Translated material
Union of the Kremlin and plowshares
United Russia will swallow the Agrarian Party
Last Friday, the Agrarian Party announced its accession to United Russia. This happened at a press conference with the participation of heads of both structures. So far, the parties have only signed a memorandum of intent, and the party congresses will finalize the unification process.Chairman of the Agrarian Party of Russia Vladimir Plotnikov (pictured) issued an explanation about this step. He noted that farmers and United Russia members “have a common approach to solving agricultural issues.” If so, why live apart? In addition, being part of the party in power, which has a constitutional majority in the State Duma, farmers will be able to “lobby the interests of agriculture with greater force.” Minister of Agriculture Alexey Gordeev, who has long been a member of the bureau of the Supreme Council of United Russia, noted at a press conference that the process of uniting the two parties will help strengthen the influence of farmers on the country's socio-economic policy. “The main thing is for the village to become a priority in socio-economic policy,” the minister said.
Secretary of the Presidium of the General Council of United Russia, Vyacheslav Volodin, assured journalists that “the unification of United Russia and the Agrarian Party is a union of equals. He promised that United Russia will definitely preserve the potential of farmers and will demand their personnel, starting from the level of local organizations.
First Deputy Secretary of the Presidium of the General Council of United Russia, Andrei Isaev, is convinced that the unification will strengthen the party in power and weaken its competitors, including the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. And also “A Just Russia”, which itself negotiated with the farmers about unification , but the latter chose the party in power. Mr. Plotnikov noted that “some negotiations are history. The choice has been made, we consciously make this decision.”
In form, the unification of the two parties will look like this: at their congress, the farmers will decide to dissolve themselves, and then collectively join United Russia. This will not happen soon: on December 10 there will be a plenum of the Agrarian Party, at which the date of the congress will be announced.
Andrei Isaev also emphasized that the parties unite primarily in the interests of voters, so that they do not have to “break apart,” given the common approaches of United Russia members and agrarians to rural problems. He also recalled that at one time the Agrarian Party was part of the “Fatherland - All Russia” bloc, which then, in turn, became part of “United Russia,” so this is “essentially about reunification.”
Over their long history, farmers have more than once entered into alliances with both the authorities and the communist opposition, while trying to maintain their independence. The Agrarian Party, created in 1993, now has about 170 thousand members in 73 regions of the country. The party was formed on the initiative of the Agrarian Union of Russia, the trade union of workers in the agro-industrial complex of Russia and the parliamentary faction "Agrarian Union" of the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia. The first chairman of the party was the late Mikhail Lapshin.
In 1993, the agrarians entered the Duma and formed a faction of 55 people there. At that time they were allies of the communists. However, in 1995, the Agrarian Party refused to join the center-left bloc and lost the elections. But the party members elected in single-mandate constituencies formed a group in parliament, headed by Nikolai Kharitonov. In the Duma, the agro-industrial group traditionally entered into a coalition with the communists.
In the 1996 presidential elections, farmers supported the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov. And in the 1999 Duma elections, Lapshin’s Agrarian Party refused to join the communist list, joining the “Fatherland - All Russia” bloc. Kharitonov, together with his comrades, broke away, went to the elections on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and again formed an agro-industrial group in the chamber. And Lapshin supported the candidacy of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections. In January 2002, Mikhail Lapshin became the head of the Altai Republic.
In 2003, the agrarians lost the elections again, but Kharitonov and Plotnikov entered the Duma in single-mandate constituencies, joining the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and United Russia factions, respectively. Soon after the elections, Plotnikov replaced Lapshin as party chairman.
Rumors that farmers would join United Russia have been circulating since the summer of 2006, when the Russian United Industrial Party joined the party in power. However, Plotnikov assured that the farmers would go to the polls on their own. In confirmation of his independence, he unexpectedly left the Duma faction “United Russia”. The top three on the list of farmers included former member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Vasily Shandybin. But the popular popularity of the “Bryansk worker” did not help the party: it gained only 2.3%. Nikolai Kharitonov announced his resignation from the party last summer, calling it “a de facto political ally of the Kremlin,” and again went to the Duma on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
After the 2007 Duma elections, the Agrarian Party, together with United Russia, A Just Russia and the Civil Defense party, nominated Dmitry Medvedev as a candidate for the post of President of Russia.