The New People party is definitely waiting for a change: the courage after the elections has passed, the newly appeared “network structure” has not aroused enthusiasm among experts and the electorate.
According to sources for The Moscow Post, a serious split may be brewing in the New People party, which triumphantly burst into the State Duma in its first federal elections. Information is being heard from the camp of the party that some contradictions have appeared between the head of the central executive committee, Vladislav Davankov (he is also the vice speaker of the State Duma) and the former head of Yakutsk, Sardana Avksentyeva, who is one of the most powerful figures and even business cards of the “New People” .
The authors of the YugaSapiens Telegram channel claim that the party is already allegedly divided into two opposing camps. Analysts interviewed by the publication indirectly confirm that a serious struggle for “administrative rent” may now be going on in the party. For which, in theory, the Vice-Speaker of the State Duma Davankov should have “hooked” more than others, at least by virtue of his position in the State Duma.
By the way, the person of vice-speaker Davankov was a “dark horse” for a long time. How many heard about him before the party entered parliament? The “locomotives” were the same Avksentieva, as well as the head of the party Alexei Nechaev. Stories about the latter have always contained information that he is the founder of the Faberlic cosmetics campaign, through which he got pretty rich, and also that “the Presidential Administration could have been behind him from the very beginning.” Remember how this party, from its very inception, they tried to present as a profanity to create the appearance of competition in the elections from the Kremlin. Including here the imitation of the development of the domestic party system.
In the party itself, the fact of the crisis is not in a hurry to confirm. Nevertheless, many political scientists are unanimous; a crisis in the ranks of the New People was bound to happen sooner or later.
Vladislav Davankov, having received the post of Vice Speaker of the State Duma, decided to stage a coup in the camp of the “New People”?
Recall that following the results of the elections, the structure received 5.32% of the votes and 13 mandates. The result of the newcomer party was more than real, and there are indeed five, not four parties in the State Duma now. From the very beginning of the election campaign, the party conducted very competent PR in social networks, created regional offices (now there are about 550 of them).
The circulation of Nechaev and Avksentyeva on popular YouTube channels, attracting “celebs” and injecting a lot of money into campaigning – 15 million rubles (for comparison: the Communists had 20 million) gave their result in the Duma elections. Moskovsky Komsomolets writes about these facts.
Such active work with people in the field (and here the accumulated “sales experience” helped a lot) gave its result. The “new people” got into four regional parliaments and several city dumas.
But the elections were over, the seats were distributed, and the slogans of the “New People”, who proposed to promote new ideas and new people to power, began to fade.
“Crushed by quantity”
At the same time, it is impossible not to notice that the leader of the party, Mr. Nechaev, sort of “eliminated” from the squabbles within the structure, and, in general, went into the shadows, as if having played enough politics during the elections. Rumor has it that the Kremlin is also dissatisfied with the passivity and conflicts within the New People.
At one time, the Russian political strategist Abbas Gallyamov, who worked with this structure during the Duma elections, explained the phenomenon of the success of the New People party by successfully hitting the demands of society. “I won’t say that they conducted a very effective campaign, but since the party is wealthy and rich, they crushed it with numbers,” TVK Krasnoyarsk quotes him as saying.
“Crushed by quantity” is, of course, a bad characteristic for any undertaking. But, on the other hand, it is typical for any company operating on the principle of network marketing – when a lot of people gather in a large hall and they are bombarded with information about the merits of a unique product (in this case, a batch), supported by a vivid video sequence and other people’s success stories.
After the first regional elections of the New People, the departure of another well-known Russian political strategist Yevgeny Minchenko from the party headquarters was an alarming signal for many. The Free Press wrote about it. Minchenko was considered a person close to the Kremlin. The liberal press hastened to assure its readers that the Kremlin was supposedly “leaking” the party.
However, it is now becoming clear that the reason for Minchenko’s departure could, most likely, not be this at all, but the situation within the party – tense and inconsistent with its stated goals.
If during the election period it seemed that the drive inherent in a “network structure” like commercial companies such as Oriflame or Tiens was able to attract young people, bloggers, start-up businessmen to the party structure, now, having achieved the desired, party members could get lost in an unfamiliar environment.
Otherwise, perhaps, it could not be for one reason only: “New people” in the State Duma could find themselves in the position of recruits who have yet to earn their authority and political weight. It would seem that now the “new” ones have the opportunity, being in parliament, to play their own game, independent of the Presidential Administration, but so far they have not succeeded in breaking out into leadership positions.
The current situation, according to political scientists, was bound to cause, on the one hand, irritation in the formal leaders of the party, and, on the other hand, centrifugal tendencies.
If you look at Nechaev’s election briefings, then his manner of communication is, in fact, still a presentation of the owner of the network structure, which bears little resemblance to a political event
Plus political dividends
In conditions when in an effort to obtain administrative rent it is necessary to demonstrate loyalty, there can be no talk of any “network approach”, pluralism and other things. It is not surprising that in terms of PR and public activity, the same Sardana Avksentieva, one of the strongest political figures of the New People, was relegated to the background.
Mr. Davankov, on the other hand, could be tritely “remotivated” by the post of vice-speaker. Although, formally, the decision that it was he who would take this position from new people should have been made in the structure itself.
As for Alexei Nechaev, his behavior increasingly makes one suspect that for him this whole story could not only be the embodiment of an old dream, but also an attempt to get preferences and other benefits for his own business and at the same time increase his brand awareness. Still, Nechaev looks very little like a politician. However, who in the State Duma does not have their own interests?
Rumors are rumors, but if you look at Nechaev’s business, you can find very interesting things. If you look at the head JSC Faberlic, everything is fine there. At the end of 2020, the company made a profit of 2.8 billion rubles with a huge revenue of 23 billion rubles. But if we turn to subsidiaries, then questions already arise. Let’s take, for example, LLC “Faberlic fashion factor”. With a revenue of 282 million rubles (plus 12 million compared to the level of 2019), over the same period the structure went negative by 1.4 million rubles. Paradoxically, at the same time, the value of the net assets of the structure also increased – from 5.1 million to 22 million rubles.
It is quite possible that Alexey Nechaev hopes to solve business problems with the help of politics
Based on this, it can be assumed that money from the structure could be tritely withdrawn. However, after Nechaev headed the New People party and led it to the State Duma, neither he nor his partners have had any questions about this from the relevant authorities.
The version that the New People party is being prepared to occupy the liberal-centrist “flank” in the political system of Russia is also not without meaning. In this sense, it becomes clear how the Kremlin can regard a clear crisis in the ranks of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Communist Party. According to the results of 2021, the latter can even be considered a frontier. Stakes on them and the aging Zyuganov, as one of the pillars of the party system of the Russian Federation, are hardly relevant anymore.
This means that the “New People”, despite all the problems, still has many prospects, including those with an eye on gubernatorial and other authoritative posts. Given that Nechaev is already a billionaire, these prospects are becoming quite achievable for him. And political experience is something that will come with time.
So, isn’t the struggle now attributed to the party between its key functionaries connected with this? ..