She did not let them into the building of the Petrovskaya district administration

Yesterday, law enforcement officers did not allow deputies of the Petrovsky district assembly into the district administration. The regional police department explains that the reason for the cordon was the statement. head of the Petrovsky district administration Svetlana Batyaykina, in which she says that she fears for her safety, and also asks to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the administration. Previously, the PMR deputies were dissolved by a court decision, however, before it came into force, the parliamentarians elected a new head of the administration. Governor Pavel Ipatov considers the actions of Mrs. Batyaykina’s supporters an attempt to destabilize the situation. The issue of the legitimacy of the voting of the deputy corps is dealt with by the regional prosecutor's office.

As deputy of the Petrovsky district assembly Yuri Sokovnin said, on Monday the deputies appointed a new head of the district administration. According to him, a total of five applications were submitted for the position of head of the district administration. Immediately after the competition commission recognized all the candidates as worthy of holding the position, a meeting of the district meeting began, at which Alexander Matrosov was unanimously elected to the vacant post. On the same day a contract was signed with him. Please note that 10 people attended the meeting. The document was signed by the secretary of the district assembly, Yuri Bezverkhov. Mr. Sokovnin explained the urgency of electing the head of the administration by the fact that the court decision to recognize the district assembly as illegitimate comes into force on July 2.

However, yesterday morning the Petrovsk police did not allow deputies of the municipal district to enter their workplaces. Law enforcement officials blocked the administration, citing the statement of the acting director. Head of the district administration Svetlana Batyaykina. The press service of the regional police department explained to Kommersant that the police acted in accordance with the law. “We have a statement from an official, and by law we are obliged to respond,” explained Alexey Egorov, head of the information and public relations department of the regional police department. According to him, Ms. Batyaykina wrote a statement in which she spoke about the pressure put on her, “even to the point of the threat of using physical force.”

Nevertheless, Peter's deputies see political subtext in the actions of law enforcement agencies. “We filed two lawsuits, believing that the police are interfering with our parliamentary activities, and also violating the labor rights of the newly elected head of the administration,” said Mr. Sokovnin. The people's representatives wrote a statement addressed to the head of the regional police department, the prosecutor's office and the regional government with a request to sort out the situation in Petrovsk. Previously, deputies addressed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with the same request. Yesterday afternoon a delegation from the regional prosecutor's office left to clarify the circumstances of the incident.

Let us recall that the political crisis in the region arose after the deputy corps was divided into supporters and opponents of the acting United Russia supported by the regional political council. Head of Administration Svetlana Batyaykina. The confrontation arose after only nine out of seventeen deputies voted for her in the elections for the head of the district. After the vote, half of the deputies refused to recognize her as the elected head, arguing that victory requires the votes of an absolute majority, that is, 10 deputies. Their opponents argued that a simple majority was sufficient. Then seven supporters of Svetlana Batyaykina, who did not agree with the elections, surrendered their deputy mandates, which gave the court the opportunity to declare the meeting incompetent.

Despite the fact that a number of deputies consider Alexander Matrosov to be the legitimate head of the administration, Svetlana Batyakina’s supporters do not recognize him as the head of the district’s executive power. The municipality’s website states that the presence of the police is necessary in order to “prevent the impostor (Matrosov - Kommersant) from entering the administration and not cause banal unrest.” In addition, in its appeal, the administration accuses the deputies who voted for Matrosov of violating federal and regional laws in order to “knock out” for themselves “positions, contracts and orders, even forgiveness of tax debts.” Earlier, Mrs. Batyaykina said that “the deputies did not come to power to work for the benefit of the region.”

As Vasily Sinichkin, a deputy of the Saratov Regional Duma, said, despite the fact that the court decision to dissolve the district assembly did not come into force, the seven people’s representatives who resigned their powers can no longer be considered deputies. If there are no more than six deputies in the assembly, the representative body is automatically considered illegitimate and incapable of making decisions.

However, the governor of the Saratov region, Pavel Ipatov, supports the current parliamentary assembly. “The deputies who left the district assembly actually destabilized the situation,” he notes. “And the remaining deputies who elected the head of the district administration are trying to minimize losses.”

At five o'clock in the evening, at the request of the regional prosecutor's office, the police cordon was lifted. Now both sides are waiting for a decision from the prosecutor’s office on the legality of the election of Alexander Matrosov to the post of head of the district administration.

Andrey Shenin

The deputies did not pass the police