Translated material
Swan, beetle and toad
In the Sverdlovsk region, Mironov’s party leaves... from Mironov’s party
The creation of a “relevant left,” loudly announced at the federal level, is facing big problems in the regions. At the end of last week, the presidium of A Just Russia decided on candidates for the post of leaders of party cells in a number of regions. In the Sverdlovsk region, this led to open protest by activists of the Russian Party of Life and the refusal of its members to bloc with the Russian Party of Pensioners and Rodina. The whole problem is in personalities.According to the decision of the presidium of the Council of A Just Russia, delegates to the Sverdlovsk conference of the united party must elect as their leader Evgeny Artyukh, who currently heads the regional branch of the Russian Party of Pensioners and heads the largest opposition faction in the regional Duma. In turn, the activists of the Russian Party of Life see the leader only as State Duma deputy Yevgeny Roizman or his confidant, regional Duma deputy and head of the executive committee of the Russian Orthodox Church Dmitry Utkin.
The Zhizny people began blocking the unification immediately after the unification congress of the three parties in Moscow, when it was officially decided that the Russian Party of Pensioners was preparing to create a new cell in the Sverdlovsk region. Supporters of Mr. Roizman immediately declared the competitor’s success temporary, called his work technical and warned that they did not intend to unite with Evgeniy Artyukh. At the same time, in Moscow, the State Duma deputy held dozens of meetings with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, seeking support for his candidate. Counting on the success of these negotiations, in Yekaterinburg representatives of the Party of Life refused to participate in all events organized by Mr. Artyukh, again and again distributing statements with direct insults to their future fellow party members in A Just Russia. In one of his speeches, Evgeny Roizman compared the leaders of the regional branch of the Party of Pensioners and Rodina, Evgeny Artyukh and Evgeny Zyablitsev (Mr. Roizman even fought with the latter on television during the recent campaign for the elections to the Sverdlovsk regional parliament) with a beetle and a toad.
Formally, the struggle ended with the meeting of the presidium of A Just Russia. Now Evgeniy Artyukh must become the legitimate leader of the department. In order for the RPZ to still take part in the unification process, she was given the post of first deputy chairman of the regional party council. This vacancy should be filled by the leader of the regional cell of the Russian Orthodox Church, Valery Chereshnev. But Yevgeny Roizman’s supporters continue to fight.
“We declare that the actual appointment of Evgeniy Artyukh as the head of the regional organization of the party “A Just Russia - RPZh” in no way takes into account either our opinion or the opinion of ordinary members of the Russian Party of Life. We consider it necessary to once again confirm our position, already expressed earlier: we will not work under the leadership of Artyukh, who is controlled by United Russia, and his team. In the near future, after consultations with our activists, we will inform the public about our further actions,” says a special statement from the Sverdlovsk executive committee of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Sverdlovsk politicians familiar with the situation claim that Yevgeny Roizman’s team is at a loss. The temporary pause that Roizman’s team takes is necessary to understand how to get out of an unpleasant situation. Firstly, the presidium of “Spravedlivaya” allowed Evgeny Artyukh, in the event of the RPP refusing to work, to create a cell based on the RPP and “Rodina”, without paying attention to opponents. Secondly, the resource of the State Duma deputy turned out to be much weaker than he imagined.
A high-ranking official in the administration of the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, who oversees the political bloc, says that Yevgeny Roizman’s failure is connected with the political situation not even in Yekaterinburg, but in Moscow. “Roizman, with his criminal past, fights at debates, all these statements about toads and beetles, is disadvantageous to Sergei Mironov (Speaker of the Federation Council, leader of A Just Russia - Ed .). It gives reasons for criticism and accusations against the new party,” explains the official.
As if to confirm these words, the leader of United Russia, Boris Gryzlov, at the seventh party congress in Yekaterinburg last Saturday, directly accused A Just Russia of providing support to criminals striving for power.