Dmitry Medvedev has announced the top five candidates with whom United Russia will enter the State Duma elections in September. The federal portion of the list includes Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny, children’s ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova, and Yunarmiya head Vladislav Golovin.
In the previous election in 2021, the top five consisted of then Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Sergey Lavrov, Kommunarka hospital chief physician Denis Protsenko, co-chair of the All-Russia People’s Front Yelena Shmelyova, and children’s ombudswoman Anna Kuznetsova. The publication notes that the first four later declined their mandates, which were then passed on to other candidates.
Earlier, the party’s Duma list was usually headed by a single person: Vladimir Putin in 2007, and Dmitry Medvedev in 2011 and 2016. In all of those cases, the list leaders also refused to become deputies and transferred their mandates to others. In particular, Medvedev’s seat after the 2011 campaign ultimately went to Irina Yarovaya.
According to calculations by Novaya Gazeta, over the past 20 years only one person from among the leaders of United Russia’s federal list actually received a parliamentary mandate after the election. That person was Anna Kuznetsova.
The newspaper explains that the first names on the list appear on the ballot and act as the party’s electoral showcase. Recognizable officials, doctors, military figures, and other public personalities help increase trust in the list, offset the party’s negative ratings, and attract additional votes. After the election, they may give up their seats, and the vacated mandates then go to lesser-known candidates.
Novaya Gazeta has previously referred to such list leaders as “locomotives” and noted that United Russia uses this lawful tactic especially actively at both the federal and regional levels.