MOSCOW, May 28 (RIA Novosti) - Head of the Perm branch of the Union of Rightist Forces (SPS), vice governor of the Perm region (the Urals federal district) Nikita Belykh, 29, was elected SPS leader during the party congress on Saturday.
Leonid Gozman, a board member of RAO UES (the Russian state-owned electricity monopoly) became his deputy. Belykh and Gozman put forward their candidatures on a joint ballot.
Out of 205 delegates of the congress, 155 delegates voted for the Belykh-Gozman tandem.
Forty-six delegates voted for the second candidate, former senator Ivan Starikov. He paired with Maxim Geiko, the head of the SPS Yaroslavl regional department, as his deputy.
The new SPS official leader has a degree in technical sciences and chemistry. During his studies in Perm State University, he worked as a reporter on a regional TV channel. Later, he founded an investment company and headed a large financial and industrial association in the Perm region.
"I have never received an Oscar, and I have been elected chairman of a political party for the first time. That is why, it is hard for me to predict my behavior during the first three-four minutes," Belykh intrigued the public from the start of his "thank-you" speech.
The second PR move of the new SPS leader was a public announcement of his mobile phone number. In that way, he demonstrated his openness to all fellow party members.
The congress formed the new composition of SPS leadership. During parliamentary elections on December 7, 2003, the SPS party led at the time by Boris Nemtsov, Irina Khakamada and Anatoly Chubais failed to pass the 5% barrier and could not form a political faction in the Russian parliament for the first time in party's history.
