Battle for mandates

<strong style="font-weight: normal;">In the last two weeks of September, party life is in full swing. Politicians are trying to reshape their election lists to suit the tastes of three parties at once</strong>

In the last two weeks of September, party life is in full swing. Politicians are trying to reshape their election lists to suit the tastes of three parties at once. Party members have to fulfill their obligations to sponsors and the right people, take into account the opinion of the Kremlin and not forget about attractive people for voters.

LDPR will grab Lugovoi

Zhirinovsky decided to play it safe and conduct the election campaign in the company. At the LDPR congress, businessman Andrei Lugovoy was included in the top three and number two. The same one who is passionately desired to be seen in London in the Litvinenko poisoning case. Third on the list, naturally, was the leader’s son, Igor Lebedev.
“I was engaged in business, but thanks to the actions carried out by the British FeMID, all this resulted in political hysteria,” Lugovoi commented on his position. – The situation was politicized as much as possible by British opponents, as a result of which I found myself on the crest of politics.
Zhirinovsky is confident that Lugovoy will make a good deputy, and “his whole history with Britain is attempts to arrange provocations.” the union promises to be mutually beneficial. Lugovoi will be a kind of banner in the hands of Zhirinovsky: we are against foreign intrigues and all kinds of Berezovsky. And if successful, the businessman will receive the coveted parliamentary immunity.
“However, if there is serious evidence that Lugovoi has committed such a serious crime as murder, the State Duma will in any case agree to his involvement,” says Viktor Ilyukhin, deputy chairman of the Duma Security Committee.

SPS will hide behind Sychev

The right did not come up with anything better than including Andrei Sychev on the list, who remained disabled after military service in the Russian army. We will find out this week whether the SPS congress will give the go-ahead for such PR, but the party leaders are not against it yet.
“You can watch everything that’s happening from a wheelchair on TV and clench your fists from powerlessness and hatred. But you can finally protect yourself. And here I can’t help but go to the State Duma. I need her now more than anyone else. I thought a lot, there was so much in my head. I have my own scores to settle with this man (Sergei Ivanov - Ed.). I will not take revenge, I want to punish him and protect others. I want to look into his eyes, I want the whole country to see our conversation and understand what kind of person he is. And so it will be. We’ll break through,” writes Andrei or party PR people in his online diary...
“I am a supporter of including it,” Anton Bakov, a member of the federal political council of the Union of Right Forces and head of the party’s election headquarters, does not hide. – I have known Andrey for a long time, since he was drafted from my district. This is a courageous man, it’s worth it to endure everything that the press writes about him.
Indeed, how dare we write that promoting yourself at the expense of a disabled person is not comme il faut. In addition, it is completely unclear what a young, inexperienced and poorly educated guy in parliament will do if he wins.

"Criminal" passions

A heavy internal party struggle is taking place on the left flank. The communists are painfully dividing the seats. Deputy Ivan Melnikov won the rating vote in regional organizations. His comrades in the Central Committee of the party do not like him, they call him a “neo-Trotskyist” and they were even going to ask him to leave. And now we will have to include Melnikov in the top three along with Gennady Zyuganov and Nobel laureate Zhores Alferov.
Things are even more fun for the Socialist-Revolutionaries. While the ranks of candidates from A Just Russia are being replenished for the press by actors Valery Zolotukhin and Vasily Lanov, serious passions are boiling behind the scenes. Some State Duma deputies are demonstratively slamming the door, under the pretext of not accepting the new party member Alexei Mitrofanov. Information has emerged that the Kremlin politely hinted to the leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Sergei Mironov, about the undesirable presence of “criminals” in the Duma. Sverdlovsk comrades fell into this category - deputy Evgeny Roizman and singer Alexander Novikov, both with outstanding criminal records received in the 80s. The extraordinary popularity of these two Socialist-Revolutionaries in the region adds piquancy to the situation. According to sociologists' forecasts, they are capable of bringing SR to first place in the Sverdlovsk region. The regional organization of the party dared to insist on its own and nominate Roizman and Novikov. Now Mironov will have to resolve the situation at the congress.
They say that the Social Revolutionaries had similar difficulties with the deputy and billionaire Alexander Lebedev. The party wanted to make him number one in Moscow. Lebedev is a well-known fighter against Mayor Luzhkov, and his tandem with former Yabloko member Galina Khovanskaya promised to give good results. Information has emerged that, at Luzhkov’s request, the Kremlin vetoed this person as well. The issue was also postponed until the congress, as if “bargaining is still appropriate.”

Children and spoilers

For United Russia, which decided to hold its congress as the last one, all candidates are a closely guarded secret. The lists are kept in a safe and everything is thought and decided. The fact is that today, according to our information, the “bears” have a thousand applicants, of which less than a quarter will receive mandates. While the party in power chooses the most worthy, officials are trying to place, if not their loved ones, then at least their children in passing places.
Belgorod Governor Evgeny Savchenko nominated his daughter, director of the Interlingua NOU Olga Evgenievna Savchenko, to the preliminary regional list of United Russia. And most likely we will see her in the next composition of the State Duma, but the son of the late Astrakhan governor Guzhvin, Peter, may fly by. The owner of several oil companies was moved from 2nd to 3rd place in the preliminary list. In Astrakhan this position is almost certainly untenable. The daughter of the Far Eastern Plenipotentiary Envoy of President Iskhakov was even less fortunate. Amur United Russia gave Teresa Kamalova a ride in the primaries.
Actually, the above parties plus Yabloko, which has already agreed on all the lists and has not thrown any surprises at the voters, are all the contenders. The remaining participants in the election race are not called anything other than spoilers (parties that will fight not for their own victory, but to prevent others from winning) are not called spoilers. It is already approximately clear who and from whom will begin to lure away the electorate on trifles. But, according to political scientists, there may be another surprise. “Patriots of Russia” by Gennady Semigin are creating a coalition that can actually join the race. The “Patriots” will be accompanied by Gennady Seleznev with the Party of the Revival of Russia, which is not registered with the Ministry of Justice, and Dmitry Rogozin’s “Great Russia”. It is his presence in the first party three that promises many votes. True, Rogozin himself hinted about his transition to another job. He will probably be hired at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But in the end, it is quite possible to turn a shoulder to colleagues and do mischief to former comrades.