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Ardently opposed to populism, Andrei Turchak made, perhaps, the most refined populist decision of all possible

And he saw that it was good. After Russian President Vladimir Putin cut his salary by 10 percent, the now enlightened and inspired governor of the Pskov region immediately cut his salary by 50 percent, that is, by half. “This is my own decision,” Turchak clarified during his statement, just in case. It would be possible to talk about such a step at least somewhat seriously, if not for one big “but”.

Governor Andrei Turchak became the Russian record holder among officials for cutting his own salary. Photo: Timur Galimov

Last week, in an interview with the radio station “Radio Russia - Pskov,” the governor of the Pskov region, Andrei Turchak , said that he would immediately reduce his own salary by 50 percent, as well as by 10 percent for his deputies. Judging by the latest information, Turchak has become the record holder among all Russian officials for cutting his own wages. Thus, the governor of the Vologda region Andrei Bocharov reduced the salaries of himself and his deputies by 10 percent. The mayor of Kaliningrad, Alexander Yaroshuk , and the governor of the Kaliningrad region, Nikolai Tsukanov, also cut their salaries and those of many officials in the region by 10 percent.

The governor of the Saratov region Valery Radaev , the governor of the Amur region Oleg Kozhemyako , the governor of the Kemerovo region Aman Tuleyev , the governor of the Kaluga region Anatoly Artamonov , and the governor of Primorye Vladimir Miklushevsky reduced their salaries by the same amount.

Even Vladimir Putin cut his salary (as well as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev , Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika , head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin ) by only 10 percent, and Andrei Turchak by 50.

Only one leader of a Russian region can and considers it necessary to show such demonstrative support (with the threat of bruising his forehead). But even Ramzan Kadyrov reduced his and other leadership of the Chechen Republic's salaries by only 10 percent.

The zeal of the Pskov governor caused mixed feelings among politicians, journalists and experts, ranging from irony to bewilderment. The famous political scientist Evgeniy Minchenko on his official Facebook page asked a brief but reasonable question: “Why not 80 percent?” The Snob publication recalls that just the day before, on the governor’s official website, residents approached Turchak with a proposal to cut their salaries to the regional average - according to statistics, this is 20.8 thousand rubles.

Now the official salary of the head of the region will be 17,250 rubles. True, this is only a material reward: according to the law on civil service, the governor also receives material incentives equal to the remuneration, as well as a lot of other allowances that ordinary people do not know about. In addition, every year the governor (like any official) has the right to one-time financial assistance in the amount of six salaries (that is, material remuneration). This is another 103.5 thousand rubles.

It is significant that at the end of October, already at the moment when the regional leadership was actively introducing anti-crisis measures, the salaries of all regional officials (including top-level) and deputies were increased in two steps by 38 percent. Then the salary increase did not bother anyone.

The trip to Swiss St. Moritz still resonates with the head of the Pskov region. Photo: LifeNews

Less than five months later, the governor changed his mind. He changed his mind exactly in the same week in which the president demonstratively reduced the salaries of himself and key security officials, in which other heads of regions also reduced their salaries.

The reduction of the governor's salary by 50 percent was a factor of little economic significance, but significant from a political and psychological point of view. It has become obviously populist, poppy - just like the decision of Pskovpassazhiravtotrans once was immediately after Mikhail Kuznetsov ’s victory in the elections to reduce the price of travel on public transport from 6 rubles to 5, and then, after a short period of time, increase it to 8 rubles.

We can safely assume that none of the representatives of the regional leadership of Russia depends on the official payment. None. Among the governors and vice-governors (including in the Pskov region) there are a lot of medium and large businessmen, whose salaries were 20-30 times higher than the current salary of an official. No one would take such a demotion, even with slim chances of major career growth.

This “fifty percent” became a political message: of course, not to the electorate, which in September had already elected Andrei Turchak as governor for a new term. To a small extent - to state employees, to whom, through journalists, the head of the region has been informing since October that the regional administration will begin cuts “from itself” and will look for money “within itself”.

Well, to a greater extent, this message is to the leadership of the state and political experts who directly or indirectly influence this leadership. Despite the confident victory in the gubernatorial elections, politically the year became quite difficult for Andrei Turchak. At first he had to come to terms with the fact that promotion was still not going to happen. After this, in July, information appeared, obtained by representatives of the FSB and disseminated by a number of media outlets, that Andrei Turchak was still involved in the attack on journalist Oleg Kashin . Despite the fact that the information was not made public further, it could have turned out to be quite important for certain people. Thus, one of the experts of the Vedomosti newspaper argued in February that it was the incident with Kashin that could have become a closed gate to career growth.

In January of this year, Turchak again made headlines in the federal media, during the period of confrontation with the West, he went on New Year's holidays to relax at the famous Swiss resort in St. Moritz . LifeNews journalists accused the Pskov governor of spending exorbitantly on vacation for a government official; Turchak, like his other “colleagues” on vacation, received unpleasant comments from a number of political experts. In particular, the chairman of the board of the Civil Society Development Foundation, who is also the ex-head of the Russian Presidential Administration for Domestic Policy, Konstantin Kostin, spoke to the media that “the governors’ New Year’s spree will affect their ratings.”

But this was not yet the main sedition: during Turchak’s vacation in Switzerland, a transport crisis occurred in the Pskov region (of course, through the fault of JSC Russian Railways): when all commuter trains were canceled in the region, the governor was not in the Pskov region. The governor’s press service added fuel to the fire by telling the media that “everyone is resting, they asked not to disturb. This question can wait.” What the local population is always ready to ignore is always noticed in the Kremlin.

If we add into this case the still-unforgotten story of the villa in Nice, then the image of the governor from the point of view of political predictability and adequacy looks unimportant.

In conclusion, the well-known political expert network “Club of Regions”, based on the results of February, gave the Pskov governor, together with his colleague from Chuvashia (not counting the dismissed head of the Jewish Autonomous Region), the worst marks. “Andrei Turchak faced a series of protests: trade unions against the abolition of benefits for public sector employees, ordinary residents against the reduction of hospitals, communists against the merger of two municipalities, and the legislative assembly against the candidacy of an ombudsman proposed by them. All this, coupled with the tightening of conditions for the provision of maternity capital, creates a feeling of anti-social policy and instability of the governor’s position,” stated the Club of Regions experts.

Most likely, it was precisely in connection with the deterioration of the image in the Kremlin that an insignificant, but so striking from the point of view of populism, decision was made - to cut the governor’s salary by half. This step is an obvious attempt to demonstrate a high level of loyalty, but not to the population, but to the federal center and directly to the president. The ability to cut off one's own hand when given the task of cutting off a finger is highly valued in the camp of the federal government.

But in this case, all that remains is to repeat the question of the political scientist Minchenko: why only fifty percent, and not eighty?