Changes for Moscow

From the editorial office. Tonight, the inauguration of the mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin will take place tonight. A number of high guests are expected at the event - President of the Russian Federation, Mitri Medvedev, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and others. But Yuri Luzhkov personally will not be able to congratulate the successor - he gives a lecture on “Development of Moscow and the Renaissance of Russia” at the International University. Therefore, the event will be held without it. On the day of the inauguration of the new mayor, the Russian magazine discusses with the waste of Sobyanin and his statements about the priority areas of activity of the city hall.

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The personnel revolution (along with the change in the control style), which is now to survive, in a certain sense, has already occurred in many major subjects of the Federation. The closest example here is Petersburg - also a city of federal subordination and also a huge metropolis with close problems (although in Moscow, of course, there is a specificity in Moscow). The arrival of Valentina Matvienko to the post of governor of the city was the same transition from charismatic, albeit differently, the first two mayors, largely independent of the federal center, to the emergence of a member of the power team in the city completely coordinating their activities with the center.

In Moscow, one should have expected about the same, and the appointment of Sergei Sobyanin to the mayor’s position fully fits into this current practice. For Moscow, this means change, and quite large. If earlier the capital could exist in many ways, as it were, separately from Russia, now a lot in the city will be built differently , although, of course, the changes are unlikely to be too sharp.

The main political interest of the federal center in relation to Moscow is now clear: a large electoral cycle is ahead, which in any case promises to be less smooth than we have recently accustomed, and the capital should remain stable, controlled and controlled in this transition period. In addition to this new mayor, if not solved, then at least a little to remove the severity of the main city problems that have accumulated over the years of the reign of Yuri Luzhkov - and this, obviously, will not be the easiest task. In general, this problem was so large -scale that the leaders of the country generally had a very small choice who could be appointed to this post - and the candidacy of Sobyanin turned out to be optimal from many points of view.

Sobyanin became a politician of the federal level long before Vladimir Putin came to power, and at the same time he worked well with Putin when he began to consolidate management in the country and build a power vertical. He has experience in the local government in a small town (he was the mayor of Kogalym in the early 1990s), and the leadership of a huge region (Tyumen region). He later held a number of the most important positions of the federal level: he headed the presidential administration, and then the government apparatus. When Sobyanin appeared in the “short list” of candidates for the appointment, comments of political scientists boiled down to the fact that the probability of this personnel decision is close to one hundred percent, the only thing that could embarrasses is the inability to fully replace Sobyanin with his hardware position. But, apparently, the position in Moscow seemed more important and critical for the federal authorities in these circumstances.

At a meeting with Sobyanin, President Medvedev uttered a key phrase that actually conveys the entire motivation of the federal government in the story of Luzhkov to Sobyanin (now it can already be called): according to him, Moscow “should not be a separate region”, the city’s power “should be fully integrated with the federal authority so that it is maintained and so that it be effective”. It is difficult so far to understand what specific forms this integration will ultimately take, but the fact that this process will be launched the next morning after Sobyanin’s coming to power in the city is obvious.

Sobyanin is characterized as a calm, silent, cold -blooded and aged person, with a tough and almost even totalitarian style of leadership. He is extremely pragmatic, all political considerations for him are far from in the foreground. No wonder he so organically fit into the Putin system in the early 2000s-this is just his style, the style of the manager and the effective manager, focused on solving specific administrative problems.

At a meeting with the deputies of the Moscow City Duma, Sobyanin outlined the tasks that he faced, as he sees them, in the most general terms. Three topics were named as priority - these are corruption, traffic jams and maintaining a high level of development of the social sphere. “People pay for their pockets almost everywhere: on roads, in kindergartens, in business,” said Sobyanin. According to him, in the fact that this problem can be solved, in Russia today "few believe." “But I have to tell you,” he continued, “that we simply have not been given another, and in such a situation Moscow cannot continue to live and develop .”

Obviously, however, that some completely revolutionary measures in this regard will not be taken-everything again rests on close elections. No matter what sharpness the transport problem has been brought in the capital, any attempt by its quick “expanding” can be carried out only through new construction (bridges, roads and interchanges), which will only worsen the situation in the short term. The same applies to corruption, with which it is generally impossible to fight with some fire bodies, this leads only to the opposite effect. As for the social sphere, Most likely, Sobyanin should not have great difficulties: with his good contacts and a complete understanding with Putin, the financial support of this is guaranteed for any options for the development of events. The federal government also very well understands the importance of Moscow and what public moods in the capital will be.

In general, if his stiffness and uncompromisingness include the advantages of Sergei Sobyanin, then among his shortcomings is a certain lack of flexibility. Meanwhile, once he will have to show very great flexibility, because from the last change in the situation at the City Hall, Muscovites are waiting for some changes and messages, in particular in political terms, and not further tightening.

An example of this is the fact that the capital’s authorities first agreed on a rally in defense of the 31st article of the Constitution on the Triumphal Square-recently, under Luzhkov, this was impossible. Leaving aside the question of whether the opposition should with such a manic stubbornness to achieve permission to rally on this area, we note that purely politically this sudden resolution looks like a step aimed at playing in contrast compared to the previous mayor, and the contrast in the direction of liberalization.

Prior to this, rallies here were not just not allowed, but also extremely harshly and even brutally accelerated by the police and riot police - now it should be expected that this practice will at least partially go into the past. In this case, it is obvious that the signal to mitigate this policy comes from the federal authorities, Sobyanin only fulfills this order. Vladislav Surkov, the first deputy head of the presidential administration, recently said in an interview with the newspaper Vazh: “ If in multimillion -dollar Moscow 200 people certainly want to gather on the 31rd, certainly on the triumphal and certainly in such a modest amount - let them gather. I am sure that the new mayor of the capital will find the right solution. And this will be a decision in the spirit of the president’s policy . ”

Apparently, the Moscow Office will now be committed - the emphasis will be made for constant coordination between the president and the government on the one hand and the Moscow authorities - on the other. For provincial Russia, this, of course, has long been not an innovation, but Moscow will have to get used to it, and when this coordination will go down to the level of specifics, someone’s specific interests at a more grassroots level, the changes will be inevitable, and they will not always be smooth and conflict. Sergei Sobyanin ahead has a large field for activity.