In 1993 Lyudmila Kotesova joined pro-Yeltsin Choice of Russia to run for State Duma, leading regional group,[2] however, she withdrew from the party list and ran for Federation Council, instead.

In the Chukotka two-member constituency Kotesova placed second with 25.09% of the vote after former people's deputy Maya Ettyryntyna (Independent, 27.29%) and, thus, was elected to the Federation Council.

[4] Despite being elected on pro-government Choice of Russia party line, she joined "Constructive Cooperation" deputies' group, which united nearly all radical opposition and several centrists members, including fellow Chukotka Senator Ettyryntyna.

Prior to the 1999 Russian legislative election the movement joined Union of Right Forces bloc, and Kotesova again ran in the Vologda constituency as SPS candidate.

In November 2022 Lyudmila Kotesova was a delegate at the Congress of People's Deputies (2022), a conference of Pro-Ukraine former Russian elected officials, led by Gennady Gudkov and Ilya Ponomarev and held in Jabłonna, Poland.

At the Congress Kotesova was also elected one of 11 member of the executive committee, alongside former State Duma members Gudkov, Ponomarev, Mark Feygin, Aleksandr Osovtsov, former Senior Policy Advisor to President Putin Andrey Illarionov, jurist Yelena Lukyanova, former municipal deputy Pyotr Tsarkov, activists Andrey Sidelnikov and Yelena Istomina, collaborationist Freedom of Russia Legion's combatant "Caesar".