The opposition refuses to fight for the posts of governors of the Urals Federal District

“A Just Russia” intends to abandon the fight for the posts of governors of the Kurgan and Chelyabinsk regions. As State Duma deputy Alexander Burkov, who oversees the party’s election campaigns in the regions, explained, this decision was made due to the lack of real chances of victory. Among the parliamentary parties, only United Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation have finally decided on the choice of candidates. The LDPR postponed this decision until the end of the month; smaller parties have not yet shown interest in the elections of regional leaders. Experts believe that the reason for the difficulties in selecting candidates is the reluctance of politicians to be extras in the context of a municipal filter.

As State Duma deputy from “A Just Russia” Alexander Burkov, who oversees party election campaigns in the regions of Russia, told Kommersant, the Just Russia members do not intend to participate in the elections of governors of the Kurgan and Chelyabinsk regions. The reason for this was possible difficulties in overcoming the municipal barrier. “In the Kurgan regional branch there is now no candidate who could win the elections. In Chelyabinsk there is such a candidate - State Duma deputy Valery Hartung, but, as he correctly noted, they will not allow us to nominate a strong candidate. I think that difficulties with collecting signatures of municipal deputies will arise for everyone except representatives of the party in power,” he explained. At the same time, the Kurgan activists of A Just Russia have already supported the candidacy of acting governor Alexei Kokorin. The Right Russians assess their prospects in the Tyumen region more positively: according to Mr. Burkov, the support of local deputies will allow them to independently overcome the municipal filter. The final candidate from parliamentary parties in the Tyumen elections will be determined by the end of the week: it could be either the leader of the region’s party members, Vladimir Piskaikin, or State Duma deputy from Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, Mikhail Serdyuk.

The intention of the federal government to hold gubernatorial elections in three regions of the Ural Federal District has been known for more than a month, however, apart from United Russia, only the Communist Party of the Russian Federation has fully revealed its plans, where federal and regional deputies have been nominated against the provisional governors. Acting head of the Chelyabinsk region Boris Dubrovsky will compete with deputy of the regional legislative assembly Konstantin Natsievsky, Tyumen governor Vladimir Yakushev will compete with State Duma deputy Pavel Dorokhin, and the opponent of the head of the Kurgan region Alexei Kokorin will be the former vice-governor of the region Ivan Evgenov. The Liberal Democrats intend to nominate Mikhail Selyukov as a candidate for the regional Duma deputy in the Tyumen elections; in other regions, party members will make a decision only at the end of June.

Most non-parliamentary parties have not yet expressed public interest in the fight for leadership positions in the regions. Party organizations will be able to nominate their candidates for governor until July 4. Moreover, each of the applicants will have to collect more than 250 signatures of municipal deputies in their support by the end of July.

“The difficulties with selecting opposition candidates are due to the fact that the municipal filter makes the registration procedure impossible without administrative support,” says Alexander Kynev, head of regional programs at the Information Policy Development Fund. — An analysis of election campaigns of past years shows that the lion’s share of signatories for all candidates, except perhaps candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, are deputies of United Russia. In such a situation, serious political players simply do not want to play the role of extras.” The political scientist noted that the situation is especially difficult in the Tyumen region, where it is also necessary to collect signatures of deputies from the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug; At the same time, at the district level, the opposition does not physically have enough deputies to pass the filter without the help of United Russia. President of the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation Mikhail Vinogradov added that in several regions of Russia there are signs that opposition parties do not want to go to the polls and, given United Russia’s need for opponents, “are starting to bargain with the authorities in order to receive funding, for example, for conducting election campaigns."

Dmitry Komarov

The filter was frightening