The mayor of Smolensk was read out of the Party

Such a decision was taken after the after the meeting of the regional board of the party “Edinaya Rossiya”.

This board was marked by the speech of the mayor about the state of the town, informs the official web-site of the party “Edinaya Rossiya”. The report hasn’t satisfied the sitters, and the members of the regional party board heavily criticized the mayor of Smolensk.

“We have to recognize that the state of Smolensk is awful”, - said Ivan Lobanov, the leader of the central interregional coordinating committee, and also the member of the State Duma.

According to Lobanov “the citizens of Smolensk not able to bear such treatment organized some pickets demanding the resignation of the mayor Vladimir Khaletsky”. Lobanov underlined that the pickets were organized “not by some political power, but by ordinary citizens, who made up ten demonstrations in different districts of the town and the town hall was marked by the biggest”.

“The Party secures the interests of the citizens and, if it is necessary, is ready to prove its political will and achieve the solving of the problem”, - ended Lobanov.

However the very meeting of the town party board decided to expel three more now former party members: Eduard Kachanovsky, Yuri Mikhailov and Igor Yukhimenko. The official web-site of the party doesn’t comment and moreover mention the fact. However the Smolensk department of the “Edinaya Rossiya” confirmed the fact to our correspondent.

However nobody in Smolensk makes any secret out of the fact that the decision to expel Mikhailov, Kachanovsky and Yukhimenko from the party “Edinaya Rossiya” is connected with the coming mayor elections. The four were nominated for the election making so far greater competition for the official party candidate Valery Razuvaev, who is currently the head of the food cooperative “Lavash”.

In the evening on the 3rd of February we got the party’s press release from the Smolensk department of the “Edinaya Rossiya” which explains the reasons for the exclusion:

“The Regional Political Council of the Smolensk Department of the “Edinaya Rossiya” decided to expel the mayor of Smolensk Vladislav Khaletsky from the Party: The expulsion of the mayor of Smolensk Vladislav Khaletsky from the Party was decided on the sitting from the 2nd of February 2009. The cause for the expulsion is the violation of the Charter of the Party. Against the decision of the conference of the town board of the Party, Vladislav Khaletsky nominated himself as a candidate for the coming mayor’s elections. The speakers at the sittings of the regional party boards noted lack of professionalism of the current mayor, the terrible state of the housing and communal services of Smolensk and numerous complains of common citizens and party members to the mayor’s work. Moreover the very sitting of the regional party board decided to expel three more party members because of the violation of the Charter of the Party”.