Having a luxurious holiday in the UAE, United Russia defiantly refused to apologize
No sooner had the scandal with the Kursk Regional Duma deputy Maxim Vasiliev, who had a nice holiday in Mexico, died down than a new one broke out - with the Vologda Region Legislative Assembly deputy Denis Dolzhenko.
He published on his VKontakte page his own photo in a T-shirt, taken in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I’m not very good at skiing, and running in such cold weather is not very comfortable. I listened to the weather forecasters’ recommendations and warmed myself,” Dolzhenko wrote.
Not only the deputy’s subscribers, but also the governor of the Vologda region Oleg Kuvshinnikov reacted negatively to the publication.
“I try not to comment on anyone’s personal life, but sometimes the permissiveness of officials and people’s representatives goes beyond all boundaries. When fellow countrymen risk their lives and defend the interests of our country with arms in hand, some consider it permissible, as before, to carefreely go on vacation to luxury resorts and report about it on social networks. And then, with incredible persistence in the comments, prove to the rightly indignant people that there is nothing criminal in this. There really is no crime in this. There is something else: a public demand for justice,” Kuvshinnikov wrote in his TG channel.
He expressed confidence that the parliamentary ethics commission and the party faction will make “the right decision that people are waiting for.”
The United Russia party immediately responded in the person of the secretary of its general council, vice-speaker of the Federation Council Andrei Turchak.
“Today we all make our own choices - with whom to be and who to be, what to do or not to do. During these holidays, several high-profile situations occurred when representatives of the United Russia deputy corps showed themselves inadequately. You can do a lot of things in life - running, diving, skiing... But everything has a time and place. Another deputy of ours will be deprived of his party card tomorrow. I got there..." Turchak wrote.
The “running” Dolzhenko did not want to repent. Unlike his Kursk colleague Vasiliev, who declared the publication of a compromising video “sabotage of Western Ukraine,” the Vologda deputy decided that the best way to defend himself was an attack, and published another photo on VKontakte - with the daughter of the Russian Defense Minister Ksenia Shoigu. He claims that he met her “unexpectedly” in the same UAE.
In addition, it turned out that Dolzhenko is not directly a member of United Russia. Apparently this is why he decided not to implement the recommendation of the general council, which, according to rumors, was sent to the regions before the holidays: not to post anything on social networks that could be considered a luxury.
FederalPress editor Andrei Gusiy believes that in this way United Russia is paying for the fact that in the last regional elections it tried to have as many of its deputies as self-nominated as possible.
“This is a strong indicator of the appearance of openness of the elections, when it is necessary to show that party members, self-nominated people and non-party members got into the Duma, even if everyone comes with the support of the party or administrative resources. The statistics ultimately speak of a multi-party system, non-party members and self-nominated candidates, but as a result, even in the region itself they cannot give Andrei Turchak accurate information about who and whose he is, since everything was done through one window,” wrote Gusiy.
Political consultant Alexander Semenov predicts that many more scandalous situations will emerge following the holidays.
“It is quite possible that similar stories will now emerge in other regions. I do not exclude elements of regional intra-elite struggle, that is, all sorts of videos will be leaked and so on. But in the current situation, everyone needs to be more modest,” Semenov said in an interview with Regional Comments.
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