Wrong Senator

The court will decide who will become a member of the Federation Council from the Leningrad Region

The newly elected member of the Federation Council from the Legislative Assembly (LA) of the Leningrad Region, Damir Shadayev, is unlikely to be destined to work as a senator. The decision of the Legislative Assembly on his election to the upper house was suspended by the court. The delegation of Shadayev to the Senate contradicts the will of the Kremlin, according to which Vladimir Churov, an old acquaintance of Vladimir Putin, should become a member of the Federation Council from the Leningrad region.

Damir Shadayev is a major timber merchant who has long established himself by participating in various election campaigns, in particular the gubernatorial one. However, he only managed to become a deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly. In the spring of this year, Shadayev, along with deputies representing the interests of the influential businessman Alexander Sabadash (he, in particular, owns the LIVIZ vodka factory and the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill) achieved the removal of Vitaly Klimov from the post of speaker of the assembly and replaced him with his protégé Kirill Polyakov. Thus, Governor Valery Serdyukov, several months before the elections of the head of the region (they will be held on September 21), received a disloyal speaker. After Polyakov’s victory, when asked who would represent the ZS in the Senate, Shadayev hit himself in the chest and exclaimed: “Me!”

Last Tuesday, the timber magnate was elected senator. And the very next day, the court of the city of Vyborg prohibited the execution of the decision of the regional legislative body on the election of Shadayev to the Federation Council. The regional parliament received a corresponding writ of execution. The public learned of this decision only on Friday, and a loud scandal erupted. Many remembered that the same Vyborg court in the spring of 2002 had already suspended the decision of the regional Legislative Assembly on the election of Alfred Koch to the Federation Council. And after a series of proceedings, he voluntarily abandoned the fight for the senatorial seat.

A hearing on the merits of the case is scheduled for tomorrow (July 1), but many in the region are confident that the election of the timber merchant will be declared invalid. Too influential forces are opposing him: in Moscow they would like to see Vladimir Churov, deputy of the committee for external relations of the St. Petersburg administration, who worked under the vice-mayor of the city Putin, as a senator. Shadayev’s enemies have a strong argument: the prosecutor’s office is threatening the deputy with a criminal case for the fact that, according to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, he uses a fake diploma. It is curious that Shadayev’s election was appealed in court by none other than Legislative Assembly deputy Mikhail Shalaev, the executive director of Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill OJSC, owned by Alexander Sabadash. Just a month and a half ago, Shadayev and Sabadash “worked” together against Speaker Klimov. But now Sabadash himself is fighting for the seat of senator from the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the assembly of deputies of which has already elected him to this position. And it must have been unobtrusively explained to the vodka king what exactly he should do in order not to encounter obstacles on the way to the Senate, and who from the representatives of the Leningrad region should be supported by his people in the regional ZS.

Victor MATVEEV, St. Petersburg