A list for plebiscite

The upcoming parliamentary elections, in fact, acquire a plebiscitable character - “for” or “against” the chief candidate. It is not surprising that in the end, nothing remained of all plans for the upper part of the “United Russia” electoral list, as well as the very first three, the place of which was taken by the only candidate - so sacred that even the most influential party notes cannot stand next to him. However, this is not surprising - if United Russia is a “instrumental” party, then it, as befits the instrument, can only be in the same hands.

The foregoing does not mean that when compiling the list there were no intrigues, although they were clearly secondary. To begin with, the list includes the vast majority of governors, including those whom the experts no longer hoped to see in it. For example, Sergey Katanandov from Karelia, who seems to have forgiven the year before lasting conflict in the condo -subordinate Kondopoga. Mikhail Kuznetsov from the Pskov region - he did not head the list of “United Russia” in the regional elections, and his non -inclusion in the federal list of “United Russia” would no longer mean yellow, but a red card. Another little surprise - the Khakass governor Alexei Lebed, who was not so long ago, was visited by an ambulance (though he took second place in the quota allocated to his republic).

Now about those governors who are not on the list. The absence of the Stavropol, Alexander Chernogorov, is predictable from the party, who was hastily expelled from the party in the March elections - in the battle against the ambitious mayor of Stavropol Dmitry Kuzmin (heads of the Socialist Revolutionaries), heavy artillery in the form of Sergey Shoigu was thrown. There is no Arkhangelsk governor Nikolai Kiselev, involved in the corruption scandal, as well as his Ryazan colleague Georgy Shpak (the list of United Russia on Ryazan is headed by Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev, who is considered a possible candidate for the post of head of this region). There is no predictably Murat Zyazikov - it would be strange if he were on the list of “Party of power”, given the tense situation in Ingushetia. There is no Karachai Mustafa Batdyev-he did not “recover” after a dramatic story with the execution of a group of business competitors on the orders of his son-in-law (although now former) Aliya Kaitova. There are no two governors who, despite the complete loyalty to the Kremlin, are still listed in the category of “Reds” - Nikolai Vinogradov from Vladimir and Nikolai Maksyuta from Volgograd. There is no Oleg Chirkunov from the Perm Territory - instead of him, his predecessor Yuri Trutnev is running for him, who, as they say,, unlike most “steam locomotives”, will accept the deputy mandate and can head the Duma committee on natural resources.

The Smolensky Governor Viktor Maslov, the head of the Voronezh region, Vladimir Kulakov (both of them, before coming to the leadership of their regions, were generals of the FSB), Pavel Ipatov from the Saratov region, Nikolai Shaklein from the Kirov region, as well as the head of the Komi Republic, as well as the head of the Komi Republic, as well as the head of the Komi Republic, which is somewhat amazing if we take into account his reputation of the regional “heavyweight”. The absence of the Penza governor Vasily Bochkarev was not expected equally in the list.

The list of the heads of the regions that United Russia ignored is notable for the fact that most of its defendants are “departure candidates”, which in the near future has real chances to part with their posts. As for the governors who are firmly sitting in their seats, Valentina Matvienko may experience a certain insult. She was persuaded for a long time to enter the “United Russia” list, offering either leadership in its St. Petersburg part, or even a “female” place in the first three. When the governor gave his consent, it turned out that there would be no first three. Therefore, the first number in St. Petersburg will be the chairman of the State Duma, the leader of the Duma “United Russia” faction and the head of the party of the Higher Council in one person Boris Gryzlov. In this situation, Matvienko had to be content with the role of the “second according to Peter” - not to refuse to participate in the list that the president personally headed.

All the "notes" of the deputy corps will retain their mandates, although some of them fell on rather exotic places in the list. So the love of Slisk is running far from her native Saratov - in the Kemerovo region, where she received only the fourth position - however, absolutely passing, taking into account the “Putin” factor and the first place in this regional list of the superpopular governor Aman Tuleyev. The head of the Duma Committee on Property Viktor Pleskachevsky generally became the sixth in the Chelyabinsk region - but this place can also be considered practically guaranteeing the deputy mandate, taking into account the first three candidates (governor, the General Director of Magnitogorsk and the mayor of Chelyabinsk), most likely, will not go to the Duma.

There is no businessman Suleiman Kerimov, who only recently replaced the LDPR to a “one Russia” closer to power. The party members could not help but listen to the sovereign to indicate the non -inclusion in the list of billionaires (apparently, it was personally to Kerimov) and parted with this candidate. It must be assumed that voters who either did not know Kerimov before or perceived him only as a character from the chronicle of incidents are unlikely to pay attention to the “loss of a fighter”.

There are not many stars of the non -political sphere on the list, and far from always they occupy leading places in their regions - it seems that they are included, rather, by inertia. So Alina Kabaeva became the seventh in the Tatarstan part of the list; Irina Rodnina - fifth in Omsk; Vladislav Tretyak - the third in Saratovskaya; Svetlana Khorkina - the third in Belgorod; Anton Sikharulidze - the eighth in St. Petersburg. And this is not surprising. The administrative resource of governors provides the party with the vast majority of deputy mandates. Putin’s political and image resources give a great chance for the constitutional majority. So the additional resources of the party are not too much.

Author - Deputy General Director of the Center for Political Technology