Shock Therapy - 2009

The incident, which happened in the Channel 5 television studio on April 8, became known only a week later. Each side in this conflict, as in any other, has its own version of what happened. They agree on one thing: there was an incident. Journalists outlined their interpretation of events in an appeal to the city leadership. On April 16, Smolny announced the start of an internal investigation.

“Was there a crisis?”
On April 8, the St. Petersburg Hour program on Channel Five discussed the anti-crisis plan of the city government: what the authorities are going to do to help people and businesses cope with the consequences of the crisis (unemployment, reduction in income, inflation, etc.). However, the studio guest and one of the authors of the plan, Chairman of the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade (KERPPiT) Sergei Bodrunov, argued that there is no unemployment in St. Petersburg (according to official data, 25,300 people have lost their jobs since the beginning of the year). He proved that over the past three months, the salaries of city residents have increased by 17% (according to Petrostat, the incomes of working St. Petersburg residents have decreased by 30% since January 1, 2009). And inflation, Bodrunov assured, was less than 3% (the rise in prices for some essential goods in the northern capital reaches 60% per month).
The hosts of the St. Petersburg Hour program, Tatyana Alexandrova and Alexey Sukhanov, objected to their interlocutor. TV viewers who called the studio spoke of exactly the opposite trends. Sergei Bodrunov denied the facts cited by the journalists. The stories of St. Petersburg residents were questioned. And immediately after the live broadcast, according to Channel Five employees, the official burst out with abuse at the journalists and TV viewers with whom he came to the television center to communicate. As Alexey Sukhanov told Novaya, at that time the cameras were already turned off, but the microphones were working and audio was being recorded. According to Sukhanov, what he, Alexandrova and other employees of the television company heard from Bodrunov (according to Channel Five, there were more than ten people in the studio), they outlined in memos addressed to the general director of the channel, Vladimir Troepolsky. These explanations were then sent to two vice-governors of St. Petersburg, Alla Manilova and Mikhail Oseevsky.
From memos from Channel Five employees
(presenter Alexey Sukhanov, presenter and head of the city broadcasting directorate Tatyana Alexandrova, head of the analytical department of the St. Petersburg Hour program Elvira Shaikina, etc.):
“Sergei Bodrunov was violently indignant at the program, the questions, and the behavior of the presenters: “Your program is completely unformatted. You are acting in the interests of the opposition to the government. Your presenters are unprofessional in the extreme! What right do you have to ask these kinds of questions and doubt my professionalism? Who do you think you are here? You are bad journalists!..
How many people call you? Some redneck! Just think, 25 thousand unemployed?! This is nothing, a drop in the ocean. They won't die! Let your presenters get ready to go to the stock exchange. Although they won't be accommodated there. Now they can’t get a job anywhere...
I will contact the shareholders and meet with the general director of the channel. All of you and your program will not be here in the near future! You don't understand! I'm not just the head of the committee! I have other leverage. You have no idea what connections I have! I can buy this channel. Which I may do in the near future. And you will never be here..."

The investigation is underway
“The reports were received on April 9, an internal investigation is now underway,” Mikhail Oseevsky’s press secretary Svetlana Yarkova told Novaya. — On April 16, a letter was sent to Channel Five asking for a video or audio recording of Sergei Bodrunov’s statements. We have not yet received an answer.
— Since an official investigation authorized by Smolny has begun, Channel Five will provide all the documents necessary during this investigation. “All the information contained in the reports corresponds to reality,” Larisa Konashenok, head of the public relations department of OJSC “TRK “Petersburg Channel 5”, confirmed in an interview with Novaya. — The general director of the television company, Vladimir Troepolsky, does not comment on the situation. From our point of view, the representatives of the TV channel did what they had to do. Then events should develop as usual. Channel 5 does not want to influence their development in any way.
When the whole city learned about the behind-the-scenes scandal, Sergei Bodrunov was not in St. Petersburg. It was not possible to hear his version of what happened first-hand.
“The boss is now in Finland,” KERPPiT press secretary Alexander Sazhin explained to Novaya’s correspondent. “I told him that it would be nice to give my comment.” He promised to think about it, but has not yet given any comments. “I was not a personal eyewitness to the incident,” Sazhin added. — When there is a live broadcast, all outsiders are removed. Who said what to whom - I don’t know. But Bodrunov left the studio upset and sharply criticized me because I organized this broadcast (I offered it to him). He even threatened to remove me from my position in a fit of anger. But, as you can see, I am still working on the committee, and there was no further talk about my dismissal.
But at the end of last week there was talk about the resignation of Bodrunov himself. Leaders of the Yabloko party and the public association “Partnership of Initiative Citizens of Russia” (TIGR) wrote letters to Governor Valentina Matvienko demanding “the immediate dismissal of the Chairman of the KERPPiT Sergei Bodrunov due to the inadmissibility of his statements addressed to journalists and residents of St. Petersburg.” So far, Matvienko has not responded to this either.

