With Milonov, but without Khinshtein

On May 22, the widely announced primaries of United Russia took place. Which of the party heavyweights lost, where real competition arose, and where - real scandals and how all this will affect the ratings of the Party of power - the New Times sorted out

In certain regions, the task of ensuring security on primaries reacted with all seriousness, Kaliningrad, May 22, 2016

The preliminary voting procedure this year is required for almost everyone who wants to become candidates from the party in the State Duma election. However, the Congress of United Russia reserves the right to additional nomination of those to whom this procedure, according to the party, is simply not needed. For example, it is already known: the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the party chairman, the chairman of the party, will not participate in the primaries, while he did not participate in the primaries.

In certain regions, the primaries turned out to be a serious test for the party-due to the fact that the old conflicts had become aggravated or new conflicts that did not leave a trace even from the illusion of the unity of elites. In most regions, however, everything went relatively calmly: the leaders were understandable in advance, and many candidates advanced for the extras, giving public the public a reason to mock the funny leaflets and offers on internal debates. Not all scandals will be called ridiculous: for example, a pensioner from the Chelyabinsk region Vladimir Vikhorev on the debate said that the Jews were to blame for the extinction of the Russian people, which caused a stormy protest from the Jewish community.

Quiet Moscow

In Moscow, the primaries of "United Russia" took place in almost an idyllic setting. Only the weather failed - it was raining. Voters for sites approached one, less often in pairs. They came to vote for friends or "because they asked." Unexpected confessions sounded:

- We hate United Russia. And they specially came to ruin the result for them, - the voter tattooed from head to toe.

The election commission at the school in Northern Izmailovo is exclusively kindly tuned in: first they check the address in the list, then they ask for consent to process personal data and, if desired, fill out the form of the voter, which indicates whether the person who came to the primaries will vote for the EP in real elections. Voting participants are not frank.

“We are studying at this school,” the ladies say sarcastically at forty years.

“Friends asked,” the young man says and quickly retires.

“They asked,” the elderly woman says briefly and admits that they “asked” through the line of veteran organizations.

The same picture in other areas. Voters know exactly who they came to vote for, while sympathy for EP deny and say that in real elections they will vote for other parties. The Communist Party is often remembered.

There are reports of scandals in the regions. In Moscow - everything is calm.

There are very few real competition in the primaries of the EP in Moscow. The famous political strategist Dmitry Gusev is one of the few candidates for primaries in Moscow, who really led an active campaign. Gusev tells NT that he focused on agitation on the Internet and started a special hashtag

“We hate United Russia. And they specially came to ruin the result for them, ”the voter tattooed from head to toe smiles

“Friends, acquaintances call all day, say that they went voted for me, so the sensations are the most positive,” Gusev rejoices. His phone really breaks: either acquaintances call, then television channels.

Gusev’s primaries lost, which, however, was not particularly upset.

They were won by people in Moscow, previously not particularly known. The first three following the results included activists of the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF) Lyubov Dukhanin and Dmitry Morozov, as well as ex-vice-mayor Vladimir Resin. NT interlocutors, familiar with the ratings of parties on closed polls of the FOM, note that the EP of business in Moscow is so -so: the party’s rating is about 30 %, so a quiet consensus and the lack of real competition can ultimately play a cruel joke with united Russians.

Throwing and provocations

There are regions where a real struggle has unfolded on the will of the organizers on the primaries. In Volgograd, State Duma deputy Oleg Savchenko will demand the cancellation of the results of the preliminary vote: Savchenko blames the regional authorities in the delivery of voters who voted for another candidate - Tatyana Tsybizova, the protege of the governor Andrei Bocharova.

In St. Petersburg, according to the candidate for the primaries and the current deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Vitaly Milonov, the team of another candidate-Yuri Shuvalov from the State Duma apparatus, adviser to the chairman of the parliament Sergei Naryshkin, broke the door to the election commission.

-I do not remember this since the 1990s. Fightly folded young people arrived to “understand” the commission, but she called the police and the hooligans fled, says Milonov.

Shuvalov himself tells a different version of history: supposedly his observers were not allowed into the room for counting the votes, and the final protocols were falsified. Shuvalov will demand the cancellation of the results of the primaries in the 218th district in St. Petersburg-he lost to Milonov. Now an irreconcilable fighter with homosexuals has a chance to try strength at the federal level.

Vitaly Milonov will be able to fight common sense at the federal level, St. Petersburg, April 23, 2016

In the Khabarovsk Territory, the current State Duma deputy Boris Reznik gave a special press conference at which he told how he chased the members of the counting commission in his own car. Those in bags were taken away from the ballot voting. Reznik accuses the "party crooks" of falsification of the elections. Since 2003, Reznik represented the United Russia party in the State Duma and in 2011, when Bolotnaya Square raised against the “party crooks”, did not show any sympathy to the requirements of protesters.

Despite the reports of scandals, the leader of EP Dmitry Medvedev was pleased with the preliminary elections. He called the American primaries “a mummers show” and contrasted them with the experience of the primaries of “United Russia” - “an interested, concrete conversation about existing problems, about the way of solving them.”

Subjected

Many State Duma deputies arose problems for primaries.

