Leonid Slutsky was promised second place in the September elections, sources tell Meduza. Frustrated that the Kremlin stopped helping, he’s now saying LDPR belongs to the security services instead.
Leonid Slutsky, who leads Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), has begun casting it as a “party of security officials” rather than as a party of the Kremlin’s civilian staff. That is how Slutsky describes the party in private conversations with allies and with businesspeople close to the Liberal Democrats, and even in public campaign materials.
Leonid Slutsky, the leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), has started referring to the party as "a party of security officials" instead of a party of the Kremlin’s civilian staff. This shift in perspective can be heard in private conversations with allies and businesspeople close to the party, as well as in public campaign materials.
On LDPR's Facebook page, a post emphasizes that security officials are running for the party in elections to Russia's State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament. Slutsky reiterated the same point on his VKontakte page.
The shift in the party's positioning is attributed to Slutsky's dissatisfaction with the work of the political bloc headed by Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Presidential Administration. This unhappiness stems from the party's declining ratings and the fear that LDPR might fail to secure the coveted second place in the upcoming Duma elections, which could happen if they don't receive help from the Kremlin.
Slutsky's frustration led him to coordinate the campaign with Andrey Yarin, head of the Domestic Policy Directorate, rather than with Alexander Kharichev, head of the Social Monitoring Directorate.
The Kremlin's informal division of labor placed Kharichev, who is close to the head of the political bloc, in charge of election campaigns. In contrast, Yarin, who has always been perceived as being closer to the security officials than to Kiriyenko's team, handles day-to-day "operational" matters with regional authorities. After the full-scale invasion began and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the founder of LDPR, died in 2022, the Presidential Administration's political bloc tried to push LDPR into second place in regional elections.
They managed to achieve this goal only last year, when LDPR came in second in seven of the 11 regions electing legislatures. Even during the 2024 presidential election, LDPR's new leader ended up in fourth place, behind President Vladimir Putin, Communist Party (KPRF) nominee Nikolai Kharitonov, and Vladislav Davankov of the New People party.
This outcome occurred despite the political bloc having sent Andrey Polosin, an experienced political strategist close to Kiriyenko, to assist Slutsky. Furthermore, the leader of KPRF and New People did not participate in the campaign.
Written by urgent.news from Meduza (English)'s reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
