Freestyle wrestling of opposites

United Russia shares the parliament of Vladikavkaz with itself

North Ossetia is the first of the Caucasian republics to experience the delights of the new system of regional representation in the State Duma. After a short discussion, the regional list of the universally victorious United Russia party was headed, as in the vast majority of other regions, by the head of the republic , Taimuraz Mamsurov . And he, naturally, like all “locomotives”, is not going to move from his chair to the plenary meeting hall in Okhotny Ryad. In theory, the Duma seat should have gone to multiple Olympic wrestling champion and businessman Arsen Fadzaev, who already has experience representing the interests of Ossetia in the lower house of the Federal Assembly. However, as a result of the December 2 elections, Mr. Fadzaev found himself at the center of a party scandal, after which there is no certainty that the North Ossetian mandate will fall into his hands. And number three on the North Ossetian United Russia list is the mayor of Mozdok, Georgy Adamov. He was included in the list for political reasons, to show respect to the geographically isolated Mozdok and to emphasize that the republic is multinational, but no one seriously expected that with only 474,215 voters it would come to number three.

In the federal parliamentary elections, Ossetia showed quite “humane” results compared to its neighbors. In Ingushetia , United Russia received 98.7%, in Kabardino-Balkaria - 96.2, and in North Ossetia - “only” 71.6. Support for Putin's plan was lower in the Caucasus only in Adygea (70.9%). But in North Ossetia, this lag is associated with the observance of at least relative honesty of the count, which already remained completely within the framework of increased electoral loyalty traditional for the Caucasus.

In addition to the Duma, on December 2, Ossetia elected a regional parliament and a city assembly of its capital, Vladikavkaz. In the regional parliament, as in the previous Russian Duma, half of the seats were distributed according to party lists (64% victory for United Russia), half - in single-mandate constituencies (20 out of 35 deputies are members of the ruling party). There is also no shortage of United Russia members in the new city assembly, but suddenly it turned out that they represent two different factions, which are very far from mutual love.

All autumn, North Ossetia was preparing for the first calm elections in many years, the outcome of which was generally known in advance, and the usual struggle between clans and influence groups was minimized by a system of mutual agreements. The current State Duma deputy Arsen Fadzaev was first supposed to head the regional list of United Russia in the federal elections. But even after the head of the region, Taimuraz Mamsurov, appeared on the first line, Mr. Fadzaev did not feel much concern: the “locomotive” rule was supposed to secure the deputy mandate for him.

At the same time, Arsen Fadzaev, as is believed in the republic, is counting on the position of head of the region after the expiration of Mr. Mamsurov’s term of office. And since everything with the Duma campaign was clear in advance, he apparently decided, without wasting time, to secure a starting position for himself in the republic. The legendary wrestler himself nominated himself to the city assembly in one of the 32 urban districts of Vladikavkaz and nominated his supporters in all the others. This group of candidates became known as the “New Team.” The campaign was based on criticism of the current city authorities, led by Mayor Kazbek Pagiev. Mr. Pagiev, deputy head of the regional United Russia organization, was removed from his post as mayor for several months in 2005 by an investigative team from the Prosecutor General's Office when it began investigating North Ossetian financial abuses.

Naturally, the republican administration considered the appearance of the “New Team” to be a violation of the agreements. The head of the republic publicly and rather sharply hinted that Arsen Fadzaev’s associates are incompetent in the field of urban management. In response, Mr. Fadzaev accused the republican authorities of preparing for election fraud: his group actually tried to disrupt early voting, which, from their point of view, was carried out in violation of procedures, and then drew attention to the incredibly high - about 9,000 - number of absentee ballots certificates issued in North Ossetia. For comparison, in Moscow, where the number of voters is an order of magnitude greater than in Ossetia, about 30 thousand absentee ballots are issued. At the same time, Arsen Fadzaev’s attempt to personally get acquainted with the documents relating to “remote access” to ballot boxes at the city election commission of Vladikavkaz was not successful crowned.

After the elections, ballots were counted in Vladikavkaz longer than in any other North Caucasian city. As a result, it turned out that representatives of the “New Team” received 11 of the 32 seats in the city assembly. 13 remained with members of the current mayor's team. We can assume that the “New Team” was defeated - in order to even try to replace the mayor, 17 seats out of 32 were needed. Arsen Fadzaev himself lost the elections in his district to a woman, which is not particularly typical for North Ossetia. His “banner”, General of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Stanislav Suanov, whom experts periodically include in the lists of candidates for the post of head of the region and whom Arsen Fadzaev convinced in favor of city elections to refuse to participate in the elections of the regional legislative assembly as the “engine” of “A Just Russia”, conceded in in his district to Vladimir Sekinaev, one of the leaders of the city BTI.

These and other cases have surprised and upset supporters of Arsen Fadzaev, who are challenging the results of the city elections in court, but the results of this story may become even sadder for them. According to Vremya Novostei, the General Council of United Russia has already voiced the idea that it would be inappropriate to retain a deputy mandate for an athlete with an overly active life position. On the other hand, sources close to Mr. Fadzaev himself assure that his party rear is still strong. According to one version, Arsen Fadzaev enjoys the support of security forces both in the party and in the administration of the Russian President.

The positions of Taimuraz Mamsurov, as the Vremya Novostei newspaper has already written, in this sense cannot be called impeccably reliable. The legal battle for the town meeting may well be the beginning of a more serious political struggle, despite the fact that all the fighters seem to be members of a political party whose name emphasizes its monolithic unity. However, for now the current republican team is in complete control of the situation, and in everyday life the confrontation is noticeable only in the growing retail sales of loyal and opposition newspapers.

Ivan SUKHOV