Ulyanovsk liberal democrats will do without the main

The Ulyanovsk branch of the LDPR has nominated its candidates for the autumn elections to the regional legislative assembly. Among them, unlike most other regions, there was no party leader Leonid Slutsky, but the list included several well-known federal politicians, including businessman Viktor Bout and State Duma deputies Andrei Lugovoi and Vladimir Koshelev. The LDPR explains that the party has decided to significantly increase its presence in the Ulyanovsk parliament, for which it needs such “locomotives”.

On July 2, the conference of the regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party decided on its candidates for elections to the legislature of the Ulyanovsk region. Among the leaders of territorial groups (the head part of the party list is not provided for in the elections to the regional parliament) were, in particular, businessman Viktor Bout, State Duma deputies Andrei Lugovoy and Vladimir Koshelev. Recall that Mr. Bout was convicted in the United States in 2012 for arms smuggling (he himself denied guilt) and returned to Russia in 2022 as a result of an exchange for basketball player Brittney Griner. Lugovoi was suspected in the UK of involvement in the murder of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. And Mr. Koshelev is the main owner of the Koshelev corporation and the curator of the Liberal Democratic Party in the Volga region.

In addition, the well-known Samara political technologist Ernest Staratelev and the former deputy of the Ulyanovsk Legislative Assembly Matvey Volodarsky, who were deprived of their mandate for having shares in foreign companies in his wife, became the first numbers of the territorial groups on the LDPR list. Mr. Volodarsky is in strong opposition to Ulyanovsk governor Alexei Russkikh (KPRF) and was admitted to the Liberal Democratic Party on the day of the pre-election conference.

The leader of the LDPR faction in the Ulyanovsk Legislative Assembly, Dmitry Grachev, in a conversation with Kommersant, admitted that the party uses federal politicians as “locomotives” that can attract votes. “But these are not the “locomotives” of our candidates – they are the “locomotives” of the region, capable of further defending the interests of the Ulyanovsk region in their work at the federal level, seeking federal funding in a variety of areas,” the liberal democrat emphasized. He noted that the Liberal Democratic Party for the first time sent several politicians of the federal level to the Ulyanovsk region at once: “Such comprehensive attention is paid to our region on behalf of the party chairman, no other region is given such great attention.” At the same time, the party is counting on “a serious increase in the presence of the Liberal Democratic Party” in the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Grachev explained. He assured that if he wins, Viktor Bout is not going to give up his mandate and, as a deputy, is ready to deal with issues of supporting the aircraft industry.

At the same time, the appearance of Matvey Volodarsky among the candidates “does not mean that the Liberal Democratic Party intends to go into an equally tough opposition to the governor,” Dmitry Grachev added: “Yes, the voice of criticism should sound louder, and if our opposition grows and becomes tougher, then this has nothing to do with Volodarsky’s transfer to us. He will still have to obey party discipline, any criticism must be reasoned.” Mr. Volodarsky himself told Kommersant that his harsh criticism of the regional authorities and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation would continue, “but would not diverge from the party’s policy.”

However, the list of opponents of the Liberal Democrats was not impressed. The head of the executive committee of the local United Russia, Konstantin Dolgov, told Kommersant that nothing had changed in the LDPR’s electoral strategy: before they nominated Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and now federal politicians. “Success does not depend on who is on the party list, but on campaigning,” United Russia is sure. And the head of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Alexei Kurinny, considers the invitation of such “locomotives” to be evidence of the weakness of the local organization of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Ulyanovsk political scientist Nikolai Vasin, first of all, draws attention to the appearance of Matvey Volodarsky in the lists of the Liberal Democratic Party, which will increase criticism of the authorities and will play against the Communist Party. According to the expert, without Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the general “federal information background” of regional campaigns will no longer work for the authority of the Liberal Democratic Party, as before. “And the federal leadership of the party probably saw that there are no strong dominant parties in the Ulyanovsk region, which means that there are chances to maintain or even increase the presence of the Liberal Democratic Party in the Legislative Assembly. For this, such media figures were sent to the region,” the political scientist believes. According to him, in connection with this, the Ulyanovsk campaign becomes “more intriguing”, which attracts additional attention to it.

It should also be noted that in all regions where there is a leading part of party lists in the elections to local parliaments this year, their first number in the LDPR was the chairman of the party, State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky. As in the Ulyanovsk region, there is no common part of the list in the Yaroslavl and Ivanovo regions, but in the first region, Mr. Slutsky has already headed one of the territorial groups, and in the second, the Liberal Democratic Party has not yet nominated its candidates. State Duma deputy Vladimir Koshelev, who oversees the 2023 regional election campaigns in the Liberal Democratic Party, explained to Kommersant the logic behind the formation of the lists as follows: “On the one hand, the party retains the tradition laid down by its founder Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who led party members in the elections. Therefore, in a number of regions where the party considered it expedient and there was an opportunity to form the top three, the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, is at the head of the list. On the other hand, we tried to present as much as possible on the lists those who are at the forefront of work with voters – well-known deputies of the State Duma, regional parliaments and leading activists of the party.

Sergey Titov, Ulyanovsk; Ksenia Veretennikova