The Latvian Russian Union announced the party’s list of candidates for snap elections to the Riga City Council which will be held on June 6, 2020.
There are 40 candidates on the list.
The leader of the LRU list and the candidate for the mayor of Riga is Miroslav Mitrofanov (Miroslavs Mitrofanovs). He is a co-chair of the party, the speaker of the Latvian Russian Schools’ protection movement. Miroslav Mitrofanov has 25 years of experience in politics. Two times, he was a MP of the national parliament (Saeima). Besides, he worked as a head of a political group bureau in Saeima and local MEP assistant. In 2018-2019, he was a member of the European Parliament.
There are no members of other parties on the LRU list. It includes those LRU activists who have shown organizational skills and combative spirit in the struggle for protecting Russian minority schools of Latvia and in other political campaigns of the party.
The main feature of the LRU “2020 List” is a combination of candidates with rich political experience and young, highly motivated people eager to gain experience in public administration.
The second position in the list belongs to Inna Djeri. She studied business management in Latvia and the USA, now active in the field of real estate. She is a mother of two, so the issues of school and pre-school education are essential for Inna Djeri. She organizes direct-action protests as well as conducts methodical work in order to influence the legislation. Inna Djeri has signed the first complaint among 137 submitted to the European Court of Human Rights and objecting to the destruction of the minority education by Latvian authorities.
Andrey Pagor (Andrejs Pagors) is the third number on the list. He took part in the activities of the Headquarters of the Defense for Russian Minority Schools in 2003-2004, being a student. Then he received a university law degree, worked in the police, and now leads a law firm. Andrey is an active member of the Latvian Anti-Nazi Committee.
The fourth on the list is the ex-MP of the Saeima of three convocations, doctor of pedagogy Yakov Pliner (Jakovs Pliners). He is a former head of the national minority schools’ department for the Ministry of Education of Latvia, founder of the Eureka private school.
Mr. Pliner is followed in the list by Alexander Kuzmin (Aleksandrs Kuzmins), the secretary of the Latvian Human Rights Committee. He has an experience of working in Riga City Council as an elected councilor. In the recent years, Alexander Kuzmin fought for the interests of his voters in different courts, made presentations at international forums. Being an expert in the field of human rights, he prepared a lot of reports for international organizations.
The sixth number on the LRU list is Vladimir Buzayev (Vladimirs Buzajevs) a veteran of the party and Latvian politics, a human rights expert. He always participated and organized the street rallies, was elected a member of the Riga City Council and twice an MP to Saeima. Vladimir Buzayev is the author of many articles, analytical reports and books describing the situation with rights of national minorities. Over the past months, he led drafting of more than a hundred individual complaints to the ECHR on the dispute over to the fate of minority schools in Latvia.
The LRU list for the snap elections of 2020 also includes former members of the Riga City Council – Denis Gorba (a lawyer and former head of Riga Housing Rental Office), Natalia Yolkina (Natalija Jolkina) who runs the LRU Riga branch and defends the interests of tenants, Vladislav Rafalsky (Vladislavs Rafalskis, a teacher), Tatyana Yemelyanova (Tatjana Jemeljanova, medical worker), Gennady Kotov (Genādijs Kotovs, a lawyer and HR espert), as well as Alexander Gilman (Aleksandrs Giļmans, a journalist).
Among the young participants of the list, one must mention, first of all, Dmitry Shandybin (Dmitrijs Šandibins), who graduated the Faculty of Theology of the University of Latvia, a specialist in religious denominations. There are also activists of the Headquarters of the Defence for Russian Minority Schools Lyubov Zhdanova (Lubova Ždanova), Ekaterina Gavrilova (Jekaterina Gavrilova) and Tatyana Andriyets (Tatjana Andrijec).
The current composition of the list will ensure a qualified and efficient functioning of the future LRU group in the Riga City Council.
