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We're locals ourselves
A representative of the old elite became the speaker of the Nizhny Novgorod parliament
Yesterday the first meeting of the new legislative assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod region took place. As expected, the leader of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the United Russia party, Evgeny Lyulin, became the chairman of the regional parliament. Let us recall that following the election results, the party in power received 33 deputy mandates out of 50 (the Pensioners Party - nine mandates, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - five, the Liberal Democratic Party - two). Therefore, United Russia easily managed to retain the post of speaker of the regional parliament for another five years.Yesterday, 39 out of 46 deputies present voted for Mr. Lyulin’s candidacy. Nikolai Ryabov, the candidate for the post of speaker from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, was supported by five parliamentarians, two more abstained.
A few days ago, the General Council of United Russia approved Mr. Lyulin's candidacy for the post of speaker. He was publicly supported by the regional governor Valery Shantsev and the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod Vadim Bulavinov, who together with Evgeny Lyulin headed the United Russia list in the elections.
According to Nizhny Novgorod political scientist Sergei Kocherov, the election of Yevgeny Lyulin as speaker of the regional parliament is a manifestation of either the weakness or short-sightedness of the governor. The fact is that Mr. Lyulin is a representative of the Nizhny Novgorod business elite and a protégé of the former presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District, Sergei Kiriyenko. For a long time, the Nizhny Novgorod speaker was considered the most likely contender for the post of regional governor. According to a Vremya Novostey source, last summer it was his candidacy that Mr. Kiriyenko proposed to Vladimir Putin for the post of head of the region. However, then the president chose to choose the candidacy of Moscow vice-mayor Valery Shantsev. This decision made it possible not only to deal a significant blow to the overly strengthened team of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, but also to strengthen federal control over the Nizhny Novgorod business elite. Evgeny Lyulin did not lose his head in this difficult situation and, as speaker of the regional parliament, did everything in his power to ensure that the candidacy of the presidential elect was approved without any problems in the regional legislative assembly.
As for the work of the new parliament and its relationship with Governor Shantsev, no disagreements are expected publicly, but it is possible that the struggle for influence will be waged behind the scenes. In the near future, the parliament of the Nizhny Novgorod region will elect Evgeniy Lyulin's deputies and appoint a new representative of the regional parliament in the Federation Council. In both cases, the Nizhny Novgorod governor will hardly be able to greatly influence the choice of parliamentarians and appoint his own people to these positions. One of Mr. Lyulin's deputies will be Roman Antonov, chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the Pensioners Party, and he will most likely take the post of chairman of one of the key committees of the legislative assembly - the budget committee. And Dmitry Bednyakov, who also represents the local business elite, will most likely remain the parliamentary representative in the Federation Council.
As a result, the confrontation between the governor and the parliament, or more precisely, between Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow business, which has recently begun to actively work in the Nizhny Novgorod region, which causes natural dissatisfaction among local entrepreneurs, will most likely remain. Moreover, both represent the party in power, and therefore the parties will have to come to an agreement.