A Just Russia used its congress in Moscow in late October 2025 to remove writer Zakhar Prilepin from the post of co-chair, assigning him instead the role of deputy chairman. The party also dropped its cumbersome triple name and returned to the A Just Russia brand. Sources cited by Novaya Gazeta Europe say the group is preparing for the State Duma election in September 2026 and hopes to occupy the niche of a fully Kremlin-loyal left-wing social force.
The greeting to the congress was read out by Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy head of the presidential administration. He thanked party members for supporting the “liberated regions,” Donbas and Novorossiya, and passed along Vladimir Putin’s wishes for success, as well as gratitude for cooperation on key social and economic issues.
The party has existed since October 28, 2006. By many accounts, it was initially created to absorb Rodina and siphon votes away from the Communist Party. Since 2007, it has continuously held a faction in the State Duma. In the 2018 and 2024 presidential elections it did not nominate its own candidate and instead backed Putin; in 2008 it supported Dmitry Medvedev. Sergei Mironov himself ran for president twice and finished last both times.
A source inside the party says A Just Russia sees state employees and military personnel as its core electorate, but the leadership is worried about the upcoming campaign: according to him, VTsIOM gives the party a rating of 3%, while the threshold for entering the Duma is 5%. The party has therefore stepped up its media activity and is promoting social initiatives such as housing for medical workers assigned through targeted enrollment, freezing utility tariff increases, and federal payments for pensioners to buy medicines.
Sources interviewed by the outlet link Prilepin’s demotion to an attempt to restore tighter internal control. One of them says the leadership was unhappy that the party had turned into a “circus,” with “Prilepin’s faction” acting too independently. In that account, the party is now rebuilding a vertical chain of command so it can follow signals from the presidential administration more precisely, avoid obstructing United Russia, and draw votes away from the Communists. Prilepin, who did not attend the congress, told TASS that he would soon return to the war and had “put his political ambitions on ice.”
Former party figures and other sources told Novaya Gazeta Europe that A Just Russia’s history is a chain of mergers with other political projects, after which co-chairs gradually disappeared while Mironov retained control. Several interlocutors believe the party is likely to make it into the next Duma. In their view, the presidential administration finds A Just Russia useful as an established brand and as a platform whose candidate lists can easily accommodate people approved by officials.