Translated material
Boos who will build everyone
The new Kaliningrad governor began with a personnel purge
In just a few days of his leadership of the Kaliningrad region, Georgy Boos has already managed to carry out a personnel revolution. He invited Muscovites as his assistants, abolished the regional administration and formed a new government for the region. Mr. Boos assures that the regional bureaucracy will be reduced by almost half.Kaliningrad officials waited with fear to see how the “new broom” would behave after officially taking office. There was no doubt that “a politician with federal credentials” (as Mr. Boos was described by the presidential envoy to the Northwestern Federal District, Ilya Klebanov) would begin to shake up the regional administration. But the scale with which he took up the matter shocked many.
In fact, in a few days, Boos did what the previous regional leadership, led by retired admiral-governor Vladimir Yegorov, had struggled with for more than a year. He not only changed the name (“administration” became “government”), but also managed to create a compact regional management structure.
In recent weeks, the new governor and people close to him have been bombarded with resumes from numerous people wanting to work in the new team. It reached the point of outright sycophancy. So, during a banquet on the occasion of the confirmation of Georgy Boos as head of the region, several different local politicians approached him with the same toast: “We brought this day closer as best we could.” Listening to the same thing not for the first time, Georgy Boos winced, but raised his glass out of politeness. However, the other day he made it clear that he no longer had to go to bow. “I want to warn all the air sellers, the children of Lieutenant Schmidt - no one will trade positions and resources,” said the new Kaliningrad boss. And he added that if he catches any business representative in the act of bribery in the building on Dmitry Donskoy, 1 (the regional government is located at this address in Kaliningrad), he will “excommunicate him from this building.” And along the way, it can also contribute to the initiation of a criminal case.
For the Kaliningrad elite, this style of work is, to put it mildly, not entirely familiar. Clans and influence groups (from business, law enforcement and shadow structures) have long been formed here, which are accustomed to always negotiating with the authorities. The system of checks and balances, so familiar and necessary for effective and transparent governance, does not work in the region. In the very west of Russia, a system of bonuses is in use, the consequences of which are very sad. Thus, the governor of the year before, Leonid Gorbenko, is now getting acquainted with the criminal case brought against him. And the deputy of the previous head of the region, Savva Leonov, has been in prison since last year for a bribe of 150 thousand dollars. And ex-governor Vladimir Egorov lost his post to Georgy Boos and resigned, almost soiling his snow-white admiral’s jacket. The scandalous Egorov resolution is still being discussed in the region, according to which he almost “donated” (they managed to stop in time) 220 thousand hectares of hunting grounds to private companies, the owners of which are “his own people.”
Having made a strong anti-corruption statement, Mr. Boos made it clear that the bonus system (at least in its previous form) no longer exists. At the same time, he secured the support of the federal “roof.” The new Kaliningrad governor decides personnel issues in close contact with the presidential embassy. It was through the sieve of this structure that the persons appointed by him to key positions passed.
At the same time, Mr. Boos tried to take into account the interests of the local political elite as fully as possible. Even before the official announcement of the names of the leading employees of the new government, the Vremya Novostei newspaper published an approximate personnel breakdown in the administration of the new governor, which has now been confirmed. Thus, Yuli Shalimov, a former vice-governor, was appointed deputy prime minister in charge of the real sector (ministries of housing and communal services, agriculture, industry). By the way, he was the second candidate proposed by Mr. Klebanov for the post of head of the region. Elena Babinovskaya became Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the social sector. She was Deputy Governor Gorbenko, and in recent years she worked for a large construction company. The first vice-mayor of Kaliningrad, Sergei Buchelnikov (under Gorbenko, he was vice-governor), was appointed Minister of Housing and Communal Services and Construction, and the post of Minister of Economy was taken by the former chief regional tax officer, Felix Lapin. For the first time, Georgy Boos staked his claim to the post of Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the economic sector. He will also be prime minister.
Three “iron ladies” appeared in the Kaliningrad government (as the governor himself described them). These are the head of the competition agency Gayane Kizaryants, the head of the control and audit department Nina Mashtakova and the Minister of Finance Elena Matveeva. All these ladies came to Kaliningrad to work from Moscow and report personally to Georgy Boos. The former head of the Bibirevsky district of Moscow, Sergei Bulychev, who became Minister of Infrastructure Development, also swapped the capital for the Baltic coast. The infrastructure in the region, as Mr. Boos previously stated, is a mess, and therefore Mr. Bulychev will not have an easy time in his new position. However, the governor believes in him, emphasizing that Sergei Bulychev “in just a few years made a poor residential area one of the best in Moscow.”
Despite the fact that the Kaliningrad government is not yet fully staffed, Georgy Boos and his comrades are working like clockwork. The working day for Kaliningrad officials now begins at 8.30, and many high-ranking employees leave the building at 1 Dmitry Donskoy, along with their boss - that is, well after midnight. In many offices, original reminders like “Boos is always right” have already appeared. It is planned that by the end of October all vacant positions in the government will find owners.
Until then, the Kaliningrad governor still has to “build” the local elite (if it is not possible to find a common language), showing “who’s boss.” In fact, this is exactly what is already happening. Recently, a serious scandal broke out in the regional property department, as well as in the road committee. UBEP investigators together with the regional prosecutor's office conducted searches in both departments. The former heads of these departments were removed from their posts. Apparently, the purges are just beginning.