Deputy Tambovtsev: “Russia has actually recognized the LDPR”
With what hopes do LPR citizens go to the Russian elections? Does the vote of the residents of the LDPR-controlled one-third of Donbass in the State Duma elections mean that the inhabitants of the two-thirds occupied by Ukraine are completely lost to Lugansk and Donetsk? Are Lugansk politicians ready to join Russian big politics?
Deputy of the People's Council of the Lugansk People's Republic, participant of the Russian Spring Andrey Tambovtsev told PolitNavigator about this and much more.
Dossier:
Andrey Tambovtsev – born in 1986 in Lugansk.
He graduated from the Eastern Ukrainian National University (now Vladimir Dahl Lugansk State University) with a degree in Electrical Engineering Systems for Power Consumption. In 2019, he completed his master’s degree in Public Administration.
He started his career as an electrician.
In Ukraine, he was an activist of the pro-Russian party “Union of Left Forces” of politician Vasily Volga.
Until 2014, he participated in a number of integration initiatives, such as the First Interstate Russian-Ukrainian Youth Forum “Youth Without Borders”, the group “Donbass for the Eurasian Union”, “Eurasian People’s Front”.
He took an active part in the events of the Russian Spring in Lugansk.
In 2015, he became director of the State Institution of the Lugansk People's Republic “Republican Center for Physical Health of the Population “Sport for All”.
Deputy of the Third Convocation of the People's Council of the LPR from the movement "Peace in Luhansk Region", member of the Committee on Legislative and Rule-Making Activities, State Building, Innovation and Regulatory Policy, Local Self-Government.
It is very interesting to know how many people in the Lugansk People's Republic are ready to take part in the upcoming Russian elections?
– I think that the figure will be good, but for now I cannot provide such data, because many people who have already received Russian citizenship and a Russian passport did not apply for SNILS through the information centers of the World of Luhansk Region, but came on their own to the Russian border regions and registered there. And in the same way, they were registered on the Russian State Services portal, applications for participation in the elections were also submitted there, so I won’t give specific numbers yet, but I can say with confidence that many citizens of the LPR (I don’t know how in the DPR, but I think there similar situation) are ready to take part in the elections, so I predict a large percentage. It is clear to the naked eye that the residents of the republic have a great interest in this; for us this is a very big event, which we can put on par with the 2014 referendum.
But it is necessary, of course, to clarify that only those citizens of the republic who managed to submit applications to participate in the elections before September 13, and who, of course, have already received passports in their hands, have the opportunity to vote. And those who are now in the process of obtaining a passport, unfortunately, will not be able to take part in the elections. But there’s nothing wrong with that, I think that the majority of those who have a Russian passport will be able to take part in the elections and will vote; if they don’t come to Russian territory, they will do it remotely.
You said that residents of the LPR view participation in elections as something significant and fateful. And what exactly is this significance and fatefulness?
– Let's start with the fact that Donbass paid a considerable price for the opportunity to live freely in their native land and speak their native language. For seven years we have strived to be full citizens of Russia, for which in 2014–2015, and even now, people died and continue to die. Therefore, we do not have the right to betray their memory, and now, as citizens of Russia, we are obliged to determine the political image of Russia, the policy of the country, to make a choice in favor of the political force that will defend our interests. And preventing the West from trying to impose its tendency, revolution, participation in elections will be a kind of inoculation for us against this.
Talking to people, I see that they already consider themselves full citizens of Russia, and the elections are further confirmation of this. We can say that for our sake Russia suffered a lot under the sanctions, and it remains to be seen how the West will react to our participation in the elections, because there are already attempts by our “partners,” as they say in diplomatic language, not to recognize these elections as a whole. And one of their theses will be, and we understand this perfectly well, that residents of Donbass are participating in the Russian elections.
