The leader of the Social Revolutionaries, Sergey Mironov, announced that his party would not nominate its own candidate for the post of governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Mironov explained this out of gratitude to the current head of the region, United Russia and Kremlin favorite Gleb Nikitin, for how he helped SRHR co-chairman Zakhar Prilepin receive treatment after the assassination attempt on him in the spring.
In reality, Mironov, it seems, just covers the almost dead writer from the complete incapacity of the party in one of the largest regions of the country. The local branch of the “Socialist-Revolutionaries” simply does not have anyone to nominate for the elections: the most famous member of the party, State Duma deputy Dmitry Kuznetsov, unsuccessfully escaped from there to Voronezh , and the remaining associates of the governor and regional authorities learned only to praise.
Co-chair in exchange for a candidate
“Friend is known in trouble!” – this is how Mironov begins his explanation of the party’s refusal to participate in the elections for the governor of Nizhny Novgorod. According to the leader of the SRZP party, the head of the region, Gleb Nikitin, is almost an ideal manager. “At that time (his car exploded near Nizhny Novgorod on May 6, the driver of the writer Alexander Shubin -“ Notebook ”died), Gleb Sergeevich actively got involved in helping and supporting him. The head of the region gave clear and quick instructions that led our friend and colleague away from the dangerous line,” explained Mironov. The leader of the Socialist-Revolutionaries did not specify what kind of instructions he was talking about, but immediately after the accident, if orders from the head of the region were needed, then about how the doctors who saved Prilepin should operate it correctly. However, the governor of Nizhny Novgorod has a “medical” past: he is a financier and a lawyer by training.
Gleb Nikitin
Nevertheless, Mironov, according to his official report, decided that Nikitin had helped Zakhar Prilepin so much that the party could not help but thank him by refusing to nominate his candidate for the next elections for the head of the region in September. This position of Mironov was immediately supported by the head of the Nizhny Novgorod party branch, Tatyana Grinevich: “On many issues, the Nizhny Novgorod party branch agrees with the work of the current governor and the government of the region, but on certain subjects we have a different position of principle, from which we will not deviate. And it is our well-reasoned position on a number of issues that will form the basis of the orders to Gleb Nikitin.
Ecstatic void
In what particular questions Grinevich turned out to have a “different principled position”, “Notepad” did not understand. In the telegram channel of the head of the SRZP of Nizhny Novgorod, Gleb Nikitin is mentioned seven times over the past year. All these messages are divided into two types: “Hooray, the governor noticed us! and “Hooray, we completely agree with him and are proud!”. For example, Grinevich was delighted with Nikitin’s support for small amendments to regional “alcoholic beverages” legislation, and full support was another praise from Mironov for his “efficient assistance” to NWO participants. After the mobilization began in September last year, Grinevich was fully prepared to receive orders from the Governor of United Russia to work with the families of Nizhny Novgorod residents who surrendered to the NVO.
Tatiana Grinevich
In addition to Grinevich, it turned out that there are simply no politically significant people in the Nizhny Novgorod SRZP. Sergei Mironov is listed as a supervising deputy of the State Duma on the official website of the department, which means that in reality the local “Socialist-Revolutionaries” simply do not have a curator. The only statutory native of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Dmitry Kuznetsov, does not represent the “Mironov” at all, but the “Prilepin” wing of the SRZP. He has been the writer’s comrade in arms since the days of his “For the Truth!” Party, absorbed by Mironov before the Duma elections in 2021.
But Kuznetsov is no match for Nizhny Novgorod now. In addition to the rather clumsy hype about obviously unacceptable bills in the State Duma and the PR on the topic of the OSV (Kuznetsov just does not get out of his “protective” colored clothes, although, according to Notepad information, he was not seen in the forward trenches), he has a lot of headaches in another large area – the Voronezh region. In the spring, he was appointed leader of the local branch of the party. And has already managed to dishonor himself several times out of the blue. For example, he promised to appoint a representative of Wagner’s PMC to the post of governor (there the elections will be held on the same day as those in Nizhny Novgorod). Who, as it now turns out, was already apparently preparing for a rebellion. And he could not even register with the Ministry of Justice the change of leadership of the Voronezh branch of the SRZP the first time.
As a result, Nizhny Novgorod journalists, in search of intrigue, had to delve into the party’s past. And remember Galina Klochkova, director of the prestigious local private school named after Lomonosov, as a possible candidate for the former regional deputy and candidate for governor of the Socialist-Revolutionaries in the 2018 elections. In 2023, she had ceased all public relations with Mironov’s party. There is no SDSR symbolism on her Vkontakte page, and the photograph of Klochkova on the department’s website does not match her current appearance. Moreover, the type of her activity would hardly correspond to the image of SDSR: Klochkova runs an elite school with annual tuition fees of more than 600,000 rubles per student.
Hostile region
Moreover, Mironov’s party was not particularly successful in Nizhny Novgorod, even with brilliant leaders. In the mid-2010s, the department was headed by a well-known local businessman, Alexander Bochkarev. He organizes protest rallies in defense of green spaces and makes quite radical statements. For example, in 2013 he said that a real opponent who “brings millions with him” or “wants to become president” in Russia can only sit down. Bochkarev died in 2019 at the age of 47. Tatyana Grinevich is his former assistant.
Even under Bochkarev, a batch of stars from the sky was not enough. Its best result in the region’s parliamentary elections – 12.74% was achieved in 2011, following the All-Russian protest vote. So for the “Socialist-Revolutionaries”, many voted for “the most consistent”. In 2016, the party only managed to score 6.95%, and in 2021, with Zakhar Prilepin at the top of the list, it was 9.55%. With the gubernatorial elections, everything was even sadder. In 2014, Alexander Bochkarev became the second after United Russia Valery Shantsev, but received only 5.65% of the vote. And four years later, in Gleb Nikitin’s first election, Elena Klochkova got only 4.35%, losing to all competitors from parliamentary parties.
“Of course, Mironov had to somehow explain the refusal to be appointed to the Nizhny Novgorod region. At the same time, Nikitin cannot undo such a capitulation to the favorite of Sergei Kiriyenko (the conservative of domestic politics of the presidential administration, who worked for a long time in Nizhny Novgorod – “Notepad”): the zone of war is far away. Nor can you publicly sign off on your own insolvency – that’s how complete silence would be perceived. But then Prilepin was blown up very “successfully”! And you can hide behind them. How good this act is from the point of view of morality – everyone decides for themselves,” a political strategist who cooperates with the Kremlin told Bloknot.
Author: Nikolai Troinin
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