Khabarovsk City Duma deputies backpedal on plans to leave the LDPR

A group of deputies from the Khabarovsk City Council, who announced their intentions to leave the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) just yesterday, have changed their minds, council chairman Mikhail Sidorov told TASS on Wednesday, November 25.

According to Sidorov, the deputies decided against leaving the party after meeting with the Khabarovsk Krai’s Acting Governor Mikhail Degtyarev, the leader of the regional LDPR branch.

The website AmurMedia, citing Sidorov, reported that Degtyarev told the deputies that “it’s necessary to make serious, urgent changes to the way the municipal parliament interacts in decision-making procedures.”

At a Khabarovsk City Council meeting, Sidorov announced that the deputies’ applications to leave the party were sent to Degtyarev and the LDPR’s central office “for consideration,” AmurMedia added.

Sidorov told the newspaper Kommersant that the Khabarovsk City Council wants “to become an independent parliament, not controlled by the executive branch.” “The government is in ongoing dialogue,” he added.

The Khabarovsk City Council has 35 deputies, 33 of whom are from the LDPR. On November 24, 17 deputies announced plans to leave the party. Spokespeople for the LDPR’s Khabarovsk branch called the decision a “provocation.”

Khabarovsk City Councilman Alexander Kayan left the LDPR in July 2020. He said he joined the party because he supported Governor Sergey Furgal, who was arrested on July 9 on charges of organizing multiple murders in the early 2000s.