Translated material
Polit Buldozers
The Kremlin prepares new permutations in the regions
Political bulldozers. The Kremlin prepares new permutations in the regions - immediately after the presidential election of their chair, the governor of the Tomsk region Viktor Korus will lose. The candidacy of his successor is now approved with the participation of Rosneft. The Arkhangelsk and Volgograd regions, where the governors left, having failed, failed the December elections. Ilya Mikhalchuk was replaced by the little-known defenseman Igor Orlov, Anatoly Brovko-the scandalous ex-mayor of Astrakhan Sergey Bozhenov. The New Times peered into the faces of the appointment
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In Volgograd, rallies against Sergei Bozhenov began before his approval-this is a kind of record among the governors-subsidiaries. The first campaign on January 21 was organized by local communists. “We must seek, go, protest, speak. The president can understand that he was mistaken, and can change his decision, ”their leader Nikolai Parshin got fallen up. But Dmitry Medvedev did not change the decision, and on February 2, with the support of the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, Vladimir Ustinov, the Astrakhan “Varyag” went through the approval of the regional duma. Understanding that not only the Communists were dissatisfied with his candidate, but also many United Russians, Bozhenov on the eve of the statement was enlisted by the support of Nikolai Maksyuta, the governor of the year before last, the local “heavyweight”. And at the same time, he took to his team an adviser to the ex-mayor of Volgograd Roman Grebennikov. The maneuvers helped - 31 deputy out of 38 voted for the Varangian.
That Hitler did not burn
Bozhenov came to Volgograd from Astrakhan, where he worked as a mayor for seven years. The leader of the Astrakhan regional branch of "Fair Russia" Oleg Shein recalls: “The tax on a small business after the arrival of Sergei Bozhenov increased 40 times, the city was formalized in the city for firms controlled by the wife of the mayor, security enterprises seized property. The tenants were expelled from the municipal premises that began to privatize total. Perhaps Volgograd residents should not be afraid of only one thing: arson of wooden houses in the city center. In Volgograd, they were destroyed by Nazi aviation. ”
One of the main advantages of the new head of the region, he considers his ability to ensure the desired result of the party in the election. EP has always received powerful support in Astrakhan, and the last Duma elections were no exception. “Observers were removed from the sites, they attacked members from the opposition commissions. They were simply terrorized by gangs, led by Rifact Shabanov, boxer and deputy of the regional Duma from EP, close friend of Bozhenov. They came to the sites, photographed observers and said: “We know where you live where your children study! Better about your health! " - recalls Oleg Shein. The Duma elections in Astrakhan “Fair Russia” did not recognize, as she did not recognize the results of the mayor's elections in 2009, when Shein, according to unofficial data, won Sergei Bozhenov.
The personnel policy of Bozhenov was also distinguished by originality. He brought to the city hall the people with whom, in the words of local residents, "swam on a boat." Sergei Bozhenov studied in a professional in the electrician-motorist, and then on the boatswain. “All of them were sealed there. The mayor simply took their friends to the administration, they had no specialized education. Take the deputy mayor for the construction of Viktor Kuznetsov - what is he builder? " - says one of the representatives of the Astrakhan political elite. As a result, criminal cases were instituted on Kuznetsov and three more marines of the mayor. “Only about 30 criminal cases. So many officials have never been planted, everyone is the proteges of Bozhenov, ”the Astrakhan blogger Evgeny Dunaev is indignant.
Several construction companies are registered for the wife of Sergey Bozhenov. Recently, the mayor did not feel very comfortable: relations with the governor were difficult, and criminal cases were increasingly launched to his immediate environment. So after the December elections, Bozhenov abandoned the mayor in favor of the mandate of the State Duma deputy, but immediately went to increase.
Almost local
Arkhangelsk, like Volgograd, is not used to the Varangians in power. For 3.5 years, the governor of Pomerania was the ex-mayor of Yakutsk Ilya Mikhalchuk. In the capital of Yakutia, he left several deputies - criminal cases were instituted on them, some eventually received quite real terms of imprisonment. But Mikhalchuk also brought his friends and relatives to Arkhangelsk, many of whom were also honored with law enforcement agencies. Mikhalchuk more than once became a victim of puppies, but held his position, not least thanks to his relative of his wife Oleg Govorun, the former head of the Presidential Administration, and now the Polomedic to the Central Federal District. As a result, the governor left “of his own free will” after the New Year holidays. “In fact, he was simply given to sit to retirement,” one of the employees of the regional government said.
As in the Volgograd region, in the Arkhangelsk "United Russia" did not distinguish a brilliant result, scored 31%. Political scientist Andrei Churakov calls the unpopularity of Mikhalchuk as one of the reasons for such a failure. “He should be resigned three years ago. Now it looks ugly as an election move, ”the political scientist is sure. "
Businessmen from the Arkhangelsk and Volgograd regions admit that they are called and “collected money” for the election campaign of Vladimir Putin: “There is an installation to win in the first round, they didn’t give money from above, and they demand”
"The ex-director of the Yantar plant in Kaliningrad Igor Orlov came to the vacant place. Before that, he was the deputy director of the Zvezdochka plant in Severodvinsk. Both enterprises are defense and are included in the United Shipbuilding Corporation (OSK)." Now Orlova is represented as a resident of Chemezov, but this is not so. The OSC is always the patrimony of Sergey Ivanov and Igor Setchin, ". - The source in the presidential administration is indicated by the interlocutor in one of the defense structures, well familiar with the style of the new acting, he calls Igor Orlov “a politician who knows how to solve conflicts.”
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“But the Orlov team always leads its own, these are immigrants from Severodvinsk, although there are people from St. Petersburg,” the source says.
While Igor Orlov promised to rely on local personnel. The personnel believe him, but they recall that Mikhalchuk first said exactly the same thing. In the local opposition, they are still looking at the new chapter. “It is at least almost local,” the head of the local branch of Just Russia, State Duma deputy Olga Epifanova, sighs. The ex-mayor of Arkhangelsk, Alexander Donskoy, is convinced that little depends on the personality of the governor now, everything is decided in the federal center. “Mikhalchuk, for example, was removed due to the fact that several thousand people in the center of Arkhangelsk regularly oppose Putin,” says Donskoy and does not expect anything good from the new governor. Signals are already coming: businessmen from the Arkhangelsk and Volgograd regions admit that beginners call them and “collect money” to the election campaign of Vladimir Putin. “There is an installation to win in the first round, they didn’t give money on top, and they demand,” one of the businessmen complains.
Favoritism
Political scientist Alexander Kynev is sure that it was the sustainable “favoritism” of officials and financial and industrial groups that worked during the appointment of new governors. “They removed unpopular governors. They were not able to establish a dialogue with local elites, and they burned on this. Persons of the appointment are determined by the federal conjuncture - who is in Favor, he more actively nominates candidates. If the cell is freed, they move on it, ”Kynev explains. In his opinion, the defensemen participated in the appointment of Igor Orlov, Sergei Bozhenov gave the “trial” of the deputy head of the presidential administration Vyacheslav Volodin.
“Bozhenov is a political bulldozer, but Volgograd has its strong guys, a braid can find on a stone,” the political scientist states. As a result, the appointment of a political bulldozer and an inconspicuous, but a solid defenseman may not lead to the desired result. The number of conflicts in the regions that have received new “Varangians” will only multiply, which means that the rating of power and personally Vladimir Putin will fall. But now in the Kremlin, judging by the appointments, they are betting on the “assault and onslaught”.