The main race of the summer — elections to the city council of the capital of Buryatia — has been declared open. The Buryat regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) has decided on candidates for the city parliament. This time the list is as toothless as possible. But one name has caught Babr’s attention.

Only preliminary preparations are currently underway, the start will be announced after the election commission officially registers those nominated as candidates for deputy. It should be noted that the candidate for participation in the competition for the post of mayor of Ulan-Ude from the main opposition party has not yet been publicly announced. The Buryat Socialist Revolutionaries, Liberal Democrats and Yabloko are basically silent about their candidates. They have learned from bitter experience: in 2019, the local election commission rejected fifty real opposition candidates and almost the entire Yabloko list in the elections to the city council of the capital of Buryatia.

Thanks to the mayor’s administration’s massive failures Igor Shutenkov the mood of Ulan-Ude residents is shifting from unconditional support for the government in difficult times to a demand for change. However, it is important to understand how much of the electorate is ready to go all the way – to the polling stations and demonstrate their disagreement with politics “United Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)”. Moreover, it will no longer be possible to let off steam during the mayoral elections.

The most interesting candidate from the CPRF of Buryatia, who already has experience in parliamentary activities, was the former secretary of the Buryat regional committee of the CPRF, former deputy of the Ulan-Ude city council, former head of the Ulan-Ude forestry department Alexey Konovalenkov. He expects to return to parliament. From the mayor’s office as director of the MBU “City Forestry” Konovalenkov quit in 2020, citing fatigue from work as the reason for his decision.

Apparently he got tired of organizing. profitable for Mayor Shutenkov, cutting down trees. But a four-year break allowed him to separate himself from the scandalous city administration. Now Konovalenkov has enough resources to nominate, because after leaving the mayor’s office, he went into business. He is the CEO of the scandalous Baikal Coal Company LLC (OGRN 1140327010361), which in 2023 carried out work on agricultural land in the Kizhinginsky District, which is why it was a nightmare for Rosselkhoznadzor.

The agency found that the actions of the Baikal Coal Company, which had dug up the site to extract resources, had damaged and destroyed the fertile layer, which had led to the degradation of agricultural land. The alarmed agency went to court and asked the company to pay the district budget about 190 million rubles as compensation for damages. As a result, the scandalous site was leased to Baikal Coal Company LLC for 25 years.

Political scientists are unanimous in their opinion that Ulan-Ude is in for a rather tough and competitive election, since a deputy seat has become more expensive due to the introduction of a competitive system for selecting the mayor. So it is not surprising that the resourceful and experienced Konovalenkov appeared on the list of candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) for the city council.

Or, for example, a former deputy of the People’s Khural Leonty Krasovsky. It seems to have gone down, but from September the city council members will get much more influence on politics cities.