Either Medvedev or gas scraper

Of course, there is no doubt that the candidate approved by the current president will win. But in their small homeland, both need not just a victory, but a convincing victory. If St. Petersburg again shows its temper, giving out the lowest percentage (as was the case in the last Duma elections, when United Russia received the least support in the country in the northern capital), there will be no shame.

Who are we fighting against?
Dmitry Medvedev, offered to the respectable public as an intellectual and even a “real St. Petersburg intellectual,” will have to either say goodbye to this image or take the side of cultural figures (remember, all the creative unions of St. Petersburg opposed plans to build a Gazprom skyscraper opposite the Smolny Cathedral).
In this regard, it seems very interesting that now Alexey Miller with his morbid fantasies has been taken into the game by that Kremlin group that relied not on Medvedev, but on a completely different candidate.
Noteworthy is the fact that the PR campaign of the gas scraper propulsors, which had stalled for a while, suddenly revived right now. Although they were talking about a directive issued from above: to freeze this topic until the outcome of the March elections (in “Putin’s city,” mass protests during the pre-election period are not needed; and it was possible to be convinced more than once that it is the issue of building a gas scraper that can bring thousands of indignant citizens of various social groups and political beliefs onto the streets of St. Petersburg).
Whether Miller fantasized to the point that he believed in his future as the mistress of the sea, who would have the goldfish herself on her errands, or whether he was being used in the dark, is not known for certain. However, rumors about the jealous attitude of the head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, towards the chairman of the company’s board of directors, Dmitry Medvedev, have been circulating for a long time. And the current actions of Alexei Borisovich’s people can hardly be regarded as anything other than a desire to turn St. Petersburg residents against Dmitry Anatolyevich.

The pipe burst
Almost simultaneously with the news of the choice of a successor, an information flow from the press service of Gazprom Neft OJSC began to revive the topic of the St. Petersburg skyscraper.
First, St. Petersburg residents were announced that public hearings on the temporary development regulations (TDR) for the territory of the future Okhta Center were scheduled for January 14. Needless to say, they promise to be very stormy. The draft SRZ, as required by law, must be submitted one month before the day of its discussion. As Gazprom Neft press secretary Tatyana Yuryeva explained, starting from December 14, documents submitted for discussion on the VRP will be presented in the Krasnogvardeisky district administration building. Others rightly note that one should go beyond the calendar month - after all, in the indicated period, weekends and holidays will have to be subtracted from the time allotted for familiarization with documents (December 29 and 30, January 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, for a total of ten). Still others are generally perplexed as to why there is such a rush. After all, according to the official regulations, construction permits are developed, in particular, “for the purpose of establishing the maximum parameters for permitted construction.”
Including altitude parameters. And they are now determined by the current Temporary Height Regulations, which limit construction in this zone to 48 meters. A new height regulation repealing these limits has been prepared by Smolny, but has not yet been considered by the Legislative Assembly. So, if the draft construction site submitted for public hearings contains provisions allowing construction above 48 meters, then they will have to be declared illegal, and the hearings themselves will immediately be considered invalid.

Goats will learn to guard cabbage
The second echelon received information about a new round of negotiations with UNESCO and specifically with the director of the World Heritage Center Francesco Bandarin. And this combination among St. Petersburg residents is firmly connected with the most shameful and arrogant attempts of Gazprom’s people to mislead the public - last winter, at the instigation of the Gazprom Neft press service, deliberate misinformation was widely disseminated, attributing to Mr. Bandarin words of praise about the Okhta skyscraper, which he did not utter at all.
Information about the current meeting was released in doses and according to the same scheme - exclusively through the filters of “company No. 1”. The domestic media does not provide a single direct quote or comment from Francesco Bandarin or his colleagues at UNESCO; you will not find any details about their conversation with the Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov, during which “topics related to the state of some Russian monuments, in particular in Yaroslavl and St. Petersburg, were touched upon.”
We are again invited to form an impression of the results of the negotiations from Gazprom Neft press releases or carefully verified interviews with the official - Chairman of the KGIOP Vera Dementieva. However, these texts give more of an idea of ​​the worthlessness of the repeaters themselves. It turns out that Gazprom “explained to UNESCO that the construction of the Okhta Center is necessary to preserve the cultural heritage of St. Petersburg.” As the vice-president of Gazprom Neft OJSC Alexander Dybal tried to heal the UNESCO delegates, the construction of a 400-meter skyscraper near the Rastrelli Cathedral was started for the sake of “preserving the historical center of St. Petersburg,” which will ensure “attracting large taxpayers to the city” with the accompanying “creation of working conditions for them.” Thus, Dybal assures, our saviors in the person of Gazprom will be able to “free the old city from the unusual functions of a business district.” In fact, historical St. Petersburg has a different function - a repository of cultural heritage objects that are accessible to everyone, constituting the heritage of all mankind. The historical center has never been a business office district; it, thank God, is still a living space and not a white-collar dead zone. If we talk about the prospect of a massive invasion of other weighty “taxpayers,” then to meet their great needs, an appropriate alternative was long ago proposed: the construction of a new Petersburg at a respectful distance from the old one, and not on the approaches to Smolny. As for the construction of a gas scraper in the name of saving St. Petersburg monuments, it is worth recalling some figures. According to the official document - “Strategy for the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of St. Petersburg”, the “restoration need” of our monuments amounts to 60 billion rubles. The Okhta Center is estimated at the same amount, half of which must be allocated from the budget of St. Petersburg.
As you know, the UNESCO World Heritage Center, in a resolution following its summer session, demanded that the Russian leadership suspend the implementation of the Okhta Center project “until all relevant materials have been reviewed by [UNESCO] and until an assessment of possible damage to the cultural heritage site [historic St. Petersburg] has been carried out.” These materials were ordered to be provided no later than February 1, 2008. However, as is clear from Gazprom Neft’s reports, this has not been done so far - they promise to present UNESCO’s project documentation only in the spring. Which, however, does not prevent Mr. Dybal, ignoring the requirement of the UNESCO resolution to suspend the Okhta Center project, from glibly reporting on its successful implementation, during which Gazprom’s employees “intend to conduct regular consultations with the relevant UNESCO structures.”

Tatiana LIKHANOVA
Caricature by Victor BOGORAD