Khimki mayoral candidate Igor Belousov left the party

Candidate for mayor of Khimki near Moscow, Igor Belousov, left the Yabloko party because it refused to nominate him as a candidate and declared support for civil activist Evgenia Chirikova. Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin explained this decision by saying that Mr. Belousov “has weight in Khimki, but has not shown himself in any way for three years.” The Moscow Regional Election Commission expects at least ten candidates to run for mayor of Khimki.

Today the nomination of candidates for the post of head of Khimki officially began, the elections of which will be held on October 14. According to the head of the Moscow Regional Election Commission, Irek Vildanov, at least ten candidates will be able to take part in the elections. The first to bring documents to the election commission were candidate from the Green party Aleksey Gusenkov and self-nominated lawyer Yuri Pozdnyakov, Mr. Vildanov said. He emphasized that on Monday the election commission will be waiting for Evgenia Chirikova’s application: “We will open all the doors wide open in the morning, let him come. We don’t want a scandal about this.”

The first scandal surrounding the nomination of candidates has already broken out. Mayoral candidate Igor Belousov announced his resignation from the Yabloko party. According to party press secretary Igor Yakovlev, Mr. Belousov wrote a letter of resignation from the party before his nomination. “Now he has nothing to do with us, we have this procedure: as soon as a person writes a letter of resignation, he ceases to be a member of the party,” said Mr. Yakovlev. Let us recall that earlier the chairman of the party, Sergei Mitrokhin, announced that Yabloko would support civil activist Evgenia Chirikova in the mayoral elections, but would not nominate its own candidate. In 2009, Ms. Chirikova already tried to become mayor, but took third place in the elections after ex-mayor Vladimir Strelchenko (50% of the votes) and Igor Belousov (22%).

Sergei Mitrokhin told Kommersant that “he did not expel Igor Belousov from the party, it was his personal decision.” The Yabloko leader is not sure that Mr. Belousov will be able to repeat his success of 2009: “Although he has weight in Khimki, he has not shown himself in any way for the last three years.” And with Evgenia Chirikova, Mr. Mitrokhin emphasized, Yabloko “has a long history of relationship: the party supported her when no one had even heard of the Khimki Forest.” Other parties should decide on their candidates in the near future.

Let us remind you that the mayor of Khimki, Vladimir Strelchenko, resigned early on August 14. And about. The former first vice-governor of the Tula region, United Russia member Oleg Shakhov, was appointed mayor.

Sofia Samokhina

Yabloko chose Evgenia Chirikova