Forceful fighting methods are becoming know-how for the 2022 campaign. The authorities of Pskov…

Forceful fighting methods are becoming know-how for the 2022 campaign. The authorities of the Pskov region are the first to attract security forces to eliminate their competitors. The Pskov Territorial Election Commission asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to conduct an investigation into the forgery of signatures on the list of candidates from the New People party for the Pskov City Duma. In fact, we are talking about the fact that the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will prove to the candidates that, according to their handwriting examination, they were not the ones who put the signatures on the documents.

This know-how was introduced by the new vice-governor, political strategist Alexander Seravin, who previously worked with the head of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov. Similar tactics were used in the St. Petersburg elections, but for the first time candidates were removed not through the hands of election commissions, but through criminal cases. Interestingly, the target of the attack was the New People party, a completely Kremlin project. It is still unknown why a conflict arose within the government, which required the intervention of security forces. Perhaps the feds somehow offended the interests of regional officials and they decided to “show their teeth.”

It is unlikely that the forceful attack was agreed upon in Moscow. The transition to forceful methods of struggle is more like an attempt by the Pskov authorities to take the internal politics of the region under their strict control. But turning to the security forces is the last line of defense, evidence that the system in the hands of the new vice-governor is stalling and it is necessary to resort to extreme measures, since political instruments are not working well. Which in itself is extremely dangerous in the border region, where the socio-economic situation is not very good, and the political situation is even worse.

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When Andrei Turchak was the governor of the Pskov region, it was believed that he was pursuing an overly tough policy towards the opposition. But then he was dealing mainly with Apple, and not with the loyalist project of the New People. Governor Mikhail Vedernikov is intensifying competition already on the internal circuit, putting the parliamentary party at risk. Why in this case it was necessary to hire political strategist Seravin remains a mystery, because to implement power scenarios it was enough to appoint some retired colonel. A separate question is how the AP will react to the situation, given that pressure from systemic candidates will hit the image of the government as a whole, demonstrating the collapse of political procedures and the “seravinization” of elections, reducing them to the level of African countries.