Random coincidences

The newspaper weekly rating of the most high-profile political news of the past week was the results of the Perm elections, the manifestations of political amateur performances and the president’s meeting with party leaders in Novo-Ogravo. However, the leader of the “Gazeta” rating was again involved in the criminal case.

In Tomsk, on charges of abuse of official powers, as well as extorting large monetary amounts, the mayor of the city Alexander Makarov was arrested. He is suspected that he demanded 3 million rubles from some businessmen for allocating a land plot, and they say that the process of transferring money was recorded on a film. Makarov, hospitalized with suspicion of a heart attack, was sent from the cardiocenter to the pre -trial detention center.

The defense intends to appeal the decision of the court that gave the mayor’s arrest on Monday, but there are not so many chances that the efforts of lawyers will not be successful - in any case, the regional governor Victor Korus and the parties to the Party of Power (which Makarov entered only a few months ago) hurried from the arrested person. So, the governor’s statement emphasizes that "all attempts to translate the situation from the plane of criminal law into the political plane are absolutely meaningless." Korus recalled that in February 2005 he himself “directly stated that the mechanism of distribution of land in Tomsk is opaque and corrupt,” and called on the regional branch of the United Russia party to evaluate what is happening.

The party members did not hesitate and on the same day they decided to exclude Makarov from their ranks. In a statement by the regional branch of United Russia, however, it is argued that "the coincidence of two events is the exclusion of Alexander Makarov ... and the detention of the mayor is by chance." But these comments “EP” are not limited to accidental coincidence. The statement notes that "the head of the city was charged with criminal offenses, and not for the support or secret opposition of the United Russia party, and that the Tomsk citizens are ready" to continue to work on ... the liberation of "United Russia" from people who do not know how to carry out the work honestly entrusted to them. "

The statement of the “United Russia” can hardly be attributed to the category of successful ones, especially the thesis that the matter is not in the “secret opposition” of the mayor of the party’s policy - it was reflected in a completely opposite way to evaluate events with the media than expected. The version of the political coloring of events has gained noticeable popularity in the media. And this whole story as a whole, according to political scientists, can poorly affect the results of the Tomsk branch of United Russia in the upcoming elections in the regional parliament in March.

Persistent witness

Mikhail Trepashkin, a former FSB officer, in 2004 convicted on charges of disclosing state secrets, experienced a great desire to testify in the case of the poisoning of his former colleague Alexander Litvinenko. But he was not given to meet with the Clotland-Jard employees to meet with Moscow who arrived in Moscow for the investigation. The first explanation for this, which sounded from the mouth of the official representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Alexander Sidorov, was somewhat ambiguous. “The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia will not allow the convict for the disclosure of GOSTaina to continue to act as an information source for representatives of special services of foreign states,” he said to the Interfax information agency, and these words impressed the rest of the media. The Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika had to save the situation, who a little later explained that "Trepashkin was not mentioned in the investigative order."

Nevertheless, Trepashkin managed, at least partially, to familiarize Scotland Yard with his suspicions. His letters fell into the Western press, in which he claims that the officer, who was present in 1998 at a press conference, where an order for the murder of Berezovsky, had information on preparations for the murder of Litvinenko. And according to the New Izvestia, in 2002, Trepashkin met with one of the participants in those events, Viktor Shebalin, who allegedly informed him that "a" serious group "was created in the bowels of the FSB to" eliminate everyone who is associated with Berezovsky and Litvinenko. "

Builder of capitalism

Elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Territory presented a small surprise: in the second after the "United Russia", the Union of Right Forces (ATP) turned out to be. 16.35 % of the votes received by the “right” mean that in the AU they will belong to at least 6 out of 60 seats, and now the ATP is competing with the “party of power” for attracting one-year-old deputies.

The leader of the ATP Nikita Belykh, who headed the list of candidates from the “right”, however, told “Moscow news” that “counted on more”. And one of the main components of its “relative success” called the program that the party made “more accessible to voters”: “We spoke with them not in general about liberal values, but about the charms of capitalism, as Lenin expressed. We have announced a course for the completion of capitalism in Russia. ”

Unlucky

One of the most scandalous news of party life was the statement of the leaders of the regional branches of the Union of Right Forces, the “Yabloko”, the Democratic Party of Russia and the “Free Russia” about the intention to go to the Moscow Regional Duma in a single list. The sensation brought Free Russia the first place in our ranking, but she did not last long.

The deputy chairman of the Yabloko party, Sergei Mitrokhin, said that such a union was aimed at disrupting the negotiation process between real democratic parties, and condemned the actions of the ATP representative Boris Nadezhdin and Yablonnik Valery Bakunin, who “announced the Alliance in the Moscow Region of Yabloko and the ATP with Killers and Schulers”. The leadership of Free Russia, as it turned out, the union also did not authorize. The party leader Alexander Ryavkin told the independent newspaper that a member of the political council of the Moscow Regional Branch of Free Russia, Yuri Tebin, does not express the position of the party and his participation in a joint action may end for Tebin's loss of a party party.

The second place in the ranking of Gazeta went to the Agrarian Party, mainly thanks to the participation of its leader Vladimir Plotnikov - along with nine other party leaders - in a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation. The main topic of the conversation was the fight against extremism, and the president, according to RIA Novosti , proposed to create for discussion of this issue, “as well as other topics that are most relevant for the country,” political advisory council. It remains only to recall that the structure already existed: in 1996, by decree of the First President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin, the Public Chamber under the President of the Russian Federation was transformed into the political advisory council, but in August 2000, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the Council was abolished.

10.12.2006 / Nadezhda Petrova, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 227 dated 11.12.2006.