, Oleg Ivanov, and lawyer Oleg Zemtsov are non-partisan. In the Irkutsk region, the former governor, head of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and State Duma deputy Sergei Levchenko became the first number. In the Ulyanovsk region, the communist governor Alexei Russkikh does not participate in the elections, but the first secretary of the regional committee and State Duma deputy Alexei Kurinny will act as a “locomotive” in one of the territorial groups, who will be opposed by the leader of local United Russia party Konstantin Dolgov and senator Sergei Ryabukhin. In most other regions, the lists of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation are headed by the heads of local regional party committees and leaders of its factions in legislative assemblies.

Regional party lists of the Liberal Democratic Party, according to the tradition laid down in the time of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as a rule, are headed by the chairman of the party. Its current leader, Leonid Slutsky, is number one, for example, in Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory, Khakassia, the Arkhangelsk, Irkutsk, Kemerovo and Smolensk regions, as well as in one of the territorial groups in the Yaroslavl region. In the Ulyanovsk region, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party does not run, but in the territorial groups the party nominated several well-known politicians at once: Viktor Bout, who returned to Russia from an American prison, State Duma deputies Andrei Lugovoi and Vladimir Koshelev (owner of the construction corporation of the same name). In addition, another territorial group is headed by well-known Samara political strategist Ernest Staratelev, who previously helped ex-governor Sergei Morozov and United Russia. And in one of the single-mandate constituencies, the Liberal Democrats nominated a constant critic of the governor of the Russians, Matvey Volodarsky, a well-known ex-deputy of the Legislative Assembly in the region.

A Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP) also has two authoritative “locomotives” in the Yaroslavl region, where the party’s positions are traditionally strong: these are State Duma deputies, former Yaroslavl governor Anatoly Lisitsyn and the head of the regional branch of the Socialist-Revolutionaries Anatoly Greshnevikov, who headed the territorial groups. At the same time, there were quite a few defectors from other parties among the Yaroslavl nominees of the SRZP. Thus, acting deputies of the regional Duma Shakir Abdullaev and Andrey Ershov, as well as deputy of the Zavolzhsky rural settlement Tatiana Shamina, who bases her campaign on active criticism of former party members, have moved from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation to the Social Revolutionaries. In addition, the current deputy of the regional Duma from United Russia, Vladimir Denisov, having lost the internal party primaries in Rybinsk, moved forward in the same single-mandate constituency, but from the SRZP.

The positions of the SRZP in the Trans-Baikal Territory, on the contrary, were seriously shaken as a result of an internal party scandal. There, after the start of the campaign, the regional branch of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and their list in the elections to the Legislative Assembly were headed by the senator from the Khabarovsk Territory Sergey Bezdenezhnykh, who had previously had nothing to do with Transbaikalia. With his arrival, the regional branch of the SRZP was disbanded, more than 1.3 thousand people were expelled from the party, including the ex-head of the branch and members of the council. According to now former party members, the split of the branch will also affect the results of the elections, as a result of which the Social Revolutionaries planned to increase their presence in the Legislative Assembly.

Finally, in the 2023 elections, the most media-promoted “locomotive” of the “New People” was the State Duma deputy and the former head of Yakutsk, Sardana Avksentyeva, who headed the party list in the elections to the parliament of Yakutia. Quite well-known politicians at the local level were also nominated by the party in the Ulyanovsk region: these are environmentalists Alexander Bragin and Alexander Kaplin (former head of the regional department of Rosprirodnadzor), lawyer and human rights activist, editor-in-chief of the Simbirsk City information portal Konstantin Tolkachev, and activist from Dimitrovgrad Alexei Yakushev – head project “Mnogodtny creative” and a farmer producing sunflower oil with the ambiguous name “Novichok”. And in the elections to the Smolensk Regional Duma, Alexander Zhustarev, the former captain of the Parapaparam KVN team (MGIMO), became the first number on the New People list. In addition, New People, like EP, nominated several members of the NWO and members of their families – these are, in particular, a soldier Vasily Ryabkov (Transbaikalia) and the volunteer’s mother Olga Sherstyannikova (Yakutia).

Elena Rozhkova; corset “b”