The disgraced ex-speaker of Crimea returns under the guise of “A Just Russia” in the company of former members of BYuT and NUNS
Simferopol, June 27 (Navigator, Astra Yazyka) – Former Crimean Speaker Anatoly Gritsenko , who fell out of favor during the government of Vasyl Dzharty , is returning to politics to promote justice. He will be joined by several dozen political figures removed from power in previous years.
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The day before, the conference of the Crimean regional branch of the political party "A Just Russia" in Simferopol approved candidates for the upcoming September 14 elections to the republic's State Council. Although the KRO SR press service limited itself to the list's top candidates and a couple of well-known figures in Crimea, the full list of candidates was no less interesting.
Number one on the list is the party's leader in Crimea, State Duma deputy Alexander Terentyev from Altai . The press had previously speculated that his candidacy was intended to offset the real player in the Just Russia election campaign, former Crimean Parliament Speaker Anatoly Gritsenko . Gritsenko's second-place finish merely confirmed these assumptions.
Gritsenko himself makes no secret of his return to politics for satisfaction. In March 2010, Gritsenko lost his seat as speaker of the Crimean parliament at the behest of Vasyl Dzharty , his handler from the Party of Regions. Dzharty subsequently became the republic's prime minister, reducing the parliament's significance to that of a mere extra. While Dzharty was receiving medical treatment abroad, Gritsenko attempted to lead deputies dissatisfied with the "Donetsk" invasion and rally votes for the prime minister's resignation. However, in January 2011, the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against Gritsenko on suspicion of abuse of power in the seizure of more than 4,800 hectares of land from the Azovsky military state farm. According to the prosecutor's office, Gritsenko violated the law while still head of the Leninsky District State Administration, and part of the land was transferred to the company of Olga Gritsenko, the speaker's wife . In total, the prosecutor's office opened four criminal cases against the former speaker. Gritsenko was arrested and spent 14 months in pretrial detention until, in March 2012, the Kommunarsky District Court of Zaporizhzhia sentenced him to two years' probation. Returning to his native Lenino, Gritsenko remained absent from Crimea's political life while the peninsula was part of Ukraine. Now he intends to demand justice for himself and for every Crimean.
“Every person strives for justice, every person believes that sometimes, in some cases, they act unfairly towards him, and he cannot find protection anywhere,” Gritsenko explained his desire to run for parliament. “Therefore, A Just Russia is designed to protect the justice of each individual Crimean citizen.”
For the triumph of justice, Gritsenko is ready to run not only on the list, but also in his native Leninsky majoritarian district.
Third on the list is Galina Putintseva, director of the Kerch Medical College . The 72-year-old director of the Kerch Medical College has survived multiple parties and election campaigns. She was elected to the Kerch City Council twice, where she currently represents the Party of Regions . Joining her are fellow countrymen Valery Belozerov (No. 10), deputy director of the Zaliv plant , who represented the Kerch Batkivshchyna party , and Sergey Shiryaev (No. 14), director of Kerchenergoservis LLC , who hoped to run for the Crimean parliament in 2010 as a candidate for the Strong Ukraine party . Following Gritsenko's example, Belozerov and Shiryaev will also run in two single-member constituencies in Kerch.
In fourth place on the list is Sergei Beim, head of the TES corporation . He represented the Batkivshchyna party in the previous Crimean parliament . A year ago, he and his father were charged with the destruction of state property during the construction of a liquefied natural gas transshipment facility at the Kerch fishing port. However, the court acquitted the Beims of all charges. To be on the safe side, Beim Jr. ran for the single-member Central District of Simferopol, where the ruins of the capital's only cycling track have stood for five years in memory of the TES corporation. The former deputy wanted to build a hotel on the site.
Number 5 on the A Just Russia list is Vitaly Kuvalin , whose name appeared in the 90s investigations into the Salem organized crime group, along with Sergei Voronkov and Igor Lukashev . Kuvalin later headed a branch of the State Enterprise "Center for Land Cadastre," and is now simply a businessman and vice president of the Boxing Federation.
In sixth place is Olga Udovina , former Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea and State Council member . In the previous convocation of the republic's parliament, Udovina represented Sergei Kunitsyn's bloc , during whose premiership she served as a minister in the Council of Ministers. Udovina's skills as a personnel manager and organizer proved useful in the government of Anatoly Mogilev , the last Prime Minister of Crimea within Ukraine , who appointed her Chief of Staff and then promoted her to Deputy Prime Minister. During the fateful events for Crimea, Udovina did not participate in parliamentary sessions, and only reappeared after the State Council adopted the new Constitution of the republic as a subject of the Russian Federation.
