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Businessman Lomakin ready to become parliament deputy – United Russia

Businessman Anatoly Lomakin is ready to accept a State Duma seat

MOSCOW, August 14 (Itar-Tass) —— Businessman Anatoly Lomakin is ready to accept a State Duma seat, United Russia General Council Secretary, State Duma Vice-Speaker Sergei Neverov told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

“We had spoken to the party’s regional organization [in the Perm territory]. They told us Lomakin was ready to accept the mandate,” he said, commenting on the decision of the Russian Central Elections Commission to give the parliament vacancy to Lomakin.

A decision on which State Duma committee Lomakin joins will be made later on, Neverov said. He said there were no problems with the implementation of a legal norm, which demanded that deputies must quit business. “Plenty of people in the State Duma had been into business before their election,” he said.

Central Elections Commission Secretary Nikolai Konkin announced Lomakin’s decision earlier.

Lomakin is the General Director of the International Potassium Company, who ranks 79th amongst Russian richest businessmen on the Forbes list. His fortune is estimated at $1.2 billion.

The United Russia faction’s vacancy appeared after the resignation of Andrei Klimov, who became a Federation Council member on behalf of the Perm territory in early July. In such cases a parliament seat goes to a candidate of the same region, who fails the election. The seat was offered to ex-Natural Resources and Ecology Minister Yuri Trutnev, who is currently a presidential aide, on July 25. Trutnev led the United Russia candidate list in the Perm territory but rejected the mandate. He declined the offer again.

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