Page 14 - Russia OUTLOOK 2024

endorsed by “liberal” figures such as Ksenia Sobchak, Yekaterina Shulmann, and Oleg Kashin), made a name for himself as a new voice in politics, despite only securing fourth place with five percent of the vote. At 39 years old, his relative youth is a unique advantage over the other candidates. Davankov's political position stands against the current zeitgeist, advocating for “normalisation” and opposing the increasingly powerful groundswell pushing to reshape society in a more conservative, restrictive direction. Even if his campaign will likely be marginal with voters, Davankov may prove to be a bellwether showing the extent to which Russian society has actually militarised and adopted the state's beliefs as a result of the war.
Leonid Slutsky: he is the candidate for Liberal Democrats. As expected, party leader Leonid Slutsky was chosen to represent the party. Not only does he have close ties to the domestic policy overseers at the Presidential Administration, but he also has links with various diplomats and the security services. In March 2022 Slutsky was part of the Russian negotiating team during the March "peace" talks with Ukraine, which also included presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, Deputy Minister of Defence Oleg Fomin and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrey Rudenko.
Slutsky's role was largely ceremonial – he is the head of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee. He also played a part in the prisoner swap talks that occurred a year ago in Abu Dhabi. A source with insight into the negotiations told R. Politik that Slutsky (a very wealthy man) acted as the 'wallet', financially supporting the necessary logistics because the FSB did not have sufficient resources of its own. Unlike the Communists, he is not just “systemic” but closely overseen by the authorities and as such has limited room to act. He cannot use his own initiative to the same extent that the Communists can.
Pavel Grudinin: After the death of firebrand popularist Vladimir Zhirinovsky in 2023, a regular participant of Russian elections, his place as the head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) has been taken by Pavel Grudinin, who is expected to continue Zhirinovsky’s line of extreme nationalistic, anti-immigrant xenophobic rhetoric, and could win up to 10% of the vote.
Igor Girkin (aka Igor Strelkov): Pro-war Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who is in custody awaiting trial for inciting extremism, said in November that he wanted to run for president, even though he understood the March election would be a "sham", with the winner already clear.
Opposition candidates: On 23 December independent pro-peace candidate Yekaterina Duntsova, a true opposition figure, was disqualified by the Central Election Commission, which cited 100 errors in her documentation. Duntsova stated that after much effort spent finding a notary who would act on her behalf (many refused to touch her campaign for obvious reasons), the one who finally agreed to work for her made several mistakes in the registration documents. This complication became a critical issue after an unplanned audit by the Ministry of Justice.
There will be no genuine opposition candidates in the race, as all of the most prominent have either fled the country or have been jailed, such as opposition blogger and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yasin. The Kremlin has crushed the opposition, but as the Moscow Times reported, what
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