Do the doors open?

St. Petersburg governor takes a step towards opponents

The most discussed event in St. Petersburg in recent days is the meeting of Valentina Matvienko with city defenders, who strongly opposed Smolny in matters of urban planning and the protection of cultural heritage and were invariably honored with ...

The most discussed event in St. Petersburg in recent days is the meeting of Valentina Matvienko with city defenders, who fiercely opposed Smolny in matters of urban planning and the protection of cultural heritage and invariably received irritated epithets during the governor's traditional monologues. But now completely different words were heard - that Matvienko appreciates the activities of city protection organizations that "sincerely support the city," and that the governor is "open to dialogue."

Openness has been demonstrated in practice - working groups have been created from officials and city defenders to develop proposals that the governor promises to take into account. New and regular meetings are firmly promised. The coordinator of the Living City movement, Yulia Minutina, was offered the position of deputy chairman of the committee for the protection of historical and cultural monuments. And to her main opponents, Yabloko, who were removed from the elections to the Legislative Assembly three years ago, Matvienko said that the city parliament needs “fresh blood” ...

The initiator of the meeting was the film director Alexander Sokurov - at the presentation of the "Heavenly Line" award, he said that the warring parties need to "get out of the trenches."

“Speaking at the ceremony, I said that the exhaustion of the opposing forces is obvious in the city,” Sokurov told Novaya Gazeta. - Therefore, we need to meet and discuss what is happening in the city. In response, the governor said that she agreed to meet in any format. My condition was that the meeting should not take place in Smolny, in the composition that I propose, and that Valentina Ivanovna should be alone. He was accepted."

Sokurov invited to the meeting those who are disliked in Smolny: in addition to Minutina, there were the head of the St. Petersburg "Yabloko" Maxim Reznik, the deputy chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of VOPIIiK Alexander Kononov and the head of the ECOM center Alexander Karpov. However, according to the participants, the two-hour conversation turned out to be correct, frank and meaningful.

They talked about preventing the destruction of historic buildings, about preserving “urban public spaces”, about the need to change the work of the Urban Planning Council, which now includes many of the authors of “urban planning mistakes”, about specific “problem addresses”. And, of course, about the Okhta Center. A separate meeting was promised on this issue, but the governor assured that until the end of all legal proceedings and without the consent of UNESCO, construction would not begin.

The city defenders brought documents to the meeting, many of which were a revelation for Matvienko. So, according to Sokurov, the governor was shown a map of the city, which showed “more than a hundred addresses where there are serious violations; ten addresses highlighted in red where construction must be stopped immediately; and ten, where it is necessary to change the ongoing projects. And on some issues, the reaction followed immediately: Matvienko announced that the order to demolish the house of Yurgens on Zhukovsky Street would be canceled, and another historical building that was threatened with demolition, Rogov’s house on Zagorodny Prospekt, would be taken under special control and would “fight against unscrupulous investor." The governor was asked not to come to the opening of the Finnish Stockmann department store, whose "box", towering above the surrounding buildings, distorted the appearance of Nevsky Prospekt, and she complied with this request.

Finally, as already mentioned, Yulia Minutina was offered a leadership position - Valentina Matvienko said that such "caring people with a gleam in their eyes" would be useful in power. It’s a pity that she didn’t invite “indifferent people” to power before, but better late than never (Minutina, for whom the proposal came as a surprise, said she would think.)

What prompted the governor to establish contacts with opponents is a question that many are now trying to find an answer to. Some say that the scandals around St. Petersburg's "urban planning mistakes", especially the plans to build the Okhta Center, create such an unfavorable background "at the top" that in Smolny they began to think about the sad experience of Yuri Luzhkov. Others talk about the upcoming elections of the city parliament and that Matviyenko is interested in reducing the “critical heat” of the opposition by offering her cooperation. Still others - that, taking a step towards the "Yabloko", Smolny wants to split the opposition and weaken the Socialist-Revolutionaries, whose leader Oksana Dmitrieva claims to be governor.

However, no matter what was behind the meeting of the governor with the city defenders, the dialogue is always better than his absence.