Zhoga, Mashkov and Lysenko could become co-chairs of Putin’s election headquarters

According to Kommersant’s information, the speaker of the parliament of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Artem Zhoga, actor Vladimir Mashkov and the head physician of one of the Moscow hospitals, Maryana Lysenko, who gained fame during the pandemic, could become co-chairs of Vladimir Putin’s election headquarters in the 2024 presidential elections. All three participated in the elections from United Russia (UR) and are part of the initiative group to nominate Mr. Putin for president.

As Kommersant has learned, the co-chairs of the election headquarters of Vladimir Putin, who on December 18 notified the Central Election Commission of his nomination for a new presidential term, could be the head of the DPR parliament, commander of the Sparta battalion Artem Zhoga, actor Vladimir Mashkov and the head physician of Moscow City Hospital No. 52 Maryana Lysenko. All three are part of the initiative group that supported the self-nomination of candidate Putin on December 16. According to a Kommersant source close to the presidential administration, it was decided that the co-chairs of the headquarters should be well-known people and represent different groups of society. Moreover, all three are directly related to United Russia.

It was not possible to promptly contact the supposed co-chairs of Kommersant.

Artem Zhoga – a native of the Donetsk region of the Ukrainian SSR; At the very beginning of the conflict in Donbass in 2014, together with his son Vladimir, he joined the Sparta battalion, commanded by Arsen Pavlov, known as Motorola. After Pavlov’s death in 2016, the unit was headed by Vladimir Zhoga, and after his death in 2022, by Artem Zhoga. In the elections to the People’s Council of the DPR in the fall of 2023, the Sparta commander headed the United Russia list. It was Mr. Zhoga who, on December 8, after the awards ceremony for Heroes of Russia, turned to Vladimir Putin with a request to run for a new term. “On behalf of all our people, all of Donbass, all of our reunited lands, I would like to ask you to take part in these elections, because there is a lot of work. Thanks to your actions, your decision, we received freedom, the right to choose… You are our president, there is a lot of work,” he said. Mr. Putin responded to this request in the affirmative: “I won’t hide it, at different times I had different thoughts. But now you are right, now is the time when you need to make a decision. I will run for the post of President of the Russian Federation.”

This dialogue launched the procedure for Vladimir Putin’s self-nomination for the 2024 elections. Already on December 9, the Popular Front gathered on the basis of its executive committee the core of the future initiative group to nominate candidate Putin, and its main meeting took place on December 16. Maryana Lysenko and Vladimir Mashkov were present at both events.

Ms. Lysenko became famous as one of the main fighters against COVID-19, receiving the title of Hero of Labor for her work during the pandemic. At the 2021 State Duma elections, she was second on the United Russia list for Moscow (after Mayor Sergei Sobyanin), but refused the mandate. At a meeting of the initiative group, Maryana Lysenko recalled how Vladimir Putin was one of the first to visit the “red zone” for coronavirus patients. According to Kommersant’s sources, the choice fell on the chief physician also because there should be a woman among the co-chairs of the headquarters.

Several Kommersant sources heard that Vladimir Mashkov could become one of the co-chairs of the headquarters. He also spoke at a meeting of the initiative group and stated that Vladimir Putin enjoys the respect of the states of the “Global South and East, and what can I say – the whole world.” People’s Artist of Russia Mashkov has performed at United Russia events more than once, in 2020 he was a member of the commission to develop amendments to the Constitution, and in the 2021 Duma elections he was number ten on the Moscow United Russia list, but also refused the mandate.

Let us recall that in the 2018 presidential elections, the co-chairs of Vladimir Putin’s headquarters were the head of the Talent and Success Foundation, Elena Shmeleva, the general director of KamAZ, Sergei Kogogin, and the head of the Dima Rogachev Medical Center, Alexander Rumyantsev (now a State Duma deputy).

The head of the Presidential Policy Foundation, Mikhail Vinogradov, calls the co-chairs of Vladimir Putin’s future headquarters “a “white” headquarters that, as a rule, plays a representative role and does not make decisions”: “These figures are symbolic in nature, but they will have the green light in the state media.” .

Andrey Vinokurov