Non-executive branch

The Stavropol governor wants to be personally responsible for all water supply systems in the region

The Governor of the Stavropol Territory, Alexander Chernogorov, as they say, is an experienced apparatchik. From the “steering wheel of the state farm” (this position is listed in his official biography), he rose to the rank of governor of the Stavropol Territory and has not legally given his place to anyone for ten years. And in 2002, the name of the governor as a politician of a new formation was included in the Cambridge collection “Who is Who”. The British called Mr. Chernogorov a politician of the “new formation” before he angrily proposed giving governors the right to appoint city mayors.

According to the Stavropol governor, the lack of a vertical chain of power up to the district and city makes it difficult for the head of the region to work. “This vertical ends at the post of governor, and municipal power is not subject to either the governor or the prosecutor,” Mr. Chernogorov complained at a press conference in Moscow. “I am a supporter of the vertical power reaching the district and the city. Then this government will be fully responsible to the people.”

In those days when governors were elected, in especially difficult cases the federal center influenced them according to exactly this scheme - first the president or his administration tried to solve the problem through negotiations, and then, in the event of a fiasco, the prosecutor took over the case. Having become accustomed to this order, the governor is not afraid to violate the Constitution. After all, appointed governors usually see the booklet of the Basic Law only during the next inauguration. And the Constitution quite transparently describes the structure of the Russian state and government bodies, the system of which does not include local self-government. Consequently, city mayors must somehow cope with their duties and responsibilities to the city residents who elected them without the help of the governor.

Responsibility to the people, according to Mr. Chernogorov, arises for mayors only if they are directly subordinate to the head of the region. True, with the current procedure for electing the governor, great doubts arise about the responsibility of the regional leader himself to the people - in the absence of direct elections and the dependence of the governor solely on the “trust” of the president, and not the people. Mr. Chernogorov, who recently joined United Russia, has already found support for his aspirations in the ranks of United Russia members - they have repeatedly tried to establish control over the mayors of at least capital cities.

The Stavropol Territory became one of two subjects that decided to experiment with local self-government (the second was the Novosibirsk Region). While the implementation of the law throughout the country was postponed for three years, the Stavropol region boldly adopted Law 131. Since then, the governor has been unable to reach an agreement with the municipal authorities. According to him, the regional administration operates a telephone hotline: “Every morning I look at the summary of complaints from residents of the region: 80-90% of all complaints are related to actions or inactions of “municipals.” The head of the region is ready to personally solve local problems.

By the way, Mr. Chernogorov already has such experience. On September 25, 2005, in a live television broadcast with the President of Russia, pensioner Lyudmila Karachentsova complained to the head of state that residents of the Degtyarevsky farm and nearby settlements of the Kochubeevsky district of the Stavropol Territory had to walk 200-300 m for water, although, according to her, money for construction of a water pipeline were allocated. The president then had no questions for the municipal authorities. But he promised that he would not send documents to the current governor of the Chernogorov region to confirm him in this post until he corrects the situation with the water supply to this village. Over the next week, the executive power of the Stavropol Territory feverishly tried to realize the miracle promised by the president - the fear of not being reappointed because of a pensioner added both strength and resources to Governor Chernogorov.

Apparently, now the governor wants to be responsible for all the water supply systems in the region...

Daria GUSEVA