A Just Russia May Get a New Party Leader After Sergei Mironov’s “Minor Injury”

A Just Russia may get a new party leader after Sergei Mironov’s “minor injury”

State Duma deputy speaker Alexander Babakov may become the new leader of A Just Russia because the party’s current head, Sergei Mironov, may “never recover” from an injury he suffered in early September, three sources in the party, the State Duma, and the presidential administration told Verstka.

According to a Verstka source in the leadership of A Just Russia, Babakov has “received approval” to “shape the party around himself.”

“There will be a [report-and-election] congress after the [Duma] elections. That is where the leadership will be changed. Babakov may be elected chairman. And Mironov, for example, may be made head of the chamber of deputies or simply honorary leader. If, of course, he makes it to that point,” he says.

According to another party member interviewed by Verstka, Babakov is already managing “both the election campaign and the party.” “He enjoys the Kremlin’s trust like no other major party member in the ranks of the ‘SRs,’” the source said.

The leader of the “SRs,” Sergei Mironov, disappeared from public view in early September during a campaign trip to Altai Krai. At the time, the party said on Mironov’s behalf that he had suffered a “minor injury,” was suspending his participation in the campaign because of it, and was entrusting debates and campaigning to “Babakov and other comrades-in-arms.”

Almost immediately afterward, Verstka’s sources in Mironov’s circle began saying that the injury was far from minor. According to two Verstka sources in the party and the State Duma, the condition of the A Just Russia leader has only worsened at present. One source claims that Mironov “was even put on a ventilator.” Verstka was unable to independently and documentarily confirm this information.

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