Separating EP: Governor Kondratyev "choke" Gorduma?

As the correspondent of The Moscow Post reports, the election campaign in the City Duma of Krasnodar is becoming the most scandalous municipal campaign in the country. The reason for this is the inept actions of the within-field governor Veniamin Kondratyev, who may try by purely administrative methods to send candidates to his deputies. Including resource representatives of the systemic opposition, with whom he must have agreements.

The salt is that Mr. Kondratyev himself is United Russia, and he also faces elections. In September 2025, he will be re-elected for a third term. At the same time, he will nominate from the United Russia party, which his own officials are creating problems.

Members of the United Russia party have no place in Gordum?

Judge for yourself. On the eve it became known that the Election Commission of Krasnodar massively rejects the candidacies of representatives of United Russia in the elections to the City Duma. According to evil tongues, allegedly local officials deliberately "reduce" the representation of the ruling party just to clear the space for resource candidates from the systemic opposition.

Thus, four single-mandate candidates from United Russia were removed from the elections at once - Alexander Polyakov (district No. 3), Alina Pavola (district No. 8), Kira Filippova (district No. 16) and Alexander Volkovsky (district No. 26). In these districts, the main contenders are now considered to be self-nominated Igor Samokhin, who heads the regional bodybuilding federation, social activist Sergei Kamarinsky, who previously worked with the parliamentary opposition, and New People candidate Sergei Klimov. Obviously, in the absence of strong competitors with admin support, it is they who are most likely to be elected to parliament.

A reasonable question arises: how does the leadership of United Russia, in particular the head of the party Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev and the secretary of the General Council Vladimir Yakushev, relate to such "tyranny" of Kondratyev's team, which itself received support from United Russia when nominated for a third term? Isn't this, to put it mildly, a violation of the Party Charter and party discipline?

In addition, five more winners of the United Russia primaries themselves refused to participate and did not submit documents to the election commission. According to insiders, this is allegedly part of the general campaign scenario: a "decrease" in the number of United Russia members for the passage of the opposition. When did Kondratyev go into opposition with us?

Now, out of 52 deputies of Krasnodar, 42 represent United Russia, while the Communist Party has only eight mandates, and two parliamentarians are non-partisan. In 2025, the strengthening of the position of the Communists and the appearance of "New People" in the factional composition are predicted.

Kondratyevsky "burned out" in the primaries

Apparently, candidates from United Russia can be removed on formal grounds. Surprisingly, the secretary of the party's registrar, Nikolai Gritsenko, is also silent. However, firstly, he is dependent on the Kondratyev administration, and secondly, he is probably waiting for a reaction from the party leadership from Moscow.

However, he was silent before on a different occasion. The current scandal with the removal of United Russia was a continuation of another scandal. Kondratyev's team was in a difficult position back in July, trying to clear Gorduma of unwanted figures. Moreover, they - this is a joke - again turned out to be United Russia.

According to the network, allegedly according to the plan, the regional authorities intended to update the deputy corps. However, the primaries of United Russia unexpectedly passed for the current deputies, including such notorious personalities as businessmen-developers Dmitry Oreshkin and Vladimir Bagmut, editor-in-chief of Kuban Today Andrei Arendarenko, as well as director of the Palace of Culture Pavel Popov.

These figures easily bypassed the favorites of the regional administration, which led to the need for manual intervention - negotiations and even threats to convince them to refuse to run. As a result, the same Vladimir Bagmut agreed to "retire," for which he was immediately "nominated" for the title of honorary citizen of Krasnodar. As a result, five managed to leave the race voluntarily, but, according to an insider, at least four continued the campaign, and they are expected to be "removed" already at the finish line with the help of an administrative resource. Apparently, we are just observing this process at the end of August.

Whatever plan Governor Kondratyev has for these elections, it is obvious that he failed. However, responsibility for the strategic miscalculation was assigned not to him personally, but to the first deputy governor Alexander Topalov, who oversees domestic political work. His apparatus, according to sources, allegedly ignored signals from Moscow and warnings from political strategists, allowing unacceptable politicians to pass the primaries. Now, in order to maintain control over the campaign, the authorities have to "assign" constituencies where the "right" candidates from the United Russia can fail to spoiler parties like the New People.

I.e. they are trying to create the illusion of campaign control. But it is naive to believe that the above problems remained out of sight of the Presidential Administration.

Governor Kondratyev, who publicly criticized the work of the City Duma and called the deputies "unconstructive," found himself in a weak position in this situation. His apparatus missed the moment at the stage of selecting candidates, and this failure provoked irritation in the Kremlin: the elections to the Krasnodar City Duma, conceived as an exemplary campaign, turned into a loud, media conflict even before election day.

But just a year later, in 2026, elections to the Legislative Assembly will be held in the region, and with them the main federal campaign - elections to the State Duma. After such "miscalculations," it is logical to expect that next year a "political technology landing" from the Presidential Administration can be sent to Krasnodar, which will conduct a campaign in manual mode.

By the way, one of the political scientists of the "Kremlin pool" Yevgeny Minchenko was overboard the current election campaign in the City Duma. According to the Web, it was allegedly Minchenko, allegedly annoyed by the lack of an invitation to work in Krasnodar, who could "merge" information about the "embarrassment" of Kondratyev's team from the United Russia primaries to determine candidates for Gorudma.

