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Crimea and Sevastopol

Soviet leader Brezhnev’s grandson back in politics, leads communist party

The Crimean Central Electoral Commission on Monday registered his party’s list of candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections slated for September 14. Brezhnev leads the 55-member list

SIMFEROPOL, July 21, /ITAR-TASS/. Andrei Brezhnev, the grandson of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, is all set to compete for a seat in Crimea’s State Council (parliament) from the Communist Party of Social Justice which he heads.

Brezhnev Jr., 53, has lately been living in Crimea where his grandfather fought during World War II.

The Crimean Central Electoral Commission on Monday registered his party’s list of candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections slated for September 14. Brezhnev leads the 55-member list.

“Crimea is my second motherland. I have been living near Alushta for several years, and if we get elected to regional parliaments, I will stay in Crimea,” Brezhnev told ITAR-TASS.

He said the main purpose of his party in the elections was to “test our strength”. “No party has so far gained a strong foothold here. It’s not so certain that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will win. I think it has not been very active over the past ten years, and people might get interested in new actors,” he said.

The Crimean Central Electoral Commission has registered the lists of candidates from eight parties: Just Russia, United Russia, Democratic Party of Russia, the Communist Party (CPRF), the Russian Party of Pensioners for Justice, Patriots of Russia, and Communists of Russia. The documents filed by another four parties are still being processed.

Leonid Brezhnev was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1966-1982. He fought for the Kerch Strait in Crimea during the Second World War as head of the Political Department of the 18th Army.

Since 1963, he spent all of his vacations in Crimea, sometimes staying there for 1.5-2 months. In the closing years of his rule he preferred to receive delegations and conduct negotiations at his dacha in Oreanda.

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Crimea and Sevastopol

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