MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/: The United Russia faction nominated Vyacheslav Volodin as the 8th State Duma speaker at the faction’s organizational meeting Thursday.
According to United Russia party Secretary General Andrey Turchak, Volodin’s candidacy was approved unanimously.
Earlier in September, Russian President Vladimir Putin endorsed Volodin’s candidacy, noting that he is "quite worthy of heading the next, 8th State Duma."
United Russia also approved the faction membership, which includes 324 deputies.
The faction leader Vladimir Vasilyev noted that two self-nominees were included in the faction: Vladislav Reznik and Leonid Babashov. Meanwhile, two elected deputies - Alexander Avdeyev and Olga Batalina - waived their mandates.
Previously, Avdeyev was appointed as Acting Governor of the Vladimir Region, while Batalina was appointed as First Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection. Their mandates will be distributed among the United Russia candidate list.
Following the September parliamentary elections, United Russia received 324 mandates, while the Communist Party got 57, the Just Russia - Patriots - For Truth got 27, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia got 21, the New People got 13; the Homeland, the Civic Platform and the Party of Growth got one mandate each. Five mandates were taken by self-nominees.
