Mayhem

This term will probably over time denote the crime situation in most regions of Russia. Because the murder of Magadan governor Valentin Tsvetkov, which occurred on October 18 in Moscow, at 8.40 am, on Novy Arbat, near one of the buildings of the Federation Council, is not the last crime against the regional “masters”. First (before, officials of Tsvetkov’s rank were not killed with such defiant impudence in the center of the capital, a three-minute drive from the Kremlin). But not the last. Moreover, the rest of Putin’s term will most likely pass precisely under the sign of such “showdowns”, increasingly brazen and cruel.

How it was
The Mercedes entered New Arbat from the Garden Ring and stopped in front of house 19. The Moscow representative office of the Magadan Region is located in this building, owned by the Federation Council. The governor visited here often (he had an apartment at 14 Petrovka, and his wife and children came to see him there). Tsvetkov got out of the car without stopping talking on his mobile phone. The governor was five meters from the entrance when a man of about 28 in a black knitted cap came out from behind the billboard. He fired twice from a Makarov with a silencer: the first bullet hit Tsvetkov in the back of the head, the second whistled past the ear of his deputy Viktor Shapka and hit the door of the building. New Arbat was still not crowded on Friday morning. It seemed to rare passers-by that the heavy, tall man simply sank onto the asphalt: you never know, he was drunk...
The killer slowly walked along Arbat for about fifty meters, threw away the pistol and got into a purple Zhiguli of the ninth model (number P364 KA99, registered in the name of a certain Alexander Savichev; the day before, the Central Internal Affairs Directorate received a statement about their theft). The killer took the passenger seat, the driver was waiting for him. They will then look for this “nine” and, naturally, find it empty in Krivoarbatsky Lane. It will contain the killer's jacket, trousers and boots.
Since Tsvetkov was shot right in front of a video camera - a mandatory attribute of large Moscow offices - the moment of the murder was recorded on film, even though the Central Internal Affairs Directorate immediately declared that it did not have any film. It must be assumed, in case no one is found. With the film, they say, they would definitely have found it, but we can’t guarantee that. The building's security guard testified that the killer appeared in front of the office for two weeks - walking around, waiting for someone. But you won’t detain a person on the grounds that he is walking in front of house 19. The head of the Main Criminal Investigation Department, Vladimir Gordienko, immediately voiced the version of a carefully prepared murder. On Friday afternoon, the president, who immediately expressed his “deepest condolences” to Lyudmila Tsvetkova, summoned Vladimir Ustinov - apparently so that he would understand the importance of the problem he had to solve. Boris Gryzlov, who has not been seen or heard of lately, said that on Saturday a group of investigators flew to Magadan - the cause of the crime should be looked for there.
Investigators, however, were not the only rapid response group that urgently flew to the estate of the murdered governor. On Saturday, a landing party of Yekaterinburg PR specialists, who are in charge of all of Siberia and part of the Far East, went there. The head of the association of Yekaterinburg political strategists, Mr. Gorfinkel, said that Ural specialists are inexpensive and work conscientiously, and they just helped Ussa (probably to lose with dignity). Elections for a new governor should take place no earlier than three months and no later than six months. For now, Tsvetkov’s duties are performed by his first deputy, friend and like-minded person Nikolai Dudov.
A two-day mourning period has been declared in Magadan. The region is forced to say goodbye to the governor in absentia: Valentin Tsvetkov is buried in Moscow, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
Who was it
Tsvetkov was born on August 27, 1948. He worked from the age of fifteen - at a woodworking plant, at a mechanical repair plant, in Magadanrybprom. Tsvetkov often said that people in Magadan are strong and independent, so they were better prepared for the market than others. Back in 1984, he headed the Magadannerud joint-stock company and quickly led it to prosperity. Then he was elected to the State Duma and the Federation Council (in the latter, until 1994, he was deputy chairman of the budget committee). In 1996, he won the gubernatorial elections by a large margin under the slogan “I’m rich!”, invented personally. Sometimes you will win without political strategists, especially when you are rich. With the same huge margin, Tsvetkov won four years later, gaining almost 63 percent of the vote.
talk that Tsvetkov was allegedly not liked in Moscow (and, in particular, in the Kremlin) is hardly serious. “At the top” he was repeatedly called the best governor. The leader of the pro-Kremlin Unity, Vladimir Pekhtin, was his “close friend” (since it was not only Pekhtin who said this - you can believe it). Tsvetkov himself emphasized his loyalty to Putin, and in one of his last interviews with Magadan Pravda he directly said: only under the current president did they begin to take the issues of the North seriously again. Previously, everything just collapsed.
Tsvetkov's popularity in Magadan was enormous. For the first time in many years, he provided Magadan residents with the opportunity to spend their holidays on the mainland. He kicked out the middlemen who bought coal for Magadan in Kuzbass for 400 rubles and sold it for 1,700 (after which Magadan began to receive coal for 600). He paid on time, people started heating under him, three new mines opened under him, and the region stopped depending on fuel suppliers. The region's income grew annually by three to four percent, gold production by two to three tons per year (in 2004, Tsvetkov was going to reach the forty-ton mark).
The best metaphor for all his activities was the decision to finally dismantle the Palace of Soviets, which had been quietly falling apart in the center of Magadan since Soviet times. There was no money to complete it. Tsvetkov ordered: demolish! And erect the Trinity Church in its place.
Enough for the temple.
Why was this
One very honest newspaper has already managed to call Tsvetkov a “bear”, a large and furious business executive. Such types delight all fans of brute force. The Magadan governor managed things in the only way possible in Russia: he raked everything in for himself. In Magadan, everything had one owner: gold, oil, fish, the port, the press and even culture. Such owners are killed not by those whom they most offended, but by those who have the impudence. And great impudence is needed, because the owner seems invincible. Which, it seems, Nikolai Bondar sat firmly in the Magadan port - and Tsvetkov managed to overthrow him, installing Vice-Governor Alexei Zinchenko as general director. He generally placed his people everywhere (according to the Accounts Chamber, which Sergei Stepashin urgently sent to investigators, he distributed the “gold loan” intended for the development of the mines to businessmen close to him and put hard pressure on them, demanding its return; we are talking about a serious misappropriation of almost 80 million dollars). But ask yourself: is it possible to govern Russia differently in conditions of complete paralysis of the law and the pathological slowness of bureaucratic structures? Is it possible to rule Russia “by law”? And if not, then what are the complaints about the fact that the top of all regions is thoroughly criminal - and the further from the center, the harsher the region, the more frostbitten its morals?
Putin actually handed over the country to powerful, talented and semi-criminal leaders, but he lost sight of the fact that the mafia is only afraid of the mafia. That is why during the time of the “family” governors were not killed: they themselves knew when to stop, and the whole country lived according to the law of thieves.
Today the center made an attempt to live differently. Or maybe the government has simply weakened. Be that as it may, the period of peace agreements is over. The criminals started shooting again, this time at the heads of regions.
So, either a semi-criminal clan will have to be put in charge of Russia again, or the local leadership style will need to be restructured. Let the reader decide which is easier to implement.
Dmitry Bykov.