More than half of the Khabarovsk City Duma deputies left the Liberal Democratic Party

As the speaker of the Khabarovsk City Duma, the head of the LDPR faction in the city parliament Mikhail Sidorov told reporters, he and 16 other deputies left the LDPR.

“Yes, they’re out. 17 people, me too. The main reason is to be an independent organization and obey only voters, and not the regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party", - quoted by TASS as a statement of Sidorov.

According to him, the deputies who left the party do not intend to give up their mandates. However, they plan to create their own new faction in the city duma. The regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party did not confirm information about the mass withdrawal of city deputies from among the party members.

"We are ready to continue working under Furgal's idea, we came to the municipal parliament under his name. But today our hands are tied, and his undertakings, unfortunately, are not being realized. Today the parliament has become a dependent structure, it does not always make an adequate decision that society requires”, - Mikhail Sidorov told Novy Izvestia.

Earlier it was reported that the LDPR won a landslide victory in the elections to the Khabarovsk City Duma, which were held in September 2019. The party managed to get the majority. In total, the city parliament included 32 deputies from the Liberal Democratic Party, one from the "Fair Russia", one more non-partisan.

The political crisis in the region began in the summer of this year - after the arrest of the governor nominated by the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Sergey Furgal. The investigation accused the head of the region of contract killings of local entrepreneurs and attempted murder in the 2000s. Furgal was arrested on July 9. Furgal himself categorically denies that he is guilty of the crimes of which he is accused. Earlier, for almost two months, investigators could not bring charges against him on a key episode - in the case of the murder of businessman Yevgeny Zorya. The prosecutor's office investigator 15 years ago closed the case, in which Furgal was first a witness and then a suspect, because he did not find his guilt in him. Now investigators believe that Furgal could have bribed the security forces to close the case against him. Former police officers who collaborated with him have already testified against the ex-governor.

Furgal himself believes that his case is fabricated, and the criminal prosecution against him is taking place for political reasons. He stated that the investigators put pressure on him when his lawyers were not around. He asked to dismiss the entire investigation team. Earlier, the head of the LDPR party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said that Furgal was removed because his popularity in the region was going uphill very quickly. According to a survey by Levada Center, Furgal is in seventh place in the ranking of Russian politicians whom Russians trust most. In support of the governor, residents of the Khabarovsk Territory came out to protests, who demand that their governor be returned to the region.

The new head of the region, Mikhail Degtyarev, appointed from Moscow and also a member of the LDPR, could not enlist the support of the residents of the region. Mass protests continue in Khabarovsk. Residents demand the resignation of Degtyarev and the return of the "people's" governor Furgal. Against the backdrop of growing discontent, Degtyarev decided to hire himself a guard for 33 million rubles, which caused a new wave of popular indignation.