Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

174 Petr Panovby the previous ‘elites settlement’, they tried to make the most of the availableopportunities. Among those one should single out the group led byVladimir Plotnikov, a successful entrepreneur with a criminal past. DespiteChirkunov’s active resistance (at times rather crude), in December 2004 hemanaged to win a by-election and secure a seat in the regional legislature.Later, after joining with Pokhmelkin’s supporters he formed a faction in theregional parliament consisting of four deputies. Prior to that Plotnikov hadestablished control over the regional branch of the People’s Party. It wasPlotnikov who was Shubin’s principal rival in the Perm mayoral elections,although he was disqualified under the trumped up charges of infringingelectoral legislation. 49 However, he was still able to put forward his owninformal list of candidates for the Perm city assembly, but only three of themeventually won seats. Nevertheless, Plotnikov’s group remained a significantcounteracting force to Chirkunov. Taking into account that thePeople’s Party and Liberal Russia (under Pokhmelkin’s control) had virtuallyno chance of reaching the 7 per cent threshold, Plotnikov was inneed of a party with a more significant electoral potential. In 2006 hetried to take control of the regional branches of Yabloko (after Churpakovhad exited), the Democratic Party, and even the CPRF, but he has notbeen successful.One of the most important recent events in Russian political life was thecreation of the party ‘A Just Russia’ which was formed through a Kremlininspiredmerger of ‘Rodina’, the ‘Russian Party of Life’ and the ‘RussianPensioners’ Party’. In Perm region the strongest among these was the latter.In the 2003 elections for the State Duma, the Pensioners’ Party won over 5per cent of the votes in the region. The struggle for control over the party’sregional branch between several influential elites ended in the victory of theregional natural gas supplier (‘Permregiongaz’). It is noteworthy that twomost recent successive managing directors of the company, Shubin (former)and Agishev (current), are active members of United Russia. This convincinglyshows that, in order to minimize risks, those political actors who havemeaningful resources invest them in a variety of party projects.In spite of its success in the 2003 State Duma election (5.79 per cent ofregional voters) Rodina did not manage to form a strong regional branch inPerm. This can be explained by the party’s split at the national level.Additionally, regional party leader Valentina Sevostyanova, a deputy of theState Duma, lacked financial resources. Therefore the regional branch wasactivated only on the eve of December 2006 election.As the Russian Party of Life headed by Sergei Mironov became stronger,some elite groups entered the struggle to control its regional branch. Themost active were three well-known regional politicians (regional assemblydeputy Konstantin Okunev, former Vice-Governor of Perm Yuriy Belousov,and Federation Council member Vladimir Solomonov) who undoubtedlyalso represented different business groups. The central party leadershipremained undecided over which of these groups and leaders to back, and the