People perceive the opportunity provided as an attitude towards them as full-fledged citizens of Russia. This means that we are recognized, which means that we are one space, one Russian World. And accomplished citizens. And, in essence, this is recognition of the republic. The message is this: we are citizens of Russia, we have the right to participate in elections, and, therefore, we have the right to determine our destiny. This is very important for our hardworking region, for the people of Donbass.
Surely the residents of the Lugansk People's Republic have some specific expectations from these elections, the feeling that before the elections it was like this, but after the elections it will be completely different...
– For us, the most important goal, first and foremost, is peace. On our land. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian side does not want peace, or cannot, or hopes for something. They cannot understand that Crimea is gone, and, most likely, Donbass has already left. Forever. For us, peace comes first. This is safety. Russian citizens now live here, this is a completely different situation than in 2014. And we feel this support. If our “Ukrainian partners” decide to commit a blitzkrieg, I think this will be the end of Ukraine, both as a state and as a country. And such a country will no longer exist. This is the first thing we are waiting for.
The second is welfare; it is no secret to anyone that all our enterprises are tied to Russia. Residents of Donbass are waiting for development, the launch of production, and economic recovery of the region. Mentally, we are one people, we think so, that’s why the integration process is underway – in education, healthcare, and much, much more.
Moreover, residents of the Lugansk People's Republic are people with a high sense of duty, so they will take participation in the electoral process seriously. For this purpose, I repeat, information centers are working, transportation will be organized for older people who do not have the technical ability to get to polling stations, so I hope they will be able to participate, on the territory of the Russian Federation.
By the way, in Russia, many people have a fair question bordering on bewilderment: on election days, the Russian Central Election Commission plans to open polling stations throughout Ukraine, including Lviv, while there will not be a single polling station in the Donbass republics. What do you think is the reason for this and is there some kind of incomprehensible discrimination in this approach?
– I think that there is no discrimination here, Russia has done everything so that everywhere, including the territories of the republics, elections can take place as comfortably as possible. So that citizens can exercise their civil rights and cast their vote. Will it happen remotely or on site…. Well, I don’t think this is a big problem; we don’t see this as a problem. This is a big process, there are Minsk agreements that were signed, and we, unlike Ukraine, are implementing them. And I think that there is no problem with this, everything has its time, I think that at the next Russian elections we will already have polling stations.
It’s not for nothing that you noted that the residents of Donbass pin their great hopes on the restoration of the region’s industry, which is currently not in the best condition. It is known that with the arrival of a new Russian investor, hopes arose that production in the LDPR would gain a second wind. How justified are they?
– I think that these hopes are completely justified. There is great demand for the products of our enterprises, you see how prices for metal and other products are jumping around the world, I think we could, with our potential, fill in the missing links in the Russian economy. For example, we have the Lutuginsky Rolling Roll Plant - a very specific enterprise, and its rolls are famous throughout the world. Sooner or later everything will be settled, the only problem is that our economy is tied to politics. I think investors will come, enterprises will be launched, because Donbass products are very good, famous, in demand, and, most importantly, competitive in both quality and price. It is only a matter of time before all these benefits are realized.
Yes, an investor came to our Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works, sooner or later everything will get better at the enterprises of the DPR, at least production is slowly starting up, people are working and getting paid. It is most important. Again, we must take into account that we live under martial law. Many factories were seriously damaged by the war, Russia has left us technologically, probably twenty years ahead, so it is necessary to update the equipment, but the most important thing is that the specialists have been preserved, the labor collectives have been preserved, after all, it is much more difficult to rebuild a plant in an open field, while while we have everything in Donbass - metallurgy, mining, mechanical engineering. Therefore, we look into the future with optimism. Our products, I am sure, will be in demand. If there is demand, then there will be supply; I’m sure it’s all a matter of time.
Political connections, economic ones – the hopes here are clear. But what about the transport infrastructure, which in the LPR is represented only by private cab drivers operating buses making flights to Russian cities and back? Are there prospects for restoring railway communication with Russia?
