With such a party card – and at large – Newspaper Kommersant No. 231 (7432) dated 12/13/2022

Viktor Bout, who recently served a 25-year sentence in an American prison and was extradited to Russia as part of an exchange, joined the Liberal Democratic Party. Its leader, Leonid Slutsky, on Monday solemnly presented the businessman with a party card on the stage of the Hall of Columns during the meeting on the occasion of the party’s birthday. Answering a question from Kommersant, the newly-minted liberal democrat said that he was not going to take part in the elections yet. However, according to a Kommersant source in the State Duma, the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party is already negotiating with the presidential administration on the participation of Mr. Bout in by-elections to the Duma next year.

The three-day rally on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the LDPR began on Sunday. First day, as reported the day before by “Kommersant”was devoted to party studies, discussion of the future of the Liberal Democrats and preparations for a single voting day, and on Monday the solemn part of the rally was held.

On December 12, the delegates gathered in the Hall of Columns. Before the start of the event, songs performed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky sounded in the hall, and Leonid Slutsky also began his welcoming speech with words of respect for the late founder of the Liberal Democratic Party. In particular, he noted that the ideas and forecasts of Mr. Zhirinovsky “are in demand more than ever”, and videos with his participation “are steadily gaining millions of views.”

Mr. Slutsky also admitted that months without Vladimir Zhirinovsky (he died April 6) “became a test and the party passed it with honor.” According to him, the Liberal Democrats are “more than ever consolidated and focused on results.”

Then he spoke about the good deeds of the party, promised to open legal aid centers and recalled that the Liberal Democratic Party is helping to return home unfairly detained Russians abroad. On this note, Mr. Slutsky said that Viktor Bout, a Russian businessman who was sentenced in 2012 in the United States to 25 years in prison for selling weapons, had joined the party. December 8, 2022 exchanged American basketball player Brittney Griner, sentenced in Russia to nine years in prison for drug smuggling. Having received a party card from the hands of the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Mr. Bout admitted that all these years in prison he was helped by the slogan of Vladimir Zhirinovsky: “Do not lie and do not be afraid.” Leonid Slutsky also presented a number of party members with the Order of Merit for the Liberal Democratic Party, 1st class.

In the speeches of the delegates, resentment against the enemies of the LDPR more than once slipped, whose attacks Mr. Slutsky urged to regard as “attempts to undermine the stability of the political system of Russia.” It should be noted that the party’s rally was preceded by a public conflict between the liberal democrats and the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin. A few days before the event, he criticized Russian politicians for empty talk from the stands instead of a real fight against injustice in Ukraine. And the LDPR suffered the most, which, according to Mr. Prigozhin, “left without Zhirinovsky, turned into a clownery.” And then, commenting on the invitation he received earlier to the LDPR rally, the businessman said that he treated Leonid Slutsky “with the deepest disrespect.” After that, the party leader announced that the invitation had been canceled, and the central apparatus of the party would check how Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared on the guest list.

“We must give a tough rebuff to all sorts of crooks who are trying to cash in on our authority and throw stupid and vicious accusations against us. These people can only say one word: “shame”! – summed up Mr. Slutsky, speaking from the stage of the Hall of Columns.

And the coordinator of the Tula branch of the LDPR, Alexander Balberov, added that those who attack the LDPR “are playing in the political sandbox, making Easter cakes.” “You should learn from us!” he advised unnamed critics.

During a break in the meeting, Viktor Bout explained to reporters that he had joined the party, because she, and specifically Leonid Slutsky, helped him and his family a lot in difficult times. He also called the LDPR a “powerful party” that “stands for ordinary citizens, for the Russian world, for our homeland.”

Answering a question from Kommersant, the businessman said that he was not going to take part in the elections yet, but Leonid Slutsky added: “For now.” Meanwhile, a Kommersant source in the State Duma claims that the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party is already negotiating with the presidential administration on the participation of Mr. Bout in the by-elections of a State Duma deputy in the Simferopol single-mandate district, which will be held in the fall of 2023. Mr. Slutsky himself said at the rally that for the time being, “as the first party assignment,” the businessman should “go to the doctor for examination and bring his health into perfect compliance with the standards for an astronaut.” At the same time, he expressed confidence that, due to the strength of his spirit, the newly minted member of the party “will be in excellent shape literally one of these days.” And Viktor Bout complained only that he had not yet adapted to the difference in time zones.

The entry of an entrepreneur who returned to Russia into the Liberal Democratic Party “so far is more like a political naturalization of Bout,” Mikhail Vinogradov, head of the Petersburg Politics Foundation, believes: “Bout has high fame, but is poorly filled with content – the image of the victim in itself is not enough for a bright promotion” .

Political scientist Alexei Makarkin believes that the involvement of Viktor Bout in its ranks is more important for the Liberal Democratic Party than for himself.

“Leonid Slutsky cannot replace Zhirinovsky: the LDPR lives on the most powerful inertia set by its former leader, and on the fact that there are a small number of party brands in the country. On this, the party passed the regional elections, but now Slutsky is interested in new people appearing in the party, corresponding to its brutal patriotic image, ”explains the expert. He also draws attention to the trend according to which people who have been in an American prison later find a place in Russian power: Konstantin Yaroshenko entered the Public Chamber, Kirill Vyshinsky became a member of the President’s Human Rights Council, and Maria Butina became a State Duma deputy.

Ksenia Veretennikova, Anastasia Kornya