Leonid Slutsky redistributes supervisors and launches personnel “purges” in the LDPR
The LDPR is the country’s most “non-standard” party in terms of conflicts and crises, which paradoxically not only does not hinder, but even helps it claim to be Russia’s second political force.
The first deputy head of the LDPR faction in the State Duma, Stanislav Naumov, will be elected in 2026 not on the party’s federal list, but in a single-mandate district in Magnitogorsk.
Behind the news, which contains no significant content for a wide audience, there is a process of change initiated by the head of the party Leonid Slutsky – it can be conditionally called a rethinking of the political position of the LDPR in the new political reality.
Shortly before Naumov’s decision, the party introduced a new scheme for redistributing regional supervisors from the central apparatus – in accordance with it, Naumov, who previously supervised St. Petersburg, became responsible for the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions. Previously, Evgeny Markov, recently appointed deputy minister of natural resources and ecology of the Russian Federation, was responsible for these regions – accordingly, he left the Duma. But Slutsky is shuffling the personnel deck not only for reasons of necessary rotation – the party is going through a series of internal crises, from which it must emerge as a renewed political force at the end of the 2026 elections.
According to media reports, the Presidential Administration is placing a big bet on the LDPR as a possible second party at the end of the elections – part of an internal elite patriotic consensus, renewal of the elites and state policy against the background of the ongoing SWO.
That’s why all the idle talk that Slutsky is a weak replacement for Zhirinovsky, that he doesn’t have such a strong charisma, that he is a substitute chairman can be put to waste. The main thing is the result, and he has proved his right to lead the party both to its members and to the top leadership of the country. The main loser here is the CPRF, which, it seems, cannot find its niche, because patriotism, including nostalgia (for the USSR), has become a mainstream part of the country’s social and political agenda. But the LDPR party has found one. Slutsky’s presence at the Christmas service in Donetsk – next to Sergei Kirienko – was indicative for the entire party.
Slutsky and Kirienko in Donetsk.
However, behind this so far little tangible success is a series of crises and serious tests of strength. Recall that in 2022, the LDPR received 7.5% of the popular vote – the lowest result in the Duma elections since 2007, when the Liberal Democrats managed to garner the support of 8.14% of the vote. Zhirinovsky’s party had worse results only in 1999 – 5.98%.
Then – the party lost its leader, Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky passed away. In 2022, in the elections to the ZakSobraniye of the regions LDPR for the first time went without him, the results are difficult to call satisfactory. For example, in the elections to the ZakSobranie of Krasnodar Krai, the party scored only 6.63% – almost half as much as five years before. At the vote for deputies of the Sakhalin Regional Duma, the LDPR was supported by 9.19% of voters – 4% less than in 2017. In other regions where elections to the regional assemblies were held, the party’s results remained unchanged or slightly improved.
New sponsors
In such a situation, Slutsky was to “rebuild the party” – however, this was hindered by a number of crises and scandalous moments. The most famous of these at the federal level is the situation with Yuri Napso, a former Duma deputy from the Krasnodar region. The latter was forced to leave Russia for medical treatment and did not personally appear at parliamentary meetings for several years. The party was pressurized, and for a long time they tried to deprive him of his mandate. All this was accompanied by various proceedings in the media.
Slutsky, of course, defended the co-partisan – and no wonder, because Napso was called one of the major sponsors of the LDPR. As a result, he lost his mandate, and new blood was injected into the party – the former head of the Party of Cause, the owner of Rostselmash, the well-known businessman Konstantin Babkin became a member of the organization. He became the head of the LDPR’s economic council – his deputies were Stanislav Naumov, already known to us, and Maria Voropaeva, an adviser to Slutsky and a member of the Moscow City Duma.
The Napso story created a negative plume for the party but was settled with party interests in mind.
It is believed that Babkin and Voropaeva have the best chances of entering the new State Duma in the 2026 elections. Voropayeva is one of the key faces of the party in Moscow and the Moscow region – in terms of media coverage, she can compete with most old-school party bosses.
