Candidates for governor of Irkutsk Oblast have compiled lists in the Federation Council of the Russian Federation

Candidates for governor of Irkutsk Oblast submitted their lists to the Federation Council, and deputies clearly dominate them, along with education and healthcare representatives. Experts see this not only as an attempt to rely on respected figures, but also as an election tactic, especially in the fight for votes in the Ust Ordynsky Buryat District. The article examines in detail whom Sergei Eroshchenko, Sergei Levchenko, Oleg Kuznetsov and Larisa Egorova nominated, and why these decisions drew different assessments from political scientists.

Candidates for the post of governor of the region, who submitted documents for registration, have officially announced their candidacies to the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.
Experts noted that among the nominees presented to the upper house of the Russian parliament, two categories dominate – deputies and representatives of the social sphere working in education and healthcare. Such an approach on the part of the contenders for governor of the Irkutsk Region may be a kind of electoral technology, according to which prominent figures are included by them in the list of candidates for the Federation Council of the Russian Federation in order to attract additional votes from the electorate to their side. At the same time, the contenders for the governor’s seat themselves described their nominees to the Federation Council of the Russian Federation as people who are authoritative in the eyes of the public, which confirms the experts’ assumptions. This was reported by politicians and political experts.
The chairman of the LDPR faction in the Legislative Assembly of the Irkutsk Region, Oleg Kuznetsov, who is running for governor of the Irkutsk Region, named three deputies of the regional parliament as his candidates for the Federation Council – Georgy Lyubenkov, Sergei Magdalinov, and Dmitry Ershov. All of them are members of the LDPR faction. According to Oleg Kuznetsov, the nominated candidates for the Federation Council will definitely be useful and will be able to apply their accumulated political experience in the interests of the region’s residents, especially Georgy Lyubenkov, who is regarded in this list as the main figure.
"All three were once deputies of local self-government, and they went through the entire school of deputy work from the ground up. They have their own constituencies, quite large ones, and they know the problems of the population. In addition, they have higher education, extensive party experience in the LDPR, and have proven themselves positively as reliable, professional, already established politicians. Therefore, such a decision was made," Oleg Kuznetsov said.
Another contender for the governorship, the head of the regional branch of the Just Russia party, Larisa Egorova, justified her choice of candidates for the upper house of the federal parliament by their affiliation with the field of education. Since it is this sphere, in Larisa Egorova’s opinion, that is the foundation of modern society.
"I believe that today the most important task in our country is to restore education to its former Soviet level. Therefore, my choice of candidates representing education was made consciously. Marina Komarova teaches at the state university, Vladimir Bukhantsov is a historian, associate professor, candidate of sciences, a very developed person, and Nadezhda Skabelkina is an Honored Teacher of Russia, a person who knows how a school works. I think they will bring direct, concrete benefits," Larisa Egorova noted.
Another contender for the governor’s seat, acting governor of the Irkutsk Region Sergei Eroshchenko, is convinced that there can be no ad hoc decisions when choosing candidates for the Federation Council. Among those candidates he chose were the Commissioner for the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Rights in the Irkutsk Region, Alexei Moskalenko, the chief physician of the regional oncology dispensary, Viktoria Dvornichenko, and the deputy speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Angara Region, Kuzma Aldarov. Of these, Eroshchenko especially highlighted Kuzma Aldarov’s candidacy.
"Aldarov worked for three years to achieve obvious, good results in the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug. As a result, the president praises us for the development of agriculture. Accordingly, I chose Aldarov because he is a deputy who dealt with agriculture, and a representative of the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug who has a direct connection to it. Therefore, the fact that he became a candidate for the Federation Council of Russia is completely logical and justified," Sergei Eroshchenko said.
As for Viktoria Dvornichenko’s candidacy, she is an outstanding medical professional, and the health of the population is an important component of the region’s well-being, Sergei Eroshchenko emphasized. This also applies to Alexei Moskalenko, because healthy conditions for doing and developing business, which he helps create through his activities, are a significant support for the economy not only of the region but also of the country, the acting governor noted.
Closing the list of contenders for the post of regional head, the first secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and deputy of the State Duma of Russia, Sergei Levchenko, placed his bet on three deputies for the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. In personal terms, the composition of the candidates of the regional communist leader looks as follows – the first secretary of the city committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, chairman of the committee on property and economic policy of the Legislative Assembly of the Angara Region, Olga Nosenko, the first secretary of the republican committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation of Buryatia, deputy of the State Duma elected from the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation from the Republic of Buryatia, Vyacheslav Markhaev, and the head of the Communist Party faction in the Legislative Assembly of the Irkutsk Region, general director of the agricultural production cooperative "Usolsky pig complex" Ilya Sumarokov.

Political scientist Yuri Pronin believes that the choice of candidates for the Federation Council of Russia is dictated by the logic of election technologies, thanks to which contenders for governor of the region seek to gain indirect votes from voters, but the choice of figures is far from ideal.
"From the point of view of election technologies – yes, from the point of view of subsequent work, not so much. I was not strongly impressed by the composition of the candidates for the Federation Council, who, as a rule, do not have federal weight. Perhaps the election-style effort to attract voters played a major role here.
Sergei Levchenko’s choice of Vyacheslav Markhaev’s candidacy is not entirely clear. Buryatia is nearby, of course. If he wanted somehow to counterbalance Aldarov’s nomination for voters from the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug, then it is unclear why Markhaev. I think this is a response to Sergei Eroshchenko, who announced Aldarov’s candidacy, but a very strange response to Aldarov’s nomination. This is an attempt to compete for the votes of voters in the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug. Therefore, in this situation, election technologies came into conflict with the functional interests of the region," Yuri Pronin emphasized.
Candidate of political sciences, deputy dean of the history faculty of ISU, political scientist Alexei Petrov is confident that the attraction by contenders for the post of governor of the region of representatives of the Buryat ethnic group to the list of candidates for the Federation Council of the Russian Federation is normal practice.
Since we have many voters of Buryat nationality, there is a representative connected with the Buryat people not only on Sergei Levchenko’s list, but also on Sergei Eroshchenko’s list. In the first case, this is Aldarov; in the second case, it is the leader of the Buryat communists. There is nothing bad about this, since our region is multinational. I can say that this is absolutely the right election tactic, both for Sergei Eroshchenko and for Sergei Levchenko, so that the lists for the Federation Council include not only Irkutsk residents, but also people connected with the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug. It should be said that it is precisely in the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug that the elections for the governor of the Irkutsk Region are effectively decided, because the rural residents of the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug are the most active electorate, with high turnout. Therefore, it is possible that the votes received in the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug may be decisive for the candidates for governor.
Early elections for the governor of the Irkutsk Region will be held on September 13. Political parties have already put forward their candidates. From United Russia – acting governor of the Irkutsk Region Sergei Eroshchenko, from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation – State Duma deputy Sergei Levchenko, from the LDPR – deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Angara Region Oleg Kuznetsov, from Just Russia – secretary of the regional branch Larisa Egorova, from the Civil Platform – editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Nasha Sibskana" Arthur Pyanov, from Patriots of Russia – chairman of the regional branch Vasily Pronichev, from the All-Russian Party of Pensioners for Justice – chairman of the regional branch Leonid Karnaukhov. By law, all of them must also submit their candidates for the Federation Council of Russia to the Irkutsk Region Election Commission.