Mironov agreed to recommend to the party leadership as a successor to Shein as head of the regional department his colleague, the deputy of the Duma of Astrakhan, Maria Lidzhieva.
Former deputy of the State Duma and one of the founders of Just Russia – For Truth! Oleg Shein announced his resignation from all leadership positions. Disagreements with the party leadership on the attitude towards the SVO, the militarization of the party, as well as the shameful refusal to nominate a candidate for the presidential elections in the Russian Federation, brought Shein to such a stage. Shein amicably parted ways with Mironov and even promised to help party members. However, experts are already calling what happened “the self-immolation of the latest party icon”.
“I asked about a team change”
Oleg Shein announced his resignation from senior positions within the SDSR on his social media on April 28. He said that “even last year” he raised the issue “of his transition to the post of leader” of the Astrakhan branch of the party in front of party leader Sergei Mironov.
He explained his desire to leave by the fundamental disagreements that arose between him and the leadership of the SRZP, mainly over the war in Ukraine.
Oleg Shein “Some time ago events happened, the consequences of which will affect life not for years, but for decades. I am a person with Soviet views, and the value of peace, the inadmissibility of the path of military conflict, the importance of internationalism and international solidarity of the working class, the need for political freedoms in my understanding are not up for discussion at all,” Shein wrote.
Obviously, these positions, from his point of view, are clearly at odds with the new views of Mironov and the SRZP leadership. According to him, “the mere evocation of these values ​​is not easy” in the current political circumstances, and therefore leads to their effective rejection, which is unacceptable for Shein.
Additionally, Oleg Shein disagreed with Mironov’s decision to refuse to nominate an SRZP candidate in the upcoming presidential elections in March 2024. Mironov said in February 2023 that the party would unconditionally support Vladimir Putin.
“Four years ago, at the congress, I proposed to nominate an independent candidate. Since then, the anti-retirement reform and other even more impressive events have taken place and have reinforced my opinion,” Shein explained. Pursuing a policy of not being named “as a local leader” by Shein “seems impossible”.
Shein noted that he disagreed with Mironov out of court after a series of meetings. Mironov agreed to recommend to the leadership of the party as successor to Shein as head of the regional branch his colleague, the deputy of the Duma of Astrakhan, Maria Lidzhieva.
Sergei Mironov. Photo: wikimedia Shein himself remains an ordinary party member, he will dabble in science and help other party members with advice if they need it. The SRHR leader himself last mentioned Shein on his telegram channel in December 2021. He did not comment on his colleague’s resignation.
Who is Oleg Shein
Oleg Shein is the most important person for SDSR. He served five times as a deputy in the State Duma and twice as a single-term representative of the Astrakhan region, even before the party appeared. In 2006, as a member of the Fatherland State Duma, he became one of the founders of A Just Russia, and the Astrakhan region became one of the “anchor” regions of the party. She always performed well in elections there due to Shein’s popularity, and the politician himself earned a reputation as almost the only “Orthodox Socialist” among the Socialist-Revolutionaries.
The brightest moment happened in 2012, when the politician ran for mayor of Astrakhan. According to the voting results, he won 29.96% of the vote, including 60% of his United Russia rival Mikhail Stolyarov. Shein did not acknowledge the results of the vote, declared them to be falsified, and after the local election commission disagreed with his position, he went on a hunger strike. It lasted over a month. Shein’s associates, according to their recollections, seriously feared that he would die as a result. And in the Kremlin, in order to prevent this, they sent Mironov and the then head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, to resolve the conflict.
Oleg Shein at a rally in Astrakhan. Mironov convinced Shein to stop his hunger strike, Stolyarov ended up in prison for corruption within a year (he was sentenced to ten years in prison as a result), and Churov admitted violations in most polling stations. But the election results were not annulled.
Selectivity in the selection of “investors” has also reduced its room for manoeuvre. In the last State Duma elections in 2021, Shein did not find enough money for the party and for the campaign. As a result, he received a deliberately impassable regional group and was content with being elected to the Astrakhan Regional Duma. Shein is considered one of the most important people who “rescued” right-wing Russians in 2019 from the takeover by Orthodox businessman Konstantin Malofeev and his imperial associates. Then the entrepreneur actually agreed with Mironov on the purchase of the party, but the central apparatus of the “Socialist-Revolutionaries” and the ideological “leftists”, including Shein, began to actively resist and prevented Malofeev from joining their ranks.
Now the situation repeats itself. Far from socialism, Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin is increasingly cooperating with Mironov, and associates of Zakhar Prilepin, who are also far from socialist views, played many leading roles in the SRZP. But this time it was obviously not possible to find a sufficient number of allies in the clash with Shein. Yes, and times have changed – militarization for Mironov turned out to be a better survival strategy than “leftism”.
Political consultant Dmitry Noskov, who worked with Shein for many years, believes Astrakhan had a chance to “change Russia for the better” in 2012, “if he continued his hunger strike.”
“But Mironov persuaded him to watch the video with the late Churov, which came to nothing. Mironov carried out the will of the Kremlin for his comfort and power, and Shein believed him in vain. It seems to me that this event became a rift between them (although Shein never showed it) and led to this sad outcome – the self-immolation of the SR’s latest icon, to be replaced by obedient simulacra,” said signed the expert, something like a sentence.
Author: Nikolai Troinin
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