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The ex-governor was asked to sit in the Federation Council and “return what he gave away”
Ex-governor of the Oryol region Yegor Stroev, one of the heavyweights and long-livers of the Russian political scene, is going on an honorable pension to the Federation Council. Deputies of the Oryol Regional Council this weekend approved his candidacy for the post of representative of the region in the upper house of the Russian parliament. The United Russia faction of 34 people voted “for”, ten communists voted “against”. The corresponding document will soon be sent to the Federation Council. Thus, Vremya Novostey’s assumption was confirmed that the daughter of the ex-governor, Marina Rogacheva, who voluntarily resigned as a senator from the Oryol region a few weeks ago, was in fact simply freeing up the seat for her father. It is significant that the new Oryol governor, Alexander Kozlov, directly stated that he recommended Mr. Stroev to the Senate so that he would not interfere in the activities of the region, and his team would return business assets to the region.Let us recall that on February 16 of this year, Mr. Stroev, on his own initiative, submitted his resignation to President Dmitry Medvedev. Former First Deputy Minister of Agriculture Alexander Kozlov, who took office on February 27, was appointed as the new head of the region on the recommendation of the head of state. However, the intrigue around the place of the representative of the Oryol region in the Federation Council remained unresolved. Since 2004, Ms. Rogacheva held this post, but after her father’s resignation, she followed his example and left the position of senator. Analysts assumed that the new head of the region would prefer to appoint his own person to the upper house. However, instead, the Senate once again lived up to its image as a place of honorable exile for federal politicians who have served their time.
This is not the first time Egor Stroev will sit in the senatorial chair. He was already elected to the Federation Council in December 1993 - these were the first and last direct elections to the upper house in modern history. From 1996, Mr. Stroev served as Speaker of the Federation Council until his election as governor of the Oryol region - by the way, he won with a fantastic result of 91%. At the same time, Yegor Stroev expressed doubts about whether he should leave the upper house for the governor’s post, and decided to do so only after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. The vacant post of speaker then went to Sergei Mironov.
However, today Yegor Stroev returns to the Federation Council in a different capacity and for other reasons. Explaining why his choice fell on Mr. Stroev, the new Oryol governor was extremely frank. “I have already agreed with him - he no longer interferes in Oryol affairs,” said Alexander Kozlov. - Except for one thing: he must return what he distributed to the Oryol region. And it will be easier for me to force this entire team to return everything that they took if he is in the Federation Council than in retirement. This is the first thing, this is what guided me above all.”
As what should be returned to the region, Mr. Kozlov mentioned the shares of Orelstroy OJSC, Oreloblenergo OJSC, the Orlovskaya Niva agro-industrial complex, and the Orlovskoye Polesie natural park.
Leading expert at the Center for Political Current Affairs Oksana Goncharenko reminded Vremya Novostei that Alexander Kozlov certainly had grounds for such statements, since “the prosecutor’s office and law enforcement agencies have been closely studying the activities of the Oryol regional administration for about a year.”
“Alexander Kozlov is an outsider for the region; he doesn’t have his own people there,” explains Ms. Goncharenko, explaining the tactics chosen by the new governor. - He is making an attempt to solve the problem of property in the region through a compromise. Obviously, there was a preliminary agreement: the senatorial seat for Stroev - and in exchange, people loyal to him and remaining in their places in the region will not interfere with the establishment of order in the sphere of property.” And order, the analyst notes, needs to be restored: “Kozlov wants to optimize the management system in order to achieve maximum revenues to the regional budget. Times are difficult now, you can’t count on subsidies, and the region has little potential—except for agriculture, there is practically nothing there. Therefore, it is necessary first of all to overcome the existing negative trends in order to demonstrate some positive dynamics in a year, when the president will somehow evaluate the activities of the new head of the region.”