The second round of elections in Bashkiria, Sakhalin, Tver and Kirov regions did not bring any sensations. The favorites of the first round won by a significant margin. Experts say that in all four regions the Kremlin's support ensured the success of the winners.

Last Sunday, the second round of elections for the President of Bashkortostan and the governors of the Tver, Sakhalin and Kirov regions took place. The winners of the first round, which took place on December 7, confidently won against their competitors.

Before the first round of the Bashkiria presidential elections and in the first days after it, scandal followed scandal, candidates showered each other with accusations of illegal campaigning and attempts to falsify the voting results. On the eve of the vote, the local prosecutor's office opened a criminal case on the fact of the production of counterfeit ballots, allegedly organized by the administration of the republic's president.

The second round was to feature the current head of the republic with 13 years of experience, Murtaza Rakhimov, who received about 43% of the votes on December 7, and the co-owner of Mezhprombank, Sergei Veremeyenko (more than 25%). However, the confrontation did not happen: the scandalous campaign ended with a surprisingly calm finale.

A source in the presidential administration believes that Veremeyenko had every chance of winning the second round, but the Kremlin provided decisive support to Rakhimov. On December 9, President Vladimir Putin met with him and, according to a source close to the Bashkir leader, assured him of a successful outcome of the second round, promising to give "appropriate instructions." Some time later, the licenses of two republican media outlets that supported Veremeyenko were suspended for violating campaigning conditions. Then Rakhimov's rival himself closed his headquarters in Ufa. On December 19, Veremeyenko put the final point in the campaign. He informed voters "about active consultations" regarding his future employment and announced that he was no longer running for the post of head of the republic. As a result, in the second round, Rakhimov received 78.01% of the votes, and Veremeyenko only 15.85%.

Experts believe that Rakhimov has won a Pyrrhic victory. Rostislav Turovsky from the Center for Political Technologies is convinced that the Kremlin's support will cost the Bashkortostan president dearly, who will have to open the doors to federal business. "Rakhimov will have to return the privatized enterprises of the Bashkir fuel and energy complex to state ownership and agree to the republic's final transition to a model of inter-budgetary relations common to all regions," adds the presidential administration official. And Nikolai Petrov from the Carnegie Moscow Center believes that the Kremlin may demand that Rakhimov appoint Moscow security officials to key positions in the republic's government.

In the elections in the Tver region, the Kremlin's support was less visible, but no less effective. Deputy Chairman of the State Sports Committee Dmitry Zelenin, who was actively supported by United Russia, gained 57.42% of the votes in the second round against 33.85% for former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Igor Zubov.

Petrov says that the participation of the presidential administration in the elections, for which several candidates were acceptable (including Zelenin and Zubov), was limited to propaganda against the disgraced incumbent governor Vladimir Platov. At the same time, objectively, Zelenin's resources, primarily financial, turned out to be stronger than those of all his competitors. Turovsky warns that Zelenin's independence could play a cruel joke on him. "The Kremlin does not like such people and will strive to create counterbalances for him [Zelenin] [in the region]," the expert believes.

But in Sakhalin and Kirov Oblast, the federal center confidently and calmly brought "its" people to power. A source in the presidential administration says that former deputy Nikolai Shaklein, who received 62.77% of the votes in the second round of elections for the head of Kirov Oblast, was helped by the plenipotentiary representative office in the Volga Federal District. The Kremlin also supported acting governor of Sakhalin Oblast Ivan Malakhov, who received 53.01% of the votes in the second round, says Turovsky. "He showed himself to be a rational person and continued the line of the governor [Igor Farkhutdinov], who died in a plane crash and was loyal to the center," agrees Petrov.

According to the Kremlin's scenario