The fuss surrounding the elections in Murmansk should primarily be seen not as a dispute for or against the United Russia Party, but rather as an expression of the year-long conflict within the regional Murmansk party branch. Former city mayor Mikhail Savchenko and Governor Yevdokimov has represented adversary sides in that conflict.
Yury Yevdokimov is now likely to have strengthened his position in the internal party controversy. The election of Subbotin as new city mayor is also likely to have strengthened Yevdokimov’s position as governor. After weeks of harsh criticism and threats from United Russia, the party now indicates to Regnum that there will not be any immediate replacement of the governor.
Governor Yevdokimov was instrumental in Subbotin’s campaign, and originally wanted Subbotin to be the official election candidate of the United Russia Party. Instead the party chose the governor’s rival Savchenko and started a major negative campaign against Yevdokimov. That subsequently made the city elections also a vote of confidence for the governor. The victory of Mr. Subbotin should be seen as a lesson for the powerful party.
Yevdokimov himself says to local TV stationTV21 that the federal authorities have failed to understand the specifics of regional politics.
Yevdokimov is formally the leader of the United Russia in Murmansk. However, he has long had major problems with handling powerful fractions in the party structures. The conflicts between the fractions and the powerful business structures behind them have in periods paralyzed the regional party structures. As BarentsObserver reported in 2007, party representatives from Moscow had to go to Murmansk to mediate between the fractions.
With Sergey Subbotin as city leader, Murmansk has got a strong leader with a background from the security services. Like Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Subbotin served several years in East Germany. He has also experience from Murmansk regional politics as deputy governor responsible for security issues and anti-corruption work since 2001.
