Nechayev money, Kovalchuk brains: Where the ‘New People’ party came from, who it serves, and how it managed to win seats in the State Duma — barely a month after lagging in the polls

"New People" is the first new party to win seats in Russia's State Duma in years; as a result, the parliament now consists of five factions instead of the usual four. The party's approval ratings suddenly began to rise around the end of campaign season, despite the fact that nobody with much name recognition was on the party's ticket -- with the exception of the party's founder, businessman Alexey Nechayev, and former head of Yakutsk Sardana Avksentyeva (who's fairly famous at the federal level). New People's faction in parliament consists of 13 people -- enough, in the words of Nechayev himself, to "shake up the State Duma." Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev reports on the new party's origins, the role the Kovalchuk brothers play in it, and how a completely inexperienced political organization managed to outflank its opponents. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/10/05/nechayev-money-kovalchuk-brains