MP Valery Trapeznikov lost preliminary elections in the Perm Territory, who, in 2011 by Irony, promoted in all the media as a "simple turner who won the primaries." In the same Perm Territory, the current chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Alexei Pushkov also lost. The deputy of the State Duma, a native of the “ours” movement, Ilya Kostunov, was nominated in the Voronezh region and also lost. Opera singer Maria Maksakova lost the primaries in St. Petersburg. The next convocation of the State Duma will probably not be another native of “ours”, deputy Robert Schlegel, who went to the primaries from the Astrakhan region. “The local elites took the“ Varangian ”sent to the hostility and the next day, after he submitted the documents, in the Cloarid conversations they said that his support could not be discussed,” says the interlocutor NT , close to the leadership of the regional branch of the EP.

Another Varangian, the editor -in -chief of the Expert magazine Valery Fadeev, lost the primaries in Komi, where he was as unexpectedly as Schlegel in Astrakhan, arose on the end of the submission of documents. The current deputy from the region Vladimir Ponezhezh, close to the Prosecutor General’s Office, lost to Komi.

Not lucky with his friendship with security forces deputy Alexander Khinshtein. A couple of days before the primaries appeared (with reference to high -ranking sources in the party) rumors that he had a serious conflict with the elites of two regions at once - the Nizhny Novgorod and Samara regions from which he was previously elected. The ex-governor of the Chelyabinsk region Mikhail Yurevich, among deputies of Elena Nikolaeva and Mikhail Slipenchuk, also had problems.

The day after the emergence of publications in the media about claims by the party leadership Yurevich, Khinshtein and Slipenchuk voluntarily withdrew their candidates. Nikolaev went to the end, but the primaries lost.

Was there a stake?

In recent years, the abbreviation Kol has entered the language of political experts of Russia: competitiveness, openness, legitimacy. The first deputy head of the presidential administration Vyacheslav Volodin loves to talk about the need to build such a policy, and the leadership of United Russia constantly repeated in preparation for the primaries that these principles would become fundamental for it.

Experts believe: the “stake factor” on the primaries of “United Russia”, perhaps unexpectedly for the organizers manifested itself, but far from everywhere.

All candidates can be divided into three groups: those on whom the governors bet; Those who walked in spite of them, and ballast are people advanced to the extras, are sure of the political scientist Abbas Gallyamov.

“The first campaigns in the proper sense did not lead. The regional bureaucracy considers this to be excess and stupidity, preferring to win the grandfather’s methods - by mobilizing state employees and rewriting protocols, ”says Gallamov. - Therefore, the only ones who seriously worked with the voter were candidates from the second group - those who went against local authorities. Since they all prevented the proteges of governors from being elected, the administrative resource worked against them in full. ”

Closer to May 22, it became obvious that the number of scandalous news related to the falsification of voting results had every chance to exceed the number of positive news. This put the federal leadership, which hoped to remain above the fight, in a difficult position, and it, Galyamov believes, was forced to determine which side to take: regional bureaucracy or candidates enjoying the support of ordinary voters. The expected choice was made in favor of the bureaucracy, and the result was the general disappointment of people who believed the words about the "intra -party democracy" and "accounting for the opinions of the ordinary voter."

“The anger of mobilized state employees who spent the May weekend was added to the disappointment to take part in a foreign and uninteresting performance. Getting such a negative background at the entrance to the election campaign is the worst that EP could face with it, ”Gallyamov believes.

The head of the political expert group Konstantin Kalachev adheres to a compromise point of view: there were regions with competitive primaries held honestly, but there were anti -heroes.

"Getting such a negative background at the entrance to the election campaign is the worst that EP could face with it."

At the same time, as a “model region”, Kalachev identifies the Yaroslavl region, where “everything was organized surprisingly and cleanly”. The campaigns of candidates for primaries in the region, Kalachev believes, can start a start of reloading the relations of the regional "United Russia" and voters, as the party is trying to begin dialogue.

“Candidates tried to work with the meanings: candidate Pavel Zarubin proposed“ returning money to Yaroslavl ”, candidate Pavel Isaev spoke about protecting the interests of a person of labor. A popular politician in the region, the astronaut and the current deputy Valentina Tereshkova spoke very vividly on the debate. The secretary of the regional department, recently introduced into the Secretary of United Russia, Ilya Osipov, performed very well. Candidate Alexander Gribov made a modeling campaign based on feedback with voters, ”Kalachev lists.

But the Volgograd region showed examples of classical use of the administrative resource. “A lot said about the competition between the current State Duma deputy Oleg Savchenko and Tatyana Tsybizova, which was supported by the governor. The headquarters of Savchenko recorded cases of the supply of voters of the cavity and mobilization of state employees, in this regard the Volgograd region is an anti -Model for the conduct of primaries, ”says Kalachev.

The Chairman of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova called the primaries of EP “a gift”, which allowed to show “all vices” of the election process. The movement in defense of voters' rights “Voice” accumulated all claims on its interactive project “Map of Violations” and has already sent a selection to the CEC and “United Russia”. To blame one of the candidates for the organization of provocations by order of the US State Department this time it will be difficult for United Russia. All of their own.

But the legislative initiative has already appeared - to make the primaries procedure mandatory for all Russian parties.

Photo: Alexander Nikolaev/Interpress/TASS, Dmitry Dukhanin/Kommersant, Vitaly Nevar/TASS