A Just Russia barely made it into the State Duma, and its longtime leader has vanished from public view. Is the Kremlin ready to pull the plug on the struggling party?

Sergey Mironov, the 73-year-old leader of A Just Russia, “was unable to maintain a coherent train of thought during his few public appearances and responses to pre-prepared questions, jumping from one idea to another and losing the original meaning of his remarks,” during a trip to Altai Krai in late August, according to the news outlet Sibexpress.He then effectively dropped out of A Just Russia’s election campaign.A Just Russia officially attributed the leader’s disappearance to a “minor injury” he sustained in late August, but Mironov has still not appeared in public. He even appeared via video link at a ceremonial meeting of the party’s faction in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, marking the party’s 20th anniversary on October 28.“The head of A Just Russia is currently absent, but he will be back in the ranks soon,” Ruslan Tatarinov, the head of the faction’s staff and the party’s deputy chairman, explained at the time.The circumstances of what happened to Mironov have not been publicly disclosed, but several theories exist.Sibexpress, citing sources in the party’s regional branch in Altai Krai, reported that Mironov’s car was in a traffic accident on the way to the airport.The independent Russian news outlet Verstka, citing sources close to Mironov, reported that his condition was serious and that he may have been placed on a ventilator.Two sources close to the political wing of Russia’s Presidential Administration told Meduza that Mironov is still in the hospital and that his injury led to complications. (Meduza learned the diagnosis from sources but could not independently confirm it. We also cannot disclose the diagnosis for ethical reasons.)Inside the party, as one of Meduza’s sources put it, there is “complete disarray and confusion,” and Kremlin officials are uncertain about its future.A Just Russia’s ratings were already below the threshold needed to enter the State Duma even before Mironov dropped out of the campaign. With 95% of the vote counted, the party was not on track to make it into parliament. But on September 21, the Central Election Commission announced that A Just Russia had gotten the necessary 5%.Electoral analyst Stanislav Andreichuk said the party received an unexpected boost of about 60,000 votes at the last moment. A source close to the Presidential Administration told Meduza this followed a phone call from Mironov to Vladimir Putin, whom he has known for a very long time.A source close to the Presidential Administration said A Just Russia hoped “for some time” after the election that Mironov would soon return to work.“In general, he [a few weeks after the injury] was already able to call, talk, and receive visitors in his hospital room. People recover even at that age. But time is passing, and his condition is barely changing, which is having a negative effect on morale within the party,” says a strategist close to the Presidential Administration’s political wing.Another strategist familiar with the political wing’s leadership says A Just Russia understands there is no real replacement for Mironov within the party. ”[State Duma Deputy Speaker Alexander] Babakov is trying to run everything, but he doesn’t want to be public,” a Meduza source adds. A source on the State Duma’s staff confirms that Alexander Babakov “essentially runs the faction” and took part in Vladimir Putin’s meeting with the leaders of the parties that made it into parliament.Babakov is considered one of the main sponsors of A Just Russia. In the spring of 2026, he was given an uncontested district in the Smolensk region in case the party failed to make it into the Duma.A former A Just Russia member who spoke to Meduza anonymously explains that neither Babakov nor the rest of the party has Mironov’s main asset: direct, unimpeded access to Putin.“Of course, if necessary, a dialogue [with the country’s top leadership] for Babakov or another party operating manager would be arranged through [the head of the Presidential Administration’s political wing, Sergei] Kiriyenko or some other contacts in the administration. But it still wouldn’t be a direct call like the one Mironov can make,” says the former party member. “Until recently, A Just Russia members knew they had presidential cover, like the “party of an old friend.” But now there’s no certainty of that at all.”The Presidential Administration’s political wing doubts A Just Russia can overcome the crisis even if Mironov returns to active public political life. A strategist close to the administration’s leadership said that “as the party’s leader, he has long been ineffective”:In recent years, Mironov has tried to combine socialism with national patriotism so as not to be seen as a national socialist, but that’s impossible. For a long time, A Just Russia was considered a party built around prominent, high-profile regional figures, but some were purged by the party’s own leadership, while others it failed to get elected to parliament.Both this source and another source close to the political wing tell Meduza that dissolving a party that just won a faction in parliament would not be practical.“It has the right to nominate a presidential candidate without collecting signatures, and that benefit could come in handy for [the Kremlin] in the future, to ensure the ballot includes a figure who will play a spoiler role,” says a strategist working with the Presidential Administration.In his assessment, “in its current form and situation,” A Just Russia has no clear future: “If it’s needed for some reason, [the Presidential Administration] will help with rebranding and with a new leader. [The Kremlin] has years for that. Unless Mironov’s condition suddenly worsens and emergency measures become necessary.”Meduza sent a request for comment to Mironov but had not received a response at the time this article was published.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.Andrey Pertsev