While doctors are fighting for the life of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, his closest associates are fighting for his rich political legacy.
According to the correspondent The Moscow Postformer Vice Speaker of the State Duma from the Liberal Democratic Party, son Vladimir Zhirinovsky Igor Lebedev commented on his father’s illness for the first time. Lebedev wrote briefly and emotionally: “Just live!” on their social networks. And although he did not directly name his father, it immediately became clear to everyone that the appeal concerns precisely the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and is connected with his health.
Recall that Zhirinovsky was hospitalized on February 2 due to complications caused by the omicron strain of coronavirus. According to the latest information, doctors assess his condition as stable and continue to provide all necessary medical assistance. However, there is also panic in the Internet space. Rumor has it that even if Zhirinovsky recovers, he will not soon be able to return to the leadership of the party.
The editors of The Moscow Post sincerely wish Vladimir Volfovich a speedy recovery, and his family, relatives, friends, supporters of his political strength, admirers of his talents – strength, calmness and endurance.
At the same time, one gets the impression that not everyone is looking forward to Zhirinovsky’s recovery, including among his fellow party members.
According to unofficial information, as soon as it became clear that the illness of the LDPR leader was dragging on, his closest associates “streamed” into the Presidential Administration. The meaning of the questions was the same: what will happen to the party if Zhirinovsky is incapacitated, who will get his rich political legacy, which of the remaining leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party will receive the “go-ahead” for further party activities?
Recall that the LDPR is a parliamentary party, and because of this, it is not obliged to collect signatures when nominating its candidates for certain elections in the regions. The party has its representatives in the deputy corps, regional and local parliaments, as well as 21 mandates of the State Duma deputy.
Moreover, using the status of a parliamentary structure, the party annually receives funding from the budget. Over the past three years, the Liberal Democratic Party has received an income of almost 4 billion rubles, of which 3.4 billion are federal funds. Writes about it “Ura.ru”. There is something to worry about.
Son for father
After the possible (God forbid) departure of Vladimir Volfovich from the political arena, the party, most likely, may be overtaken by a serious crisis. Can anyone really claim the legacy of the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party?
There are many reasons why a party can sink into oblivion. The first is the leader type of structure. Vladimir Zhirinovsky is both a founder, and an ideologist, and a leader, and a motivator, and an administrator. And the main negotiator from the party with the authorities. In terms of resources in the party, there is no one to replace him.
The second reason also follows from this: the absence of functionaries equal in size to Zhirinovsky, capable of leading the remaining party activists. And who will need it? The LDPR is a party absorbing the right-wing and even right-wing radical electorate. In this form, without Zhirinovsky, it will most likely become irrelevant for the Presidential Administration (and for society as well).
Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Igor Lebedev
Igor Lebedev can also worry not only because his father was in a dangerous situation. But also because without Zhirinovsky he himself will turn into a simple functionary in the Liberal Democratic Party.
Immediately, “skeletons” that remained there in the presence of a healthy head of the Liberal Democratic Party may begin to fall out of the cabinets. What is worth only a muddy story with the disappearance of funds in the amount of almost 30 million rubles from the reserve party fund of the Liberal Democratic Party in Moscow several years ago! ..
Then the defendants in the case were two accountants of the party. But they also testified against Lebedev himself, who allegedly supervised their work and gave instructions on where to spend the funds. Wrote about it “Kommersant”.
It is surprising that the Moscow police could not deal with this situation, and the case was transferred to the Investigative Committee. Further – silence, which suggests that the matter was simply hushed up.
Rumor has it that if Lebedev put his hands into the party treasury, he did it not without the approval of Zhirinovsky. And the addressee of the help could be foreign business, the existence of which has been attributed to Zhirinovsky and his entourage for many years. According to the website authors PASMI (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation), allegedly Lebedev is the owner of several hotels and apartments in Spain at once. In particular, in Barcelona, Altea and Ibiza.
As the publication writes “Sakha.News”, in 2007 a real estate management company called Go Evolution International 21 SL was established in the Spanish province of Alicante. In 2012, its authorized capital could be about 2.8 million euros, and assets were estimated at 4.5 million euros.
Who exactly owns the Go Evolution International 21 SL is not known for certain. However, there is a version that until 2009 one of the managers of this company was the full namesake of Igor Lebedev. From April to June 2018, Galina Lebedeva was the sole director of Go Evolution International 21 SL. Igor Vladimirovich’s mother is also named.
If this is true, then Spanish capital must also be able to protect. And without Zhirinovsky, it will be difficult to do this – information can be used to clean up the State Duma from associates of the odious leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.
