Candidates for regional governor have launched their pre-election battles.
The new system of appointing regional governors is unexpectedly turning into a semblance of electoral race. The contenders for governor whose names have been submitted for approval to the Kremlin aren't fighting for votes, but rather for the good will of regional and federal elites. And at times the battle lines are drawn within the same party.
United Russia recently submitted to the President eight lists of candidates for governor. The lists for the Astrakhan Region, Primorye Territory and the Republics of Mari-El, Komi and Altai are all topped by incumbent governors. Sometimes support comes from the very top: last week Prime Minister Vladimir Putin paid a visit to the governor of the Primorye Territory, Sergei Darkin. The Prime Minister held a conference on preparations for the APEC summit in Vladivostok.
The situation in the Sverdlovsk and Kurgan Regions is somewhat different. The list of candidates there includes some real potential challengers to the incumbents, and these regions have seen a veritable campaign for influence among regional and federal elites.
For example, the governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, Eduard Rossel, has spent the last two months as if he were preparing for election day. He attended the ribbon cutting on a new petroleum storage facility together with the head of LUKoil, Vagit Alekperov, and he is preparing an annual address to the people of Sverdlovsk. In the presence of an important Moscow official he told a meeting of the anti-crisis headquarters how well his region has been coping with the aftereffects of the crisis. The governor was also spotted at an Alla Pugacheva concert in Yekaterinburg. As a result of his PR efforts, Rossel is the most popular governor in the Urals Federal District. He accompanied Prime Minister Putin on a visit to China to hold important talks with businessman Oleg Deripaska, the head of Russian Railways (RZhD), Vladimir Yakunin and VEB Chairman Vladimir Dmitriyev. He even inaugurated a new elite golf course.
The situation for United Russia in the Kurgan Region verges on the absurd. State Duma deputies and UR members Vyacheslav Timchenko and Igor Barinov have been waging a fierce battle behind the back of the incumbent governor Oleg Bogomolov. NG has learned that both men are plausible candidates for governor provided, of course, that the President does not reject all the three Kurgan candidates. Mr Timchenko heads the State Duma Committee on Local Self-government and so seems to be well suited for the post of regional governor. But Mr Barinov also has some managerial experience: in addition to being deputy chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, he is a long-time head of the Interregional Coordinating Committee of United Russia for the Urals Federal District. It is an open secret that Mr Barinov has long coveted the Sverdlovsk governorship. His name making it onto the Kurgan list is a reward for his efforts.
Mr Timchenko has made several bids to become the regional governor. NG has learned that he was one of the top candidates for governor of the Murmansk Region. However, the President chose Dmitry Dmitriyenko, a government official, instead. The other day a popular Internet site where practically every Russian politician or businessman can read all about himself carried an article about Mr Timchenko's efforts to gain the lead in the gubernatorial race. The article is available to anyone who wishes to read it, but the key revelation in the article is that the candidate is seeking support mainly from the federal government. But according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Mr Barinov also has already secured it.
Interestingly, if one compares the two rivals' work in the Duma, Timchenko appears to be the more impressive candidate. He has proposed more laws, many of which have already been passed. But on closer inspection, it becomes clear that he simply jumped on the bandwagon of other campaigns and signed on to bills which had a good chance of being passed anyway. Timchenko's track record is much less impressive in the area the party had entrusted him with, the development of local self-government. Under his leadership, the corresponding Duma Committee failed to significantly improve the plight of municipal authorities. Mr Timchenko's legislative record is clearly skewed toward the banking industry, which is not surprising given that he used to work at Menatep Bank as well as many other top banks. Sources within UR claim that he befriended the current chief of the President's Executive Office Vladislav Surkov during his time in the banking sector.
Dmitry Badovsky, the deputy director of the Social Systems Institute, believes that these mini-election campaigns are taking place primarily in those regions where a change of power is likely. "The presence or absence of competition is a reflection of the situation on the ground in the region," Mr Badovsky claims. Professor Rostislav Turovsky of the political science department at Moscow University believes that the electioneering in some regions is a sign that the new system of appointing regional governors is still somewhat raw: "On the one hand, everything seems to be predetermined. But on the other hand, the system involves an element of uncertainty because the President has the final say." According to Mr Turovsky, the fact that Dmitry Medvedev has been taking "rather ambiguous decisions and has been appointing as governors people who are little known to the elite" from his first day as President only adds fuel to the fire. Mr Badovsky is confident that another reason the candidates are so eager to be nominated is that it will help them in their future careers.
Elina Bilevskaya, Ivan Rodin