State Duma deputy Sergei Neverov withdrew from the primaries of “United Russia” in the Smolensk single-state region, after which another candidate withdrew – deputy of the Smolensk city council and participant in the Russian-Ukrainian war Artem Kornyuchenkov.
Neverov himself Comment It’s like this:
The area has surrendered. Our co-candidate Artem Kornyuchenkov withdrew his candidacy from participating in the primary vote. Yes, politics is not a battlefield: everything is much more complicated here. The opinion of the residents of Smolensk does not matter to anyone, and the results of the preliminary vote of United Russia in the Smolensk region no longer matter to anyone.
The United Russia primaries (primary vote) are designed to select candidates for the Duma elections, which will be held in the fall of 2026. Neverov withdrew from the primaries on May 14, asking to support 28-year-old Kornyuchenkov in his place. At the same time, he appealed to the party leadership with an invitation to nominate Kornyuchenkov for the elections, and said that if this did not happen, it “would be unfair.” “Or someone will decide to make a political giveaway,” Neverov added. “That wouldn’t be fair. That would be dishonest toward the people of the heroic land of Smolensk.”
May 19 Kornyuchenkov Announce On his VKontakte page he also withdraws from the primaries. deputy He explained“Today there is an important task of forming a community of veterans, forming an association of veterans of the Northern Military District in the Smolensk region,” he added, and this is “difficult work.”
According to the sources Red blood cells, “Vedomosti” and “BBC Russian Service”Another representative is competing for this region – First Deputy Chairman of the “Just Russia” party and Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Alexander Babakov. The BBC Russian service describes Babakov as one of the patrons of “Just Russia” – he is one of the richest and most influential deputies from this party.
Sergei Neverov has been sitting in the State Duma since 1999, was deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament (from 2021 to 2024), leader of the United Russia faction (from 2017 to 2021), and also secretary of the party’s General Council (from 2011 to 2017). In the 2016 and 2021 convocations, Neverov was elected from the single-term Smolensk district.
Neverov is one of the heroes of Alexei Navalny’s investigations. In 2013, Navalny published an investigation into the Sosny Dacha cooperative near Moscow, where high-ranking officials, including Neverov, live. He filed a lawsuit against Navalny to protect honor and dignity. The court responded to this claim.