According to the authors of the telegram channel “The Grashchenkov”, allegedly the struggle for the assets of the Liberal Democratic Party is already underway. Moreover, it was Igor Lebedev who allegedly became her first victim. It’s no secret that after 2021, when he ceased to be a State Duma deputy, he was quietly pushed away from political life. Perhaps even with the sanction of Vladimir Zhirinovsky himself. The departure of the latter from politics is guaranteed to multiply by zero the influence that Lebedev still has.
And without that, the entire past year there was a mass exodus of supporters from the party. In the last elections to the State Duma, the LDPR lost more than 10 mandates compared to the previous convocation.
Many sponsors have left. In a number of regions, the conflict with former comrades-in-arms ended with an appeal to law enforcement agencies.
So, for example, the former LDPR member of Perm Ilya Lisnyak acted. He demanded bring Zhirinovsky to criminal responsibility, allegedly for the fact that the party did not exclude Lisnyak from its ranks, and he could not take part in new elections from another political force.
Other cases may also be mentioned. What is the scandal with the Lipetsk deputy Pavel Evgrafov, who left the ranks of the Liberal Democratic Party after accusing the leadership of the local cell of extorting money from a candidate for elections, and turned to the prosecutor’s office with a request to check the actions of former party members. Wrote about it “Kommersant”but this is by no means the only case.
All this suggests that the party, even with a healthy leader, found itself in a systemic crisis. A bright figure who could pick up the fallen banner behind Zhirinovsky was once Aleksey Mitrofanov. But back in 2014, a criminal case was initiated against him under Art. 30 and part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Attempted fraud as part of an organized group), after which he left the country.
First after “J”
But what about the “young growth”? ..
The closest “resource” associates of Zhirinovsky are the current governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Mikhail Degtyarev, and Volfovich’s right hand, his assistant in the State Duma, Sergei Zhigarev.
There are almost no other people recognizable by the electorate. And the same Zhigarev, who was previously the head of the economic committee of the State Duma, in 2021 could not get into the main composition of the parliament. And he was forced to get a job with Zhirinovsky as an assistant in order to have a “pass” to the State Duma.
Now Mikhail Degtyarev is in limbo. Zhirinovsky proposed his candidacy for the post of governor after Furgal’s arrest. In a package with the same Zhigarev, whom, as it is believed, the LDPR leader himself preferred.
Then the President supported Degtyarev. For Zhigarev and Zhirinovsky, this was a fiasco of sorts. Indeed, now Degtyarev considers himself indebted not to Volfovich, but to the head of state. According to rumors, he was one of the first to get in touch with the Presidential Administration when it became known about the illness of the party leader. Degtyarev needs guarantees that after Zhirinovsky’s departure from politics, he will be allowed to calmly finalize the governor’s cadence. For the sake of this, with a great desire, it will not take long to go to United Russia.
Rumor has it that the change of priorities Degtyarev hurt Zhirinovsky’s pride. Like, he “led” Degtyarev since the time of the youth party activists of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moscow. The party nominated Degtyarev in the election of the capital’s mayor, took care of him in every possible way. And now he doesn’t seem to need it anymore.
Sergei Zhigarev is perhaps the only one who is believed to have retained personal loyalty to Vladimir Zhirinovsky. And even the defeat in the elections to the State Duma did not become an obstacle for him.
Sergey Zhigarev is the only recognizable person after Zhirinovsky, Lebedev and Degtyarev. But he was left without resources and hardware support.
But he was left without resources. According to the authors of the telegram channel “VChK-OGPU”, allegedly Zhirinovsky ran along the corridors of the AP and tried to solve the issue of attaching Zhigarev to a bread place for money. Same authors claim: allegedly during the period of deputy, Zhigarev had a “fee” for the passage of bills through a committee sponsored by him, which could be about $ 5 million.
Even if this is a stretch, now Zhigarev has nothing of the sort. And without Zhirinovsky, he will lose the last hardware opportunities to move up the career ladder.
In the minus Zhigarev, you can put a lot of other scandals. For example, let’s recall the well-known case when money disappeared from his house, which was subsequently blamed on a young model girl. Who knows how it ended up in the apartment of a married deputy. It would seem that after that one could forget about Zhigarev, but other recognizable people in the party – the cat cried. There is no one to bet on.
There is simply no one to replace Zhirinovsky – it is easier for the Presidential Administration to completely curtail the party project
It turns out that Vladimir Zhirinovsky himself created a situation where there is no one to replace him, and without him, no one really needs the party at all. In this sense, negotiations with the AP functionaries can be reduced not so much to what will happen to the party, but to what its former members will do, which shore they will land on after the collapse of the Liberal Democratic Party. … However, knowing Vladimir Volfovich, there is always hope that he will recover, return triumphantly, and put everything (and everyone) in its place. Here we hope. What else is left?