Translated material
Roizman emerged from the fog
"A Just Russia" may cease to exist in the Sverdlovsk region
The conflict between the Sverdlovsk branch of A Just Russia and the federal leadership is over - State Duma deputy Evgeny Roizman left the party . He informed the electorate about his decision via LiveJournal. “I’ve made a decision - I’m leaving A Just Russia.” I just don't want to have anything to do with it. And I would also like to forget... This was the first time in my life that I entered somewhere. And how lucky!.. Today I gathered the chairmen of all local branches. I consulted with everyone. Everyone has spoken. Supported. The decision was made unanimously. Everyone went to notify people. The regional branch has about 10 thousand people. Let's all go out. I really need to leave. What should we do there? Compete with p...? Or admire candidates who go into politics with their heads held high and a jar of Vaseline under their arms? This is not about us,” Mr. Roizman told his readers and received over a hundred comments and approval. Most often, readers of the deputy's LiveJournal recalled other famous "leavers" from the party - the mayor of Voronezh, Boris Skrynnikov, and General Valentin Varennikov, a former member of the Rodina bloc.Already on Wednesday afternoon, on the building where the State Duma deputy’s public reception is located, workers were removing a huge advertising poster with the party’s symbols. At a specially convened press conference, Yevgeny Roizman told reporters that he was going to revive the public organization “Strength in Truth,” which he abandoned while focusing on politics. In two weeks, together with his comrades in the movement, the State Duma deputy is going to decide which party to support in the elections to the Russian parliament.
In itself, Yevgeny Roizman's exit from A Just Russia was not a surprise - for the last month the Sverdlovsk branch had been in severe conflict with the federal leadership of the party. The leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, and after him the congress, decided not to include the leader of the regional branch, Mr. Roizman, and his friend, the bard Alexander Novikov, on the election lists for the State Duma. Thus, the proposal of the regional conference, which nominated two of its leaders to the first positions of the regional lists, was rejected. Even then, Yevgeny Roizman began to speak impartially about the party he joined at the end of 2006.
But open confrontation did not work out: Sergei Mironov said that A Just Russia would not throw away prominent politicians and Mr. Roizman would definitely take part in other election campaigns. For Yekaterinburg, this meant the appearance of Mr. Roizman in the mayoral elections, which will take place in March 2008. Negotiations continued, the Sverdlovsk “Socialist Revolutionaries” again gathered for a conference and demanded to include their leader in the State Duma electoral list, achieved nothing and are now preparing to leave the party.
Mr. Roizman, at his press conference, explained his exclusion from the lists as follows: “They were afraid that A Just Russia would win with a big advantage. In the Urals, the party’s rating was too high.” Now the former party member intends to appeal to the Prosecutor General of Russia Yuri Chaika with a request to check the legitimacy of the decisions taken at the A Just Russia congress. Evgeniy Roizman made a reservation that he does not consider these actions to be revenge, he is simply seeking justice.
Political scientist Konstantin Kiselev predicts that after Yevgeny Roizman leaves the department, his electorate will support not “A Just Russia” in the elections, but the LDPR, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and “Civil Force”. But the remaining “Socialist Revolutionaries” still hope to get into the Duma. While refusing to support Mr. Roizman, the party supported the regional Duma deputy, well-known regional oppositionist Alexander Burkov, who headed one of the regional groups and is now leading an active campaign. Realizing that if Mr. Burkov wins, the effect of the mass exodus of Yevgeny Roizman’s supporters will be blurred, 18 former party members appealed to the leadership of A Just Russia with a request to exclude Alexander Burkov from the list of candidates for State Duma deputies. Mr. Burkov himself has not yet commented on what is happening.
As for the party leader Sergei Mironov, yesterday he commented on the departure of one of his former closest associates from the party as follows: “Every person has the right to his choice. Including the choice of his own path, and the party, and if he (Roizman. - Ed. ) made such a decision, then it is his decision. There is a momentary decision, and there is painstaking, hard work. Someone in this work is ready to be a stayer, someone is a sprinter, but under different circumstances people come and go. either he thinks that he was offended, or leaving is a normal situation, and therefore I have nothing special to comment on.”
In turn, Yevgeny Roizman said yesterday: “Everyone (chairmen local branches of "SR" in the Sverdlovsk region. - - Ed. ) unanimously supported the decision. The entire regional branch of the A Just Russia party will all come out. Statements about this have already been written, there are already stacks of them." So the very existence of A Just Russia in one of the largest regions of the country has been called into question.