RBC: Neverov may be removed from the post of leader of the United Russia faction in the State Duma

The change of the leader of the United Russia faction may occur immediately after the parliamentary elections in 2021. According to RBC, Sergey Neverov, who is called the man of Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin's team, who is primarily oriented toward him, and not on the presidential administration and the party leadership, may be removed from the post of head of the faction. However, there should not be two centers of power in parliament, the newspaper's sources believe.

"Volodin has difficult relations with some blocks of the presidential administration, and with the internal political block headed by Sergey Kiriyenko, which, among other things, oversees the work of the State Duma, are tense", - the statement says.

It is too early to say that following the results of the Duma elections in 2021, Volodin will lose the post of speaker of the State Duma in the next parliamentary convocation. However, in the next ten months before the elections, the balance of power may change.

The publication notes that Neverov received offers to head the Kemerovo and Astrakhan regions, and Mikhail Babich, who previously held the post of Russian ambassador to Belarus, was expected to replace him in the State Duma. However, Babich found himself in a difficult relationship with Volodin, and Neverov refused the offer to go to the region as governor.

Sergey Neverov, who headed the General Council of United Russia in 2011–2017, became the head of the United Russia Duma faction after the departure of the former leader Vladimir Vasilyev to the governor's office in Dagestan. This year, Vasiliev submitted a letter of resignation from the post of governor. Experts do not exclude that he may again lead the faction in the State Duma. In addition to Vasilyev, the name of Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Alexei Gordeev is named as possible candidates for the post of head of the faction.

Political scientists agree that if the decision to change the head of the faction is made, then in any case, the choice will fall on a well-known person with extensive experience in public politics, since the head of the faction is the person who organizes the work of deputies in the Duma and represents them at meetings in the Kremlin.