Union of non -partisans

"United Russia" sacrificed pension reform

The authorities still paid their price for pension reform sold through citizens: the political brand of United Russia, which has recently been a former party in power, became toxic. It was no coincidence that we have a non -partisan president for a long time for a serious bet on it, and Dmitry Medvedev is considered the first person in United Russia. As the non -partisan went to the recent elections, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Until recently, however, it was believed that all these tactical tricks of political strategists, and the party in power itself rests “cast in granite”. As a result, even the ONF, the project of the current speaker of the Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, conceived as a supra -party, but not inscribed in the system of electoral processes, could not shake her positions.

After the seemingly passing one day of voting on September 9, “United Russia” found itself in a new quality. Firstly, the party, which involuntarily poked with the president about the course of pension reform. Secondly, the parties, for which they recorded responsibility for this reform and forced to participate in the elections with obviously losing slogans. Thirdly, the parties that fell at once in four regions, faced with the popular vote, "anyone, not these." And finally, a political organization, which even recent allies try to shun.

And if earlier only the president and his closest trustees kept the distance with United Russia, now the presence of this distance has become the actual condition for selectivity. This was most clearly manifested in the Primorsky Territory, where, on the eve of the repeated elections, a federal landing is landed, led by former Governor Sakhalin Oleg Kozhemyaka. Although Kozhemyako has a membership ticket of United Russia, he will go as a self -nominated elections that should be held in December. The love of the Far East for the United Russia is so high that under the Kozhemyaka, the regional legislative had to even urgently adopt a special bill, which allowed self -nominates to run. In parallel, a political scandal in Khakassia is developing, where candidates continue to withdraw their candidates from the second round of the governor’s elections, and where United Russia is also formally already claiming to be anything.

United Russia is no longer perceived as a debugged mechanism that can supply regional management personnel and public politicians. This means that in each case, the Kremlin has to take manual control of the entire election configuration, negotiate with local elites and delegate a representative of a suitable political structure to the register. In two regions, the Khabarovsk Territory and the Vladimir region, representatives of the LDPR have already played this role of loyal non -drug Russians.

A more intriguing plot develops in St. Petersburg, where manual tuning of the election situation after the resignation of Poltavchenko, at least according to unofficial information, demanded the president’s personal recommendations. Putin appointed the acting governor of the city of his representative in the North-Western District of Alexander Beglov, who once held this position, and according to so far unconfirmed data, almost immediately turned to the head of the FAS Igor Artemyev with a proposal to also participate in the elections. At the same time, Artemyev is a member of Yabloko, the most respected opposition force in the city. Party Chairman Emilia Slabunova has already made a statement that Artemyev seems to her a suitable candidate for such a post.

Even if the information about the recommendation of Artemyev is not confirmed, it is clear that in the near future the Kremlin will have to act more carefully - in domestic politics in general and in local elections in particular. The sunset of “United Russia” as a political project means that the simple programming of the regions for the necessary candidates and numbers that these candidates should - with the support of the administrative resource - will not work in the election. Governors will have to be made as piece goods, there will be even more problems with the control of the legislative assemblies. Lucky of those of the United Russia who managed to choose before this “Time of Troubles”, or those who are now receiving an appointment.

The sociologists of the Levada Center, meanwhile, record the next decrease in Putin’s rating: confidence in the president has fallen to 58%, this is the “residency of the level”. The exchange of “United Russia” for pension reform can play a cruel joke here: there is no longer a buffer between the people and the president.