In Irkutsk, the excitement continues to grow around what is perhaps the main election race – the elections of deputies to the Duma of the regional capital.

One of the most intriguing scenarios took shape in the “orphaned” district No. 22, which has been without a deputy for the last year.

Let us recall that in September 2023, the city council deputy Alexey Rasputin moved to the rank of regional parliament deputies. And now, a year later, the newly-minted regional parliamentarian has finally given birth to his first political actions in his new status. But these actions have raised more questions than joy, both among voters and the political bloc and party members of United Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism).

Alexey Rasputin was a city council deputy for nine years. He represented the Pravoberezhny District of Irkutsk in the city council for both terms, and from the same territory he set off to conquer the heights of the Irkutsk Legislative Assembly. And Rasputin was always elected from United Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism).

Rasputin's commendable loyalty to party discipline was recognized by allowing him to literally sell the city council district to his protégé.

Sell – in the literal sense of the word.

The first candidate to whom Rasputin promised to transfer the mandate of the right-bank district was a well-known businessman in Irkutsk Grigory Reznikov. Having several criminal chapters in the glorious book of his political biography, Reznikov could not be nominated by the ruling party. Therefore, especially for him (read: for Alexei Rasputin, who received material gratitude from the businessman), United Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) managed to put forward a twenty-one-year-old member of the Young Guard in the primaries in a problematic and tense district, who suddenly won with a huge margin.

deputy control. alexey rasputin: everything that moves is for sale?

When, at the end of June, it became clear that Reznikov was refusing his mandate due to insurmountable circumstances (the nature of which is completely shrouded in darkness), the businesslike Rasputin hastily pushed his equally permanent assistant into his place. Tatyana MarchenkoBut the problem is that he was already promoted by the LDPR.

Rasputin's motives are clear: over the past couple of years, the deputy's construction business has had its worst years. After participating in the major construction of Tulun, which was flooded in 2019, and commissioning its own residential complex, Rodnye Berega, the company of the same name got by with small contracts. Debt obligations have grown, and revenue has decreased.

Back in 2023, when Rasputin jumped into the election race for the Legislative Assembly, he reported income for 2022 at 9.4 million rubles. In 2024, he refused to sponsor his protégé and namesake Alexei Greshilov (still a deputy for the 16th district of Irkutsk) and hastily began to look for his own sponsor to solve financial problems.

After Reznikov's refusal to nominate, there was no choice left. And Tatyana Marchenko, Rasputin's odious and eternal assistant and lover of eccentric statements, was hastily thrown into the breach of the election race.

Not Reznikov, of course, but also a good puppet in Rasputin's hands. With Marchenko's hands, he is confidently planning his successful re-election for the next term. At the very least, at the expense of the so-called “deputy fund” of the Irkutsk City Duma. It was at its expense that Rasputin spent a decade ennobling his district in small steps, spending, in essence, the money of those same voters, included in the city budget.

The regional parliamentarian does not have such a tool. He has to work exclusively on a voluntary basis, and develop an image through active legislative work, to which Rasputin is not organically suited.

In the regional parliament, he was destined to be a simple extra, which the deputy, greedy for power and popular adoration, would not agree to. Hence the attempts to preserve the personal status quo in the Right Bank District at any cost. And even the hasty and awkward campaigning for an assistant in a personal Telegram channel, exactly on the day when his native United Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) nominated its candidates.

Over the past year, Rasputin has continued to score political points through projects previously launched in the Right Bank District. Without a tame city council deputy, he is doomed to fade into the shadows of political reality, having lost his leverage, and therefore his political status (after all, there is no longer any way to buy it). And so Rasputin is actively showing up in his native Right Bank District, continuing to essentially play the role of a city council deputy, never having gotten used to the specifics of his new job.

It is remarkable how silently and submissively the toothy party of bears follows the lead of personal ambitions, meekly yielding to Rasputin and coordinating one after another his increasingly ambiguous proteges. The price for loyalty to the party?

Compromat.group