Entrepreneur Victor Bout, released from a US prison in December 2022 and exchanged for Brittney Griner, a US basketball player who was imprisoned in Russia, launched a campaign. A businessman who joined the Liberal Democratic Party shortly after returning to his homeland can take part in the elections to the Yaroslavl Regional Duma, interlocutors in the regional government and the deputy corps told Vedomosti. On April 24, Bout visited Yaroslavl, where, in particular, he held talks with the vice-governor for domestic policy Andrei Kolyadin and the leadership of the regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party, and also met with students of YarSU named after. P. G. Demidov and the working team of the Yaroslavl shipbuilding plant.
A spokesman for the LDPR press service told Vedomosti that he could not yet comment on Viktor Bout’s political plans. Party spokesman Alexander Dyupin also said that the businessman asked to hold all meetings in Yaroslavl without the media.
Nevertheless, journalists from the local “City TV Channel” took comments from Bout after his negotiations with Kolyadin. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party said that a “frank conversation” took place in the government of the Yaroslavl region: “Very sharp questions were posed and received quite capacious answers.” He expressed his gratitude to the Lieutenant Governor for the fact that he “found the time and very frankly answered all the questions.” Kolyadin did not comment on the negotiations with Bout to Vedomosti.
“We arrived, met with the activists of the Liberal Democratic Party, talked. These are planned trips: I get acquainted with the regions, study the realities of the country, ”the press service of the party later reported Bout’s words.
On March 7, Vedomosti wrote that Bout had begun a tour of the regions. First, he visited new territories, where, in particular, he opened regional branches of the LDPR (according to Vedomosti, at the request of party leader Leonid Slutsky). Then Bout came to Voronezh and Smolensk through the highest party school of the Liberal Democratic Party, and the visit to Smolensk took place after the resignation of his fellow party member Alexei Ostrovsky from the post of governor. The Higher Party School was held in the regions with the participation of Slutsky. The party leader did not come to Yaroslavl, although the region is not completely alien to the deputy – in 2007, Slutsky was elected to the fifth convocation of the State Duma from him.
The LDPR faction in the current convocation of the Yaroslavl Regional Duma consists of three deputies. On December 23, 2022, the deputies adopted amendments to the charter of the region, according to which the number of deputies of the Legislative Assembly was reduced from 50 to 46. Also, the number of deputies elected on party lists was reduced from 25 to 12.
Bout’s participation in the elections to the Yaroslavl Regional Duma still looks like downshifting against the backdrop of federal mandates that figures with comparable reputations received, says political analyst Mikhail Vinogradov. The current senator from the Yaroslavl Regional Duma, Natalia Kosikhina, showed up for the United Russia primaries for the selection of candidates for deputies and is actively campaigning, which means that she claims a seat in the Federation Council.
Vinogradov notes “a starting high level of fame” in But’s assets. “The passive is that this fame is not saturated with anything,” the political scientist notes. According to Ilya Grashchenkov, president of the Center for the Development of Regional Policy, the LDPR is trying to fix its participation in a large number of legislative elections in order to prove the necessity of the party’s existence after the death of its founder and longtime leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
“There are really few key characters in the party, and there are regions in which it is not very strong. Yaroslavl region is one of them. Bout’s participation in the elections should become some driver for the growth of the party’s rating, because he is a federally promoted figure,” Grashchenkov believes. In his opinion, Bout, if elected as a deputy, may refuse the mandate – “he will simply act as a“ locomotive ”, as before – Zhirinovsky.
