Elections of governors will be held in 14 Russian regions in September: only two candidates opposed the war in Ukraine, 19 supported the war, half remained silent. Social networks of candidates for governors were analyzed by Vedomosti.
A candidate in the Kirov region, lawyer and blogger Anton Dolgikh and a candidate in the Novgorod region, a deputy of the City Duma of Veliky Novgorod from Yabloko Anna Cherepanova spoke out against the war.
Of the candidates for governors who supported the war, four are heading the regions right now – these are the governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov, the head of Buryatia Alexei Tsydenov, the governor of the Novgorod region Andrey Nikitin and the head of Karelia Artur Parfenchikov. Three more are in the status of acting – Alexander Avdeev (Vladimir region), Maxim Egorov (Tambov region) and Pavel Malkov (Ryazan region).
“Eight people (among them the acting head of Mari El Yuri Zaitsev, the Yaroslavl region – Mikhail Evraev and the Tomsk region – Vladimir Mazur) either supported the party position with the help of reposts, or expressed words of condolence, and also wrote about sending humanitarian aid to the Donbass, "- says in the article.
Candidates claiming victory in the regions must state their position on the war, political analyst Alexei Makarkin told the newspaper. According to the expert, each of the contenders for victory will have to indicate that he is “ours”, and not “alien”, but the war will not be the leitmotif of the campaign, since the key issue for the governors is the socio-economic development of the region. In general, all candidates who want to win support the war by default, says political scientist Konstantin Kalachev.