“United Russia” returned to itself someone else’s – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

Deputies of the City Duma of Khabarovsk, almost a year after the resignation of the former chairman, finally chose a new one. Although initially there was not a single representative of United Russia (ER) in this convocation of the City Duma, Andrey Beloglazov, United Russia, became the speaker. The Liberal Democratic Party, which previously controlled the city parliament, promised to help Mr. Beloglazov in organizing work and ending parliamentary strife.

The election of a new chairman of the Khabarovsk City Duma took place on the second attempt: the first at the end of October ended in failure due to the demarche of the LDPR faction, which left the hall and deprived the meeting of the quorum. This time, 30 out of 35 deputies took part in the secret ballot. Two candidates were nominated for the post of speaker – Andrei Beloglazov (ER) and Denis Kuratov (SRZP), and United Russia received 20 votes. Ivan Fomenko (LDPR) was elected his deputy for financial matters, ahead of Vladimir Maisak (SRZP) with 21 votes.

Mr. Beloglazov thanked his colleagues for their trust and promised to arrange work “in a constructive manner, regardless of political views.” “I hope we will have a consolidated position aimed at improving the quality of life of Khabarovsk residents,” he added. The new speaker is 43 years old, he heads several public associations at once, including the Tornado taekwondo organization and the regional headquarters of the Immortal Regiment. Also, Mr. Beloglazov led the previous convocation of the public chamber of the region, and since 2017 he has been co-chairman of the regional branch of the ONF.

Recall that in the 2019 elections under the leadership of the then Governor Sergei Furgal (LDPR), his party members took 34 out of 35 seats in the City Duma (another one went to SRZP). But soon after the arrest of the head of the region in the summer of 2020 on charges of organizing murders, a split occurred in the ranks of the Liberal Democrats, as a result of which some of them went over to the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and the other to United Russia. Now in the City Duma of Khabarovsk, the LDPR controls 14 mandates, United Russia – 10, SRZP – nine, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation – one and one more deputy remains non-partisan.

The head of the regional executive committee of the United Russia Evgeny Solonenko reminded Kommersant that for almost a year, in the status of acting chairman of the City Duma, United Russia was led by Yury Yagodin (now he remains deputy chairman).

“Therefore, we do not predict big changes and redistribution of political forces. I am sure that Andrei Beloglazov can count on the support of all deputy groups, regardless of party affiliation,” Mr. Solonenko explained.

In his opinion, despite the presence of two poles of power in the region (the mayor of Khabarovsk and the speaker of the City Duma are United Russia members, and the governor Mikhail Degtyarev is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party), “there is no confrontation” and its occurrence is not expected. “The political situation in the region has stabilized, we have passed the stage of political turbulence, and now all party and public forces are working in a common constructive manner. Our efforts are consolidated around common tasks: economic development, implementation of national projects and programs in the region, assistance to our servicemen and their families, and much more. To be honest, now is not the time for internal, even “cold” conflicts,” United Russia said.

Ivan Rybin, deputy coordinator of the regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party and City Duma deputy, considers the election of the speaker to be an ordinary procedural moment, and the position itself is more of a technical one. “There is no big event to which one could attach importance. This will in no way affect the alignment of forces, since this is a collegial body, and the chairman performs a representative function and organizes the work of the Duma. This is the candidate who, in our opinion, should make a contribution to strengthening the work of the thought, turning it from various internal strife to the actual work. We are ready to help him in this,” he assured Kommersant.

The former speaker, and now the leader of the SRZP group in the City Duma, Mikhail Sidorov, told Kommersant that “administrative resources were used by officials of the regional government and the city administration” to elect the chairman. “The deputies who were against Beloglazov were put under pressure. Unfortunately, many, with the exception of the deputies from the SRZP, obeyed, ”said Spravoross. According to him, in order to guarantee the achievement of the result, “representatives of the government of the region ensured a 100% turnout of members of the Liberal Democratic Party, who are controlled by the leadership of the region.” Mr. Sidorov considers Andrei Beloglazov himself a politician who is completely controlled by the leadership of the city and the region. The deputy also stated that the former political rivals of the United Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party have now united, and allowed their cooperation on various issues in the future.

Ernest Filippovsky, Khabarovsk