Penza, 21 April 2015. PenzaNews. The Penza branch of the United Russia party considers the recent address with request to voluntarily retire, coming from Anton Ischenko, State Duma deputy from the Saratov region (LDPR faction), to Vasily Bochkarev, governor of the Penza region and member of the Supreme Council of United Russia, to be inappropriate.

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“The LDPR member, State Duma deputy Anton Ischenko poses himself as one of the candidates for the upcoming gubernatorial elections in the Penza region. It is clear that he tries to be particularly active in the local media, and trying to gain citizens’ attention through such claims addressed to the Penza region governor and member of the Supreme Council of United Russia Vasily Bochkarev. We find such claims addressed to the regional authorities are unacceptable,” says the statement published on the official website of the Penza United Russia branch.

“We have strong doubts that such behavior would allow Ischenko to bypass the ‘municipal filter’ as an LDPR candidate for the gubernatorial elections and gain 283 signatures of the deputies from representative bodies of all regional levels. We would like to remind him that most of the deputies represent the United Russia party,” the text stresses.

Earlier, Anatoly Bodrov, a well-known Penza political analyst, expressed his opinion to PenzaNews agency, saying that Anton Ischenko should not have addressed the incumbent head of the region Vasily Bochkarev and especially urge the latter to retire.

He also pointed out that Anton Ischenko must bypass the party-level and municipal filters to take part in the election, and that only the United Russia party has enough deputies for a trouble-free access of its candidate to the political race.

According to the political analyst, only a political party with real present power is able to make such addresses and proclamations.