"I think we could back him from St. Petersburg, aware that in this situation we support him as the Federation Council speaker, and we made that decision today," Boris Gryzlov, leader of United Russia and speaker of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, said.
The ruling United Russia leader said Monday the party will support the election of the current speaker of the Federation Council for another term.
Regional elections were held Sunday in 14 regions across Russia, involving about a third of the country's electorate, and they are regarded as a dress rehearsal for elections to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, scheduled for December 2.
"In one of the 14 subjects [of the Russian Federation] we will discuss the possibility of electing Sergei Mironov as senator," Gryzlov said then.
According to preliminary results, United Russia won a landslide victory in 13 of the regions, trailing only the new Just Russia party in the Stavropol Territory.
Just Russia won 37.4% of the vote in the Stavropol Duma elections, while United Russia came in second, with 23.8% of the vote.
Gryzlov said that Mironov, as leader of Just Russia, could run for the next term in the Federation Council on the Stavropol Territory ballot.
Despite the surprising success of the Just Russia party, Gryzlov said the newcomer on the Russian political scene would not pose a threat to his party because it will compete mostly with Russia's leftist forces.
"We can see that competition on the left flank has grown stronger," Gryzlov said.
Just Russia, which was recently formed in a merger of the Party of Life, the Russian Party of Pensioners and the Rodina party, is largely considered a Kremlin creation designed to neutralize the influence of the Communists.