Nina PETLYANOVA
Caricature by Victor BOGORAD

Novaya's dossier
Sergei Dmitrievich Bodrunov was born on August 25, 1958 in the village of Brilevo, Gomel region. In 1990, he was appointed General Director of the Belarusian Republican Agency for Scientific and Technical Information, and in 1991, Chairman of the Board of the Infotech JV. Since 1992, he worked at Pirometr JSC (St. Petersburg) as head of the marketing service, deputy director, and president of the company. Since 1998 - General Director of JSC United Aircraft Instrument-Making Consortium. In 2000, he headed the Aerospace Equipment Corporation OJSC, created by the Russian government. In February 2009, Bodrunov took the position of chairman of the KERPPiT of the St. Petersburg administration.

Separate line
On May 23, 2006, during another protest against compaction development, Sergei Gulyaev (then a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg) said: “For the city authorities, we are cattle,” and “Novaya” (for the sake of factual accuracy) reproduced his statement on its pages.
And already on June 5, 2006, the editorial office of Novaya Gazeta in St. Petersburg received an angry letter from the Committee on Press and Interaction with the Media of Smolny. We quote: “The article disseminated information that did not correspond to reality... In fact, contrary to the information disseminated by your newspaper, none of the citizens are cattle for the state authorities of St. Petersburg, that is, to put it colloquially and contemptuously, people who wordlessly perform for someone hard work (see Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by S.I. Ozhegov and N.Yu. Shvedova) ... We kindly ask you to provide us with evidence in pre-trial order that the information disseminated by your newspaper corresponds to the reality.”
Let us note that there were no grounds for a lawsuit even three years ago. We hope that the evidence we are looking for has now been presented.

Direct speech
Vyacheslav MAKAROV, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (“United Russia”):
“We are public people, politicians, and I am convinced that in such situations one must be calm and calmly and patiently answer all questions. The chairman of the CERPiT, Sergei Bodrunov, can only be justified by the fact that he is a young official and has not been in the public field long enough. I think his statements are an emotional outburst. But a politician, especially a politician of this level, must be able to hide his emotions.

Vladimir GOLMAN, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (“A Just Russia”):
— Sergei Bodrunov has been working in the government for less than six months and has not yet proven himself in any way. Moreover, the head of KERPPiT is the richest man in Smolny. He declared 5 million rubles, more than all members of the government, and asked the question: “Was there a crisis?” It seems to me that he has not matured enough to understand the severity of the situation, not to mention the fact that there is unemployment in the city. These facts should be known. And calling the people from whom you came from, thanks to whom you became a rich man, “cattle” is tactless, rude and borders on rudeness.

Viktor EVTUKHOV, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (“United Russia”):
— Some statements caused bewilderment among both professional politicians and city residents. As for statements about unemployment and a rise in prices by 2%, and incomes by 17%, I will not speak for myself, my relatives, my mother-in-law and my wife called me, they were indignant: “Do they think we are idiots?” The presented anti-crisis plan also caused bewilderment in the Legislative Assembly. Now the plan is constantly being adjusted. But initially going to the city level with such a document is not very correct.

Oleg NILOV, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (“A Just Russia”):
“I think the head of KERPPiT is sincerely mistaken. The numbers are not so optimistic. This is evidenced at least by today's information that St. Petersburg was included in the black list of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation for rising unemployment and is one of the six most disadvantaged regions of Russia. That is, we, roughly speaking, are falling, ahead of the rest of Russia, and a respected official says: “Everything is fine, we don’t have any negative dynamics.” The data from the Ministry of Health and Social Development is an argument that interrupts the optimistic assessment of the state of affairs. I would like to believe that these mistakes are in the nature of a passing childhood illness of bureaucratic growth.