A Communist candidate was elected mayor of the city of Oryol on Tuesday, winning endorsement from the ruling United Russia party.
Local deputy Sergei Stupin received unanimous backing from his 30 colleagues who attended the session, the city council reported on its website. He was the only name on the ballot.
No breakdown for the vote was given but Oryol is one of the few regional capitals nationwide not controlled by United Russia, which holds only 14 seats in its legislature, compared to 17 for the Communists. The Right Cause has one deputy in the city council.
Oryol is part of the so-called “red belt,” a traditional Communists stronghold stretching across southern Russia.
Stupin’s predecessor, Viktor Safyanov, in power since 2010, was fired last week by the city council, which was vested with the power to appoint and sack mayors starting this month. United Russia also purged Safyanov from the ranks and called his nomination “a mistake,” while the ex-mayor himself blamed his ouster on his conflict with regional governor and party comrade Alexander Kozlov.
A lawsuit challenging Safyanov’s removal is under review in an Oryol court.
United Russia did not comment on why it supported a candidate from another party. Repeated calls to four telephone numbers of the local party branch went unanswered on Tuesday afternoon.
Though support for the ruling party is flagging, the Communist victory in Oryol has nothing to do with the nationwide trend, said regional analyst Alexei Titkov.
“This has to do with local affairs,” he said by telephone. “The thing about city politics in Russia is that party labels…are often just camouflage for localized power games.”
