The long-serving and experienced federal politician looks set to lead the Murmansk party branch in the State Duma elections, due November this year. Yazev has been a member of the State Duma since 1997 and is today its Deputy Speaker. He also heads the Russian Gas Society, a non-commercial partnership initiated by Gazprom to promote the interest of the gas industry.
Yazev has lately made several trips to the Arctic peninsula and made crystal clear that he intends to head the regional party list, an interview with the party press service reveals. With his nomination, which is likely to be officially approved at an upcoming regional party congress, Yazev pushes regional Governor Dmitry Dmitriyenko out of the party top position.
That means that regional Governor Dmitry Dmitriyenko will not top the party list. He will be one of few Russian governors not to do so.
Yazev was originally placed far down on the United Russia party list in Sverdlovsk Oblast. However, federal interests instead decided to move him to the Murmansk list.
Murmansk Oblast will over the next years experience a surge in oil and gas-related activities. Valery Yazev’s strong bonds to the gas industry might be one of the reasons why he has been put on the party list for Murmansk. Yazev originally comes from Sverdlovsk Oblast and has no former connections with Murmansk.
In the 2007 State Duma elections, United Russia won 55.11 percent of the votes in Murmansk Oblast, which was among the worst results in all of Russia.