Number seven on the list is the current mayor of Alupka, Dmitry Karnaukh . Crimea's youngest mayor owes his political career to his father, Sergei Karnaukh , who is currently acting mayor of Yalta. In 2012, Karnaukh Jr. won the snap mayoral election in Alupka with a record-low turnout of 25%. In fact, 18% of eligible Alupka residents voted for the Party of Regions candidate. Nevertheless, Dmitry Karnaukh will also run in the September elections in the Yalta single-mandate constituency.
In eighth place is Denis Savateyev, director of Krymtelecom . The former head of the Crimean Regional Branch of the Ukrainian party "Spas" was on the Russian Unity list in the 2010 Crimean parliamentary elections. However, the 13th place did not bring him success. To be on the safe side, Savateyev decided to run in the Belogorsk single-mandate constituency.
Robert Mukhsimov , a 28-year-old businessman from Yevpatoria, had even less chance of winning a parliamentary seat on the Russian Unity list, being listed at number 47. Justice should prevail under the 12th position of the A Just Russia party.
Number 9 went to Krasnoperekopsk City Council deputy Petr Savenko , who heads the local Boxing Federation. He will also represent A Just Russia in the Krasnoperekopsk single-member constituency.
In 11th place is Mykola Klimchenko , who was among the top ten candidates on the "Strong Ukraine" list in the 2010 Crimean parliamentary elections. During the current election campaign, the head of the "SPK Karkinitsky" will also run in the single-member Razdolnensko-Chernomorsky district.
The risky number 13 went to Nikolai Trofimenko , a Feodosia resident and the head of the Feodosia City Council executive committee. He was voted no-confidence by deputies in April for attempting to gain the mayor's seat with the help of the Cossacks. He will represent A Just Russia in the Feodosia single-mandate constituency.
Current Crimean State Council deputy and head of the Saki city branch of the Party of Regions, Gennady Litovchenko, received the 15th spot. Litovchenko owes his stable position to former Saki mayor Oleh Klyuy and his oversight of land issues during the previous convocation of the Saki City Council. In the new reality, Litovchenko will promote the A Just Russia party in the Saki single-mandate constituency. Zinaida Kotsurak , who is less likely to win with the 49th spot on the list, will join him in promoting ideas of fairness in the neighboring Saki-Pervomaisky single-mandate constituency. Yuriy Kasyan , a Party of Regions deputy in the Saki City Council, has a much better chance of winning , having received the 21st spot with Litovchenko's blessing.
Number 16 went to Gritsenko's ally, the current chairman of the Leninsky District Council, Anatoly Petrishchev . Another long-time ally, former Council of Ministers minister Anatoly Rogozenko , was given the 20th spot on the list by the former speaker, who entrusted him with the Nizhnegorsko-Sovetsky single-member constituency.
In 17th place is Anatoly Motlokhov , deputy of the last three convocations of the Massandra village council , who moved to the Party of Regions from NU-NS.
Of greatest interest are Vladimir Shcherbina (No. 18) and Nikolai Kotlyarevsky (No. 19), who round out the top twenty. In 2007, Shcherbina, as mayor of Alushta, was charged with three criminal offenses for demolishing the illegal "Robinson" entertainment complex on the central embankment. Shcherbina personally demolished the two-story building on the coastal protection berm, while driving a bulldozer. In 2008, Shcherbina was arrested on suspicion of accepting a $20,000 bribe. After two months in Kyiv's Lukyanivske pretrial detention center, Shcherbina was released, and a year later, the court overturned the criminal case. However, in the run-up to the 2010 elections, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine returned the criminal case for retrial, and Shcherbina was again taken into custody. This time, he was charged with falsifying a city council resolution. Now, Shcherbina will seek redress in the elections in the single-mandate Alushta district.
Kotlyarevskyi will also represent A Just Russia in the Yevpatoria single-member constituency. A longtime opponent of Yevpatoria Mayor Andriy Danilenko , the former Crimean parliament member and parliamentary candidate is known for the fact that no election campaign has gone by without criminal charges being brought against him. Furthermore, Kotlyarevskyi regularly sought compensation from law enforcement agencies for his solemn press reports about the initiation of criminal cases, draining the Ministry of Internal Affairs budget by 1,628,000 hryvnias.
Lyudmila Mamykina, director of the Yalta Medical College, was the 22nd person to seek justice . Her husband, Anatoly Mamykin , headed the Livadia village council for a quarter of a century until he was arrested on suspicion of abuse of office in the midst of the 2010 election campaign. Mamykin spent six months in custody until the Yalta City Court released him in March 2011 due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
The final candidate for justice is Anton Raskin . Number 24 on the list and a candidate for the Moscow single-member constituency in Simferopol, he will continue the work of his father, Sergei Raskin, a former Crimean parliament member from Batkivshchyna, who was expelled from the BYuT and stripped of his parliamentary mandate.
The disgraced ex-speaker of Crimea returns under the banner of "A Just Russia" in the company of former members of the BYuT and NU-NS