MOSCOW, June 15 (Itar-Tass) - The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) has nominated Mikhail Degtyarev as its candidate for the post of Moscow mayor.
The nomination was announced at a conference of the party’s Moscow branch on Saturday, June 15.
Degtyarev, 31, is a member of the party’s Supreme Council, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science and High Technologies. In 2009, he was included in the Russian president’s HR reserve. He was elected to the incumbent Duma from Samara Region.
Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said he hoped that Degtyarev would be registered as a candidate by July 10 “after which an election campaign will start.”
He stressed that Degtyarev is “crystal clear” and assumed that he would be “turned inside out to find negative sides” of his life, but “they won’t find them”.
Degtyarev said he is “a party candidate in the first place” and stressed that he would follow the party programme.
Zhirinovsky told ITAR-TASS that the nominations of candidates to the Federation Council from Moscow would also be approved at the conference. Among possible candidates he named Alexei Didenko and Yaroslav Nilov.
The Moscow city election commission has approved the schedule of election events to prepare and conduct the mayoral elections.
“We are calculating the amount [of money to be allocated for the purpose from the city budget]. It was provided for in the draft budget up to 2015, but there are special deflators and the number needs to be recalculated. It’s more than 400 million roubles, judging from the previous City Duma elections,” election commission chairman Valentin Gorbunov told ITAR-TASS earlier.
He said the biggest part of this money will be used to pay for the printing of ballots and a part to pay the members of local election commissions.
Last week, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on early termination of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s tour of duty.
Sobyanin had earlier tendered resignation, asking the president to accept it.
Putin accepted his resignation and instructed him to remain as acting mayor of Moscow until the mayoral election, the date of which will be set by the Moscow City Duma.
At a meeting with Putin on June 5, Sobyanin said he had discussed the issue of holding an early mayoral election in Moscow with the Moscow City Duma deputies and representatives of the local authorities at a meeting of the Public Council.
“This is the first time in the last ten years that it is now legally possible to hold such an election, and after consultations, I decided that it would be the right thing to hold this election this year,” the mayor said.
Putin noted that Sobyanian had been working successfully and asked him to continue this work. “I will sign today an executive order naming you as acting mayor until the election, and I ask you to ensure that all of the city’s services continue working without problem,” he said.
“No matter what domestic political events are going on, in a huge city like Moscow, maintaining social and public order is essential. I hope you will manage. We have been working together for a long time now and I know your abilities,” Putin said.
He asked Sobyanin if he was going to run in the election.
“Yes, Mr President,” the mayor replied. “We have a number of big programmes underway in Moscow and it would not be right to abandon them midway. I therefore think I should run in the election.”
Putin wished him success.