On June 20, the CPRF held its election congress and approved its list of candidates for the State Duma. It includes more than 300 people from 36 regions. According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, the list is distributed unevenly: the largest number of candidates comes from the Moscow region, followed by annexed Crimea and occupied territories, and then Russia’s northwestern regions.
According to Vedomosti, the average age of the nominees is 50. The federal part of the list contains 15 people, and only Khakassia head Valentin Konovalov is not currently a State Duma deputy.
War participants and representatives of occupied territories
Of the 336 candidates, 21 took part in the war in Ukraine. Among them is Anton Shilov from Ulyanovsk, who served under contract with Russia’s Defense Ministry, took part in the Hostomel operation, and was later wounded. After treatment, he headed an association of “special military operation” veterans and became deputy director of a hospital in Ulyanovsk.
The CPRF is also nominating former “LPR” prosecutor general’s office prosecutor Vitaly Narizhny and Sergey Zakharchenko, an adviser to the head of the “DPR” and the son of its first leader. The list also includes one of the founders of the “DPR,” Boris Litvinov, as well as party secretaries from the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
Scandal-linked figures
The list includes Oryol region governor Andrey Klychkov, whose entourage and regional projects have in recent years been tied to criminal and political scandals. The EU has also sanctioned him over involvement in the deportation of Ukrainian children.
Other candidates include blogger and former Saratov regional deputy Nikolai Bondarenko, as well as State Duma deputy Denis Parfyonov, who became embroiled in a scandal in 2024 after a widely discussed video surfaced online. At the same time, former deputy Valery Rashkin, despite his expunged conviction and media reports about a possible nomination, was not included in the final list.