Lisitsyn was nominated for the post of chairman of the Yaroslavl Oblast executive committee, but lost the vote in parliament to Vladimir Kovalyov.

[3] He was appointed acting Head of Administration of Yaroslavl Oblast on 3 December 1991,[4] officially taking office in September next year.

A month later, Lisitsyn became a member of the preparational committee of Yury Luzhkov's Fatherland movement, and later of the political council of the Fatherland-All Russia bloc.

Lisitsyn supported the idea of nominating prime minister Vladimir Putin as a single candidate for the presidency in 2000 from Fatherland – All Russia and Unity.

[6] On 1 June 2004, at a meeting of the State Council, Lisitsyn expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that funds from the road tax began to be transferred to the federal budget, but not the regional one; Russian president Putin replied that the regions were provided with other means of income, but the Yaroslavl authorities "decided to spend this money not on roads, but on something else."

This incident was followed by an audit performed by Accounts Chamber of Russia, which found that the budget lost 1.5 billion rubles as a result of the law "On stimulating the economic development", adopted by the local Duma in April 2001 and signed by governor Lisitsyn, which allowed local businesses to receive subsidies from the regional budget and tax exemption.

At the same time, it was found by the investigators that his policy caused damage to the regional budget in the amount of more than 1 billion rubles.

After summing up the results, Lisitsyn, as the head of the regional party list, hesitated for some time, accepted the mandate of a State Duma deputy.

[1] On 22 November 2011, the Yaroslavl Oblast Duma adopted a resolution appointing Lisitsyn as its representative in the Federation Council of Russia.

[8] However, in March 2020, he left United Russia, explaining his decision by the fact that party membership "does not allow him to work for the people of the region.