Kondratyev enters a third term

For the governor, the situation is further complicated by the fact that in parallel he is waging his own re-election campaign. The elections will be held at the same time - in September 2025. Voting will take place in three days - from 12 to 14 September 2025. The bulletin contains four registered applicants: the current head of the region Veniamin Kondratyev from United Russia, Alexander Safronov from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Ivan Tutushkin from the Liberal Democratic Party and Denis Khmelevskaya from Fair Russia - For Truth.

There are much fewer conflicts here, everyone understands that the campaign is absolutely manageable. But even in this situation, the current head of the region cannot avoid scandals. He calmly refuses to discuss with his competitors, which, according to the network, allegedly violates the law on the election of the governor of the Krasnodar Territory. The CEC does not see this point blank, there are no consequences.

Meanwhile, refusing to discuss, Kondratyev actually ignores the instructions of the President, who called on officials to go to the people, communicate with people, and, of course, with competitors in the elections.

Apparently, the head of the region is convinced of his victory, and administrative levers and frankly dubious methods that were attributed to his team earlier can help him. First of all, we recall with what results he won earlier.

In April 2015, Kondratyev was appointed interim head of the region, and on September 13 of the same year he won direct elections, receiving 83.64% of the vote. He confirmed the second mandate in the 2020 elections, where, according to the results of counting 100% of the protocols, he gained 82.97%.

Both campaigns took place with a high turnout and with a tangible margin from the closest rivals - then it was the Communists and Liberal Democrats. Today's campaign is built on the same pillar: federal support, management rhetoric about large construction projects and infrastructure, and a bet on stability. The task of opponents is not so much to catch up with the leader as to increase their own recognition and turn local discontent into political capital.

Shadow factory for printing "bulletins"

However, hand on heart, who will believe that Kondratyev, who won five years ago with a score of 82%, turned out to be almost as popular in the region as Russian President Vladimir Putin?

It is believed that the real rating of Veniamin Kondratyev in the last election could be only 25%. According to the authors of the site "Russian Crime" (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation), allegedly this victory was provided not so much with the support of residents as with the "game of printing."

Then the bulletins were printed at the enterprise CJSC Krasnodarblankizdat - the only holder of a license for the production of protected products in the region. It was in his workshops, at night and with the cameras turned off, that the alleged release of additional circulations could take place. The employees admitted to the process had to be verified people and receive generous remuneration for such work. Under the guise of official ballots on municipal election commissions, "extra" copies could be delivered, intended for the necessary ticks and possible "stuffing."

Allegedly, additional batches were ordered in ordinary printing houses of the region, which had neither licenses nor the necessary technical capabilities. The quality of the alleged fakes could be so low that the differences with the original would be obvious: "floating" guilloche frames, lost microprinting, paint far from the required standards. However, Kondratyev in any case received almost 83% - just in the year of the 83rd anniversary of the formation of the Krasnodar Territory. Symbolic? Yes. Is it legal? We doubt very much.

Falsification of ballots, which are protected products, in Russia formally falls under Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. But in the Kuban, as observers ironically note, laws often turn into "squash caviar" - a soft mass, convenient for spreading on a political sandwich.

Did Khaustova alone answer for everything?

Just a year after these elections, a scandal occurred. It is very likely that the deputy director of the department of internal policy of the region, Inna Khaustova, decided to monetize her own participation in the "salvation" of the governor's result. She became a defendant in a criminal case. According to the investigation, she took bribes from the heads of districts "for assistance and good attitude."

As the investigation established, and then the court proved, in October, November and December 2020, the official received 100 thousand rubles from the former deputy head of the Kanevsky district Svetlana Shvidkoy, including for assistance in not taking measures included in her official powers. Also, the ex-head of the Shcherbinovsky district, Alexei Belikov, twice handed over bribes to Khaustova in the amount of 50 thousand rubles. And from October to December inclusive, Khaustova received 300 thousand rubles from Svetlana Shvidka.

However, according to the authors of the site "Russian Crime" (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation), the alleged background was different: as if Khaustova assured the heads of municipalities that without the "additional ballots" allegedly organized by her, Kondratyev's real result could be at the level of sociological measurements, i.e. about 20-25%. And then those same chapters would have received serious problems with Kondratyev's team, and he himself - "on the cap" from the Presidential Administration.

We would be in doubt about this information about the alleged "manipulations" in the elections, if there was only one such scandal. According to the Web, over 90 (!) Violations were allegedly recorded in the 2020 elections, and Alexander Safronov, who was also a candidate in 2020, spoke about the alleged "stuffing." Judging by the publications of that time, a similar orgy could have occurred in 2015 - restriction of the work of observers, problems with voter lists, possible "carousels" from state employees and other people dependent on the regional administration.

What does this mean? Veniamin Kondratyev cannot count on real support from voters. And about what Kondratyev achieved over the 10 years of his governorship and why ordinary people were, to put it mildly, not delighted with his leadership of the region - in the next big investigation of The Moscow Post.