Translated material
Shortlist
Only Vladimir Putin remains on the federal part of the United Russia list
The second day of the United Russia congress, following the first, continued to present surprises. On Monday, at the opening of the event, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a sensational statement: he is ready to head the United Russia election list . Yesterday the party had to approve the federal and regional lists and, like the other parties admitted to the elections, choose the first three leaders. More precisely, the other two. But, as it turned out during the congress, there are no second or third leaders if the first is the president of the country.Until yesterday, different assumptions were made regarding the distribution of the remaining two seats in the federal trio of United Russia members. The names of the party leader, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, permanent head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko and even Olympic champion in speed skating Svetlana Zhurova were mentioned. However, in the end, United Russia members decided that there was no surname that would look decent next to the surname of the president.
Therefore, yesterday at the congress a unique decision was made in the history of Russian election campaigns - the non-party Vladimir Putin will head the list of the party in power alone. However, United Russia broke traditions in the last elections, when instead of the federal troika, the federal quartet took the helm of the election campaign - Gryzlov, Shoigu, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and President of the Republic of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev.
The party leaders who did not make it into the top three will head the regional lists. In particular, Boris Gryzlov is in St. Petersburg, and Sergei Shoigu is in the Stavropol Territory, where in March of this year United Russia sensationally lost the regional elections to A Just Russia. Valentina Matvienko, who was also among the candidates to join the federal three, is number two on the St. Petersburg list. Yesterday she once again confirmed that she does not intend to join the party itself.
The election list of United Russia members, consisting of 598 names, is divided into 83 regional groups. Many of these groups were headed by heads of federal subjects. For example, the first number on the list for the Moscow region is Boris Gromov, for Kabardino-Balkaria - Arsen Kanokov, for Kalmykia - Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, in the list for the Republic of Mari El - Leonid Markelov, for Mordovia - Nikolay Merkushkin, for the Republic of Sakha -- Vyacheslav Shtyrov, for the Nizhny Novgorod region - Valery Shantsev, for the Oryol region - Egor Stroev, for Tatarstan - Mintimer Shaimiev, for the Chechen Republic - Ramzan Kadyrov, for the Rostov region - Vladimir Chub, for the Sverdlovsk region - Eduard Rossel, in the Belgorod region - Evgeny Savchenko. The list for Moscow was headed by the mayor of the capital, Yuri Luzhkov, second place was taken by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, and third place was taken by State Duma deputy and film director Stanislav Govorukhin.
Minister of Agriculture Alexey Gordeev took first place on the list for the Ryazan region. Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev topped the list for the Perm Territory. The current governor of the region, Oleg Chirkunov, was not included in the list at all. The party leadership did not forgive him for his poor result in the elections to the regional parliament, when Mr. Chirkunov headed the list.
Vice Speaker of the State Duma Vladimir Katrenko, who oversaw the elections to the Stavropol Legislative Assembly, in which United Russia showed second results after A Just Russia, was not among the candidates for deputies. The vice speaker's press service explained this turn of events by his transfer to work in the federal executive authorities.
Some current United Russia deputies, along with governors, have received the honor of leading regional groups. Vice Speaker of the State Duma from the United Russia faction, head of the party's election headquarters Vyacheslav Volodin became the first on the list for the Saratov region, Vice Speaker Artur Chilingarov will lead the United Russia members of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug to victory, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy Andrei Isaev stood in the head of the list for the Vladimir region. And deputy Franz Klintsevich took first position on the list for the Kostroma region. Valery Draganov, who left there to work at the Russian Aluminum company, will try to return to the Duma - he occupies 12th place on the list for the Moscow region. Although the day before, Mr. Putin called on United Russia not to include businessmen in the party’s election lists. Perhaps that is why, for example, billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, who specially moved to United Russia from the LDPR, was not there, hoping to head the list of the party in power in Dagestan.