Russia’s two biggest leftist parties, the Communists and A Just Russia, agreed to field a single candidate at the mayoral elections in the western exclave of Kaliningrad in October.
The nominee, regional Communist lawmaker and school director Yury Galanin, announced the agreement on his page on the social network Vkontakte late on Sunday.
The deal was supported by several other organizations, but not opposition parties Yabloko and the Liberal Democratic Parties, who will be fielding their own nominees in the October vote, Gazeta.ru news website said.
The opposition hopefuls will be taking on the candidate of the ruling United Russia, which is currently holding primaries to select its champion for the vote.
Kaliningrad is an opposition hotbed, with the Communists defeating United Russia there in the December parliamentary vote.
However, the ruling party won mayoral elections earlier this month in two other opposition-leaning cities, Krasnoyarsk and Omsk, elsewhere in the country.
The victories were credited by most experts to the opposition’s lack of unity and strong contenders.
