United Russia refused an agreement with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on mutual concessions in elections in 40 single-mandate constituencies, considering that Gennady Zyuganov violated the original agreements. This may lead to intense competition in some regions

Meeting of the State Duma of the Russian Federation (Photo: Alexander Shalgin/TASS)

Breakdown of negotiations

The leadership of United Russia decided to abandon negotiations with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the division of part of the single-mandate constituencies in the State Duma elections, one of the participants in the negotiations and an interlocutor close to the leadership of the party in power told RBC. According to one of them, the decision was agreed with the presidential administration.

The negotiations became known in mid-February. Then the discussion was that four parliamentary parties (United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia) would not fight each other in 40 single-mandate constituencies (225 in total) in the Duma elections this fall. According to preliminary agreements, each party was supposed to nominate its candidates in ten districts and support candidates from opponents in the remaining thirty. This was necessary to guarantee the retention of the most influential deputies from all factions in the Duma, RBC’s interlocutors argued. The information was confirmed by the leadership of United Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party.

Now the secretary of the General Council of United Russia, Sergei Neverov, told RBC that there is no positive dynamics in negotiations with the opposition regarding single-mandate constituencies. “Representatives of the parliamentary opposition proposed to discuss this issue. In our opinion, the discussion should be about current deputies who are experts in their fields. But after public statements about the start of negotiations, our colleagues no longer discussed this topic with us. In any case, regardless of how the dialogue goes and will go, the preliminary voting (United Russia primaries) will take place in all 225 districts,” Neverov emphasized.

Deputy Speaker of the State Duma from the LDPR, Igor Lebedev, previously told RBC the same thing: according to him, no additional negotiations have been held recently. But the agreements with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Liberal Democrats remain in force, assures RBC’s interlocutor in United Russia. “It’s just that now, most likely, 30 districts will be divided between three parties, and all of them will fight the Communist Party of the Russian Federation,” he claims. A source in the leadership of A Just Russia confirms: the party has already prepared ten candidates for an inter-party agreement and is ready to support United Russia and the LDPR in other districts.

Zyuganov maneuver

Two RBC interlocutors close to the leadership of United Russia give the following version of why the party refused negotiations: the leader of the Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov violated the main condition of a possible agreement - to nominate only the most influential deputies in “non-competitive” regions. “During the negotiations, Zyuganov said that the most authoritative members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will enter the Duma without any agreements. And he included “middle peasants” in the coalition list—deputies little known to the general public, who, of course, can only win without competition,” says one of the interlocutors. According to him, negotiators from the party in power could not agree to conditions that would create clear preferences for the communists over other participants in the negotiations. Now United Russia will nominate candidates in those constituencies that it previously intended to give to the communists, the source says.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation denies this version. The press secretary of the communist leader, State Duma deputy Alexander Yushchenko told RBC that the party initially did not conduct any negotiations on the division of districts and is preparing to nominate its candidates everywhere. Earlier, the deputy head of the Communist faction in the Duma, Nikolai Kolomeytsev, called information about a possible agreement “zilch.”

Zyuganov himself, in an interview with Rossiya 24 on February 20, did not rule out that the party may not nominate strong candidates in those regions where there is a well-established candidate from other forces. At the same time, he emphasized that the parties did not reach any agreements. The leader of the Duma faction of United Russia, Vladimir Vasiliev, at one of the meetings of the presidium of the party’s General Council, argued that it was Zyuganov who initiated the negotiations.

The communists wanted to reach an agreement non-publicly and willingly discussed the topic until the negotiations were closed, says another United Russia member and the Socialist Revolutionary confirms. “As soon as the authorities made the negotiations public, the communists abandoned them,” says one of the interlocutors. According to him, it was important for the authorities to talk about the negotiations, since recently many significant initiatives have been publicly presented as ideas of the opposition.

New competition

The breakdown of negotiations will lead to fierce competition between communists and United Russia in those regions where the party in power would initially like to avoid it, says an interlocutor close to the presidential administration. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has strong candidates who can certainly win, and there was simply no point in running against them, he explains.

He lists Vadim Solovyov, who is elected in the Tver region, as well as Oleg Smolin, who may run in the Omsk region, as dangerous opponents of United Russia.

According to RBC's interlocutor, the situation in the Tver region is complicated by the gubernatorial elections, which this year will be held on the same day as the Duma elections. “If Soloviev was confident of getting into the Duma, it would be possible to agree with him that he would not oppose the gubernatorial candidate from United Russia too harshly.” Now he will probably want to take part in the gubernatorial campaign and will provide serious opposition to the current leader,” the source says.

Soloviev, in a conversation with RBC, said that the party presidium had decided that he would run for governor of the Tver region. Legislative Assembly deputies Lyudmila Vorobyova and Artem Goncharov will go to the Duma in single-mandate constituencies in the region, Solovyov claims.

He also calls Smolin a strong candidate who is capable of defeating the challenger from United Russia in Omsk. Last year, in the gubernatorial elections in this region, another candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Oleg Denisenko, gained about 28%. Also, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation initially assumed that State Duma Deputy Speaker Ivan Melnikov (traditionally runs from Moscow), Deputy Sergei Obukhov (Krasnodar Territory) and Chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources Vladimir Kashin (who was on the federal part of the list in the last elections) could be included in the agreement.

The communists most likely weighed what was more important to them: to gain several constituencies or to preserve the image of the party for which the protest electorate would vote, argues political scientist Konstantin Kalachev. “A significant part of the electorate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation are not supporters of Lenin and Stalin, but voters who come to the polling stations with nothing in their pockets and vote for anyone except the authorities. From this point of view, it is more important for the communists to preserve the image of the opposition party. Moreover, they have the opportunity to show good results in regions such as Tver, Volgograd, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Irkutsk and Samara regions,” the expert sums up.

With the participation of Maria Makutina

The authorities refused negotiations with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the division of seats in the State Duma