“United Russia” nominated Sergei Sobyanin as a candidate for the post of mayor of Moscow

United Russia was the first of the parties to officially nominate its candidate for the post of mayor of Moscow: at the conference of the capital branch on June 9, the delegates supported the candidacy of the current mayor Sergei Sobyanin. To comply with all legal subtleties, there should have been another equally worthy contender next to Sergei Sobyanin on the ballot for secret ballot. They became the leader of the Moscow United Russia party and the vice-speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy. However, despite the existence of a formal alternative, no one expected intrigue from the United Russia conference in Moscow: Sergei Sobyanin was elected unanimously.

The incumbent head of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, will for the first time participate in the mayoral elections this year as a party candidate from United Russia (ER). Recall that he headed Moscow in the fall of 2010 after the resignation of Yuri Luzhkov “due to the loss of confidence” of the then President Dmitry Medvedev. In 2013, Mr. Sobyanin was elected to this post in direct elections, and in 2018 he was re-elected. Both times he was elected as a self-nominated candidate, explaining his decision by the fact that “the position of the mayor is more economic than political.” The decision of this year, as Petr Tolstoy, the leader of United Russia in Moscow, explained earlier to Kommersant, is justified by the close connection of Sergei Sobyanin with United Russia and the consolidation of society around the president and his party.

Before the voting, Mr. Sobyanin met with party activists, in which the Secretary of the General Council of the United Russia, Andrey Turchak, took part. The latter noted that under the leadership of the current mayor, Moscow has become one of the smartest and most comfortable cities in the world, and also one of the first to join in helping the new territories of the Russian Federation. “The main political event in Moscow will be the election of the mayor, and our task is to ensure the unconditional victory of our candidate,” said Mr. Turchak. He recalled that Sergei Sobyanin has been a member of the United Russia since 2003, and since 2011 he has been a member of the bureau of the party’s supreme council. Sergei Sobyanin headed the party lists three times in the elections to the State Duma, and United Russia won three times, Mr. Turchak added.

The Mayor of Moscow, at a meeting with party activists, first of all thanked United Russia for many years of joint work and support. He noted that initially his team had an “incredibly difficult task” – not only to improve something a little, but to radically change the capital and enter the top five cities in the world.

“When we talked about this, we thought about it, in fact, apart from such a skeptical smile, these words evoked little. Today, this is quite a well-established truth,” Mr. Sobyanin said to the applause of the audience. He told the meeting participants how, over the years of his team’s work, Moscow had moved from a state of almost “complete collapse” to its current level. First of all, according to the mayor, this is a complete reconstruction of the entire transport system, thanks to which, despite the growth in the population and cars, the situation in the capital not only did not worsen, but became better by 10-15%. However, not without annoyance in his voice, Mr. Sobyanin admitted that part of this success was achieved through paid parking: “It’s not that it’s great, but we got away from the transport collapse, and we won’t allow it anymore.” Mr. Sobyanin also recalled how he returned public spaces to Muscovites that were “stolen” by advertising, dirt, neglect, poor lighting: “The city seemed to have disappeared and turned into a roadway for cars.” Mr. Sobyanin told the audience that he was driving along Maroseyka to the meeting and watched people walking along the clean wide sidewalks. But the widening of sidewalks began with “tantrums,” he recalled. “Today, if someone leaves their car on the sidewalk, they will simply eat it alive… I believe that we still managed to return Moscow to Muscovites,” the mayor emphasized to another flurry of applause.

Following the meeting with Sergei Sobyanin, the party activists approved a resolution proposing to nominate him as a candidate for mayor of Moscow. However, according to the charter of United Russia, this was only part of the procedure, and the official decision is made at the conference of the regional branch by secret ballot of its delegates.

The regional conference began after a short break, but by that time the headlines were already full of headlines in the media and Telegram channels that United Russia had nominated Sergei Sobyanin as a candidate for mayor. Yes, and the mayor of Moscow by this time managed to publish a post on his blog, in which he announced his decision to run again, thanked United Russia for the nomination and asked for the support of Muscovites. Despite the fact that no one had any doubts about the comprehensive support of the candidacy of Mr. Sobyanin, the party procedure had to be observed.

She suggested that one more candidate should have appeared on the United Russia ballot, so that the delegates would have someone to choose from. To compete with Sergei Sobyanin, it was necessary to choose the most worthy contender, so Pyotr Tolstoy took second place on the ballot. But the results of the vote turned out to be unequivocal: all 275 delegates to the conference of the Moscow branch of United Russia unanimously supported Mr. Sobyanin. Now he has become the official candidate for mayor of Moscow from United Russia.

Recall that from the moment the Moscow City Duma appointed the election of the mayor (the capital’s parliament did this on June 7), the parties have a month to officially nominate their candidates. The next June 16 will be done by the Yabloko party, which plans to nominate Moscow City Duma deputy Sergei Mitrokhin for mayor of Moscow. The New People will hold a conference on June 18, where they will officially nominate Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Vladislav Davankov. Then, on June 20, A Just Russia – For Truth will nominate its candidate: Dmitry Gusev, the leader of the Moscow branch and State Duma deputy, will be nominated. From the Liberal Democratic Party, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Boris Chernyshov intends to take part in the election of the mayor of Moscow, the Liberal Democrats will hold their conference on June 21. Finally, on June 23, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will nominate its candidate, which is expected to be the grandson of the leader of the Communist Party, Moscow City Duma deputy Leonid Zyuganov. So far, the list of those wishing to take part in the Moscow mayoral elections ends here. Once nominated, they all have to go through the registration process, which includes going through the municipal filter. But, most likely, Muscovites will see only five names on the ballots: only candidates from parties represented in the State Duma will compete with Sergei Sobyanin. As Kommersant’s source previously explained, this is precisely due to the municipal filter: the vast majority of local deputies in Moscow belong to United Russia, the party supports a special military operation, and its representatives are unlikely to vote for a candidate with a different position. Therefore, according to a Kommersant source, representatives of the non-systemic opposition and the Yabloko party have no chance to pass the municipal filter. It should be noted that in order to pass the municipal filter in Moscow, each candidate must submit to the Moscow City Electoral Committee at least 110 signatures of municipal deputies in their support.

Elena Rozhkova