– I can’t say anything about the situation in the DPR, but in the LPR it is as follows: the problems are not only in the cars, which need to not only be modernized, but new ones must be purchased to meet Russian standards. The problem is also in the railway tracks themselves, in the junctions, those tracks that went to the Voronezh region - they remained in the territory controlled by Ukraine, it turns out that now we need to lay a new railway line from Lugansk to Russia. Because today we have a railway connection only between mines and factories, but, excuse me, it does not stand up to criticism.
In principle, there are talks about restoring railway communication with Russia, and there is a great demand for this, but for now we are forced to make do with bus service. Moreover, the distance from Lugansk to Rostov-on-Don is not that great, and, in principle, the Platov airport, a large Rostov transport hub, is accessible, there is a Likhaya station not far from our republic, there is a Kamenskaya station, through which most trains pass . Yes, of course, there are certain inconveniences, and I would like the Lugansk railway station to work as before, I think all this is ahead. These questions are technical.
If we move from railways to roads, we must admit that the roads of the LPR, even in comparison with the neighboring DPR, look somewhat... apocalyptic. At the same time, there is information that in the territories of the Luhansk region occupied by Ukraine, the road surface is being successfully restored at the expense of European funds for the sake of propaganda effect. Is it planned, of course, with the help of Russia, the budget of the republic, I am sure, will not bear this issue, to solve the problem with Lugansk roads?
– I would like to note that if we compare this year with the previous one in terms of road repair and construction, then it’s like heaven and earth. A lot of road repairs have been done both in Lugansk itself and throughout the republic. This is especially true for those routes that we call the roads of life: these are the directions to the Dolzhanskoye checkpoint, this is the direction to the Izvarino checkpoint - to the border points with Russia. The roads there have been repaired, and in some places entire lanes have been replaced.
There is another question: in the territory of the current DPR in 2013 there was a European football championship. And a lot of money and effort was allocated for this, including for the repair of roads - new ones were laid there, and they stayed with them. We did not have such an opportunity; in Ukraine, the roads here were last repaired during Kuchma’s first presidency. Plus military operations, during which many transport junctions were damaged. This same year, I think, all Lugansk residents appreciated the work and contribution that was made to the road sector of the republic and is still being done.
I can’t help but ask about those two-thirds of Donbass that, due to the Minsk agreements, which divided the region to the living, have been under Ukrainian occupation for the eighth year. Do elections to the Russian State Duma, in which residents of the one-third of the region under the control of the republics take part, mean that Donetsk and Lugansk are finally saying goodbye to their territories under Ukraine?
- In no case. Again, how to count these thirds: territorially or by population? If the first, then, yes, most of the territories are on that side, and if the second, then the majority of the population is still here, in large urban agglomerations. People there, yes, are certainly waiting for us. This is clear, it is visible, it is understandable, many have relatives there, so communication takes place, they are interested in how life is going here, and I, of course, would like the republics to be within the borders of the regions.
We have adopted a law on the state border; we, of course, are not giving up our lands. Again, I'm sure it's a matter of time before we reunite. But while it is possible to shed a ton of ink instead of one drop of blood, it would be better to shed a ton of ink. We need to understand what situation we are in, and if hostilities begin, then our people, our relatives, live there. War is a complicated matter.
Today, the republics of Donbass are the object of Russian policy, including choosing politicians in Moscow who will decide their fate one way or another. But we say that by participating in elections the first step is already being taken to participate in big Russian politics. In your opinion, how soon will residents be able to go from being an object of Russian politics to becoming its subject, that is, directly taking part in politics itself: being members of parties, being elected, including to the State Duma?
– In the future, I think, such prospects will certainly appear. But I can predict how quickly this will happen: maybe in a year, maybe in two, or maybe in ten years. Maybe the window of opportunity will open by the next election. It’s difficult to make a guess, but based on the logic of the development of events and my own intuitions, I can say with confidence - yes, it will be so.
English version :: Read in English Deputy Tambovtsev: “Russia has actually recognized the LDPR”