He claims to support Orthodox traditions, has effectively banned abortion, and is fighting against alcohol: Gheorghi Filimonov, the ultra-conservative governor of the Russian region of Vologda, accused by some of “authoritarianism”, is the presidential party’s candidate in the parliamentary elections, following the line of Vladimir Putin, reports AFP.
Artiom, a 31-year-old worker from the city of Vologda, says that in the neighboring region of Yaroslavl, a joke is going around: “When people from Vologda come to us, they do it for alcohol, gasoline, or abortion.”
This is because Vologda, the region of the same name located over 450 km north of Moscow, has been governed since 2023 by Gheorghi Filimonov, one of those Russian leaders passionate about the “traditional values” promoted by the Kremlin and zealous supporters of the war in Ukraine.
The former 46-year-old kickboxer, with the physique of a weightlifter and rimless glasses, speaks Spanish and French and enjoys being in intellectual circles.
Filimonov: Russia is threatened by “depopulation” and “genocide through alcohol”
“Russia,” said Gheorghi Filimonov in June, during a debate alongside Russian ultranationalist ideologue Alexandr Dugin, “is under the dual threat of ‘depopulation’ and an ‘alcohol genocide (…) orchestrated by our former foreign partners’.” That is, the Western countries that support Ukraine in the war initiated by Moscow in February 2022.
His discourse aligns with that of Vladimir Putin, who condemns the “decadent” West and declares himself worried about its “harmful” influence on Russia, this “besieged” bastion whose birth rate is at its lowest level in the last 200 years.
And for Filimonov, these are sufficient arguments to mobilize nearly a million inhabitants of his region in his crusade.
Details, HERE