“I didn’t break down in the captivity of terrorists”: will the scientist Shugaley, who survived in Libya, conquer the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly?
Sociologist and political consultant Maxim Shugaley, whose name thundered in the news headlines after being detained in Libya by terrorists two years ago, is running for deputies of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly from the Rodina party.
Shugaley has parliamentary experience: last year he was elected to the State Council of the Komi Republic, but in December he still gave up his mandate. Being a Leningrader, he decided to return to St. Petersburg and wanted to work for the benefit of his native city. "Rodina" supported.
The candidate’s program is extraordinary: not a single populist statement. Even unusual. Instead, Shugaley and Rodina say directly: the program will be determined by collecting the opinions of the townspeople. It turns out that it is the conservatives, and not the liberal democrats, who want to restore the democratic traditions of St. Petersburg.
It sounds attractive, but we decided to ask professionals – political scientists from the best Russian universities – about the “pitfalls” in the intentions of the “Rodino” people entering parliament. And a lot of interesting things turned out.
A complicated past: Libya and the protest in Shies
Not cynicism, but a fact: almost two years in captivity of Libyan terrorists in Tripoli, where the sociologist was captured while conducting research, will become for Maxim Shugaley one of the “locomotives” of his election campaign. Doctor of Political Sciences, head of the Department of Social Technologies at RANEPA Inna Vetrenko explained why “difficult life experience” can provide him with a deputy seat.
“With a properly organized election campaign, Shugaley’s rating is not bad. He has a good background. He can be classified as a potentially passable deputy. <…> Considering his difficult life experience, he now understands human rights mechanisms very well,” Vetrenko said.
The electorate has a positive attitude towards Shugaley, when compared with many other candidates, confirms the head of the department of political science and sociology of the Russian Economic University. G.V. Plekhanov, political scientist Andrey Koshkin. In a North African country tormented by civil war, Maxim showed himself both as a scientist and as “simply a very courageous person.”
“Shugaley did not break and withstood all the hardships that befell him when the scientist found himself in conditions that were dangerous to his life. We have people going into politics who have proven themselves much less as individuals - they openly try to promise a lot to voters. And here we see a man about whose life more than one film has been made [two blockbusters have actually been made about Shugaley – editor’s note],” the sociologist discusses the prospects of his colleague.
Judging by the general context of the election campaign that unfolded on the single voting day, the Rodina candidate will be able to prove himself in a political position in St. Petersburg, Koshkin believes.
No less remarkable is another, much less well-known page in Shugaley’s biography: he was one of the first to oppose the construction of a landfill near Shies. The protests began in 2018, and 2 years before that, a sociologist conducted a study and warned: locals do not want to live near the landfill. Shugaley's report angered the Moscow customers of the opinion polls - they probably wanted to see different results. They tried to put pressure on the scientist and forced him to correct his conclusions. He categorically refused. The contract was terminated.
National values
On the question of ideology: Shugaley worked at the Foundation for the Protection of National Values (FZNTs). The organization lobbies for the defense of Russian interests in international politics and the preservation of traditional values, opposes political repression of Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine and violations of the rights of Russian media abroad (and you thought there was no censorship in the West?).
Alexander Perendzhiev, associate professor of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of the Russian University of Economics named after G. V. Plekhanov, member of the Expert Council of the organization “Officers of Russia”, pays special attention to the activities of the potential deputy Shugaley in the Federal Scientific Center.
“I think this is very important. There are many figures in St. Petersburg who interpret national values in their own way. In fact, Shugaley goes into the thick of the political struggle. I want to say that the struggle to protect national values is very important. Sometimes these things are too distorted here: a lot is imposed by the West,” Perendzhiev noted.
As a Komi deputy, Shugaley was more involved in “everyday issues,” the political scientist states. But in the Northern capital the situation is different: here the ideological aspect is extremely important - in the European city of Russia “a lot of third-party ideology is being implanted.”
“His experience of perseverance and opposition to values alien to Russia is very important. Based on St. Petersburg, where the situation is very difficult, maybe he will really be able to reach the federal level. By the way, it may also be in demand in the executive branch: as an option, work in the Ministry of Culture,” the scientist believes.
Will Shugaley get a parliamentary mandate and will St. Petersburg residents vote for a fellow countryman candidate who does not want to make promises, does not want to lobby Moscow interests in the parliament of his home city, but works for the people and with the people - we’ll see on September 19.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.