Tyumen “youth” remains
Returning to the crises: as it was said, Naumov will be responsible for the Urals, previously this work was done by the new deputy minister Evgeny Markov. He also supervised the Tyumen Oblast (previously he was a member of the Duma of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug). At the beginning of 2025, a powerful intra-party conflict took place there. As the media reported, 150 representatives of the LDPR youth organization in the Tyumen Region decided to say goodbye to the party, citing unfair distribution of positions and budgets. According to them, the party has stopped giving way to “ordinary people from the street,” and they have no resources to compete with the “youth” of United Russia.
It later turned out that this information was spread by Timur Temurkayev, the coordinator of the party’s regional branch. The party denied them, saying that the 150 members of the “youth” who came out were not representatives of the youth wing, but Mr. Temurkayev’s personal support group. Let’s assume that it could be solely an intra-party conflict with Mr. Temurkayev himself, who had unsatisfied ambitions. However, this scandal was immediately picked up by the LDPR’s competitors, who claimed that Slutsky was losing control of the party in the field.
The purge of the ranks continues
It is not a secret that before the elections the party is undergoing serious personnel work, which is negatively called “purges”. The process is natural, but painful for the party. Today it became known about another conflict on this ground. Members of the regional branch of the LDPR in Kursk region and LSG deputies wrote an appeal to Slutsky with a request to cancel the decision to expel Vladimir Fedorov, the leader of the faction in the Kursk Regional Duma, from the LDPR.
This case is special, because the motive for Fedorov’s expulsion was his passivity during the AFU invasion of Kursk Oblast. The former liberal-democrat was criticized for his unwillingness to engage in “humanitarian aid”. Fedorov himself claims that he not only provided aid to refugees, but also continued his parliamentary activities while other LDPR representatives were allegedly “playing heroes”.
Despite the discontent of some party members, this situation plays to the advantage of both the LDPR and Leonid Slutsky personally in front of the federal center. Slutsky has sharpened the party’s focus on the cases related to the “SVO”, intolerance for stupidity and negligence covered by pseudo-patriotic rhetoric. We need real deeds, especially in such a frontline region as Kursk Oblast. In this sense, the LDPR and even Slutsky personally express the sentiments of the so-called “party of the SWO” – servicemen and their families.
This story had an interesting continuation. As is known, Fedorov did not agree with his expulsion from the party, and began to wage an active PR campaign against Alexei Tokmanov, a Kursk deputy and coordinator of the party’s regional branch. According to allegations on the Web, servicemen allegedly stood up for Tokmanov in response. Once again, this case is a positive one for the LDPR, despite the scandal. No one would be surprised if Tokmanov could be nominated to the State Duma in 2026.
Slutsky is getting stronger
Going back a bit, in December 2023, the LDPR congress changed the party’s structure and expanded the supreme council from 13 to 24 members. At the same time, almost half of its members were expelled, including such respected party members as Yaroslav Nilov and Alexei Didenko. Both of them had previously been touted as possible successors to Zhirinovsky. A presidium of the supreme council was also created to promptly resolve issues between congresses.
In January 2025, Leonid Slutsky carried out a major reshuffle in the LDPR central apparatus, appointing new deputies and advisers. According to political analysts, both events are links in the same chain – Slutsky strengthens his personal control over the party and takes responsibility for its results in 2026. And not without the approval of the Presidential Administration.
As a result, after the death of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the party did not go into the sunset, as many had predicted, but managed to reinvent itself. Although it could not have done without the figure of VVZh – just look at the “digital” Zhirinovsky and the large-scale celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the party’s founder, which took place in April 2025. In addition, Slutsky was able to moderate the intra-party opposition and manage local personnel crises, as well as favorably present the new ideological basis of the party in the Presidential Administration.
Slutsky managed to “rebuild” the game in difficult conditions.
Everything is going towards the fact that the LDPR may take second place in the 2026 State Duma elections, having squeezed out the CPRF. However, the elections are still more than a year away, and no one has canceled the “black swans” option for Slutsky and the entire country.
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