Mayor from our yard

There is a folk wave. The authorities are losing the 600,000 Yaroslavl. The first tour of the mayor’s elections with a great advantage remained with the candidate-nominated Evgeny Urlashov, and the city lives in anticipation of the second round on April 1. Yaroslavl is far from the only city where on March 4 the opposition seriously squeezed the current power. In the Naryan-Mar, the capital of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the victory went to the Communist Party of the Communist Party of the Communist Party Tatyana Fedorova, the mayor of the Taganrog of the Rostov region became Socialist-Revolutionary Vladimir Prasolov, and the independent candidate Sergey Andreev won the second round of elections in Togliatti (about the situation there The New Times wrote in No. 9 of March 12, 2012). In Chernogolovka near Moscow, the wizards of Churov from the territorial election commission tried to cancel the results of the vote, which brought victory to the scientist Vladimir Razumov. Residents, having learned about arbitrariness, reached the spontaneous rally in defense of the chosen mayor. In the situation, the election commission of the Moscow region had to intervene, which canceled the decision of the TIC and left Razumov by the mayor. In Astrakhan, the hunger strike was announced by the former State Duma deputy from Fair Russia Oleg Shein, who claims that his victory was trite, since the counting of votes was conducted with gross violations. A similar story unfolds in Arkhangelsk, where local opposition disputes in court the victory of the United Russia Viktor Pavlenko, who had been elected to the post of head of the city with numerous scandals for the second time. And now at the stake of Yaroslavl. What are the bets - on the spot I learned The New Times

Yaroslavls are tired not only from the irremovability of local authorities. The federal authority is no longer satisfied in the Duma elections, Yaroslavl set a record: the result of United Russia in this region turned out to be the lowest in Russia - only 29%. On March 4, the city was supposed to choose not only the president, but also the mayor - the party made conclusions and abandoned the official nomination of candidates. The current mayor Viktor Volonchunas, who has been guiding Yaroslavl for 23 years, did not nominate for a new term. The long-lived mayor prudently decided to retire, having got acquainted with the data of sociologists who showed: the Yaroslavls were tired of him.

A broken city , already at the exit from the railway station, is faced with one of the main troubles of Yaroslavl - broken roads. In the spring, they turn into rivers, cars cut the surface of dirty water like boats, and drivers hope that underwater surprises, depressions and potholes will be able to avoid happily. “Someone has already lost the muffler,” Lena sitting at the wheel of the wheel looks around. She paves her route around the city in such a way that hesiter to stumble on water barriers. “I live in a sleeping area, and there is no road - a landfill for tanks. We were told that by the millennium of the city, a lot of money was allocated for repairs. Maybe huge, but only two streets did normally, one of them drove through one of them during a visit, ”she laughs. Lena works in Moscow, so she has something to compare. However, the claims of the Yaroslavl to power are not exhausted by the same roads.

“The city is tired of the Volonchunas. The governor is also very unpopular, he is local, not Varangians, but he was appointed, few people like it. The appointment acts in the interests of his boss, not the people, ”says the candidate for mayor Yevgeny Urlashov. In the first round of Urlashov, which was supported by the Communist Party, 40% of the Yaroslavls cast their votes. To the second round, he also enlisted the support of Yabloko and Fair Russia. On March 4, 28% of the vote gained his competitor, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Russian Paint company Yakov Yakushev, he was fighting with the support of the governor, United Russia and the mayor’s peace.

In previous elections, the Yaroslavls did not have much choice: either the volunteer or his technical candidates. Self -nominations to the deputies of the city assembly also tried to clean up: they married lists, removed for mythical violations in agitation. The dissatisfaction of the inhabitants of Yaroslavl by the city authorities gradually flows into the dissatisfaction with the authorities of the federal. “They completely broke up there from the people, since this allowed this. They think that we are some kind of Banderalogs, ”one of the townspeople said at a meeting with Urlashov.

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The Kremlin should understand that public policy is not games with people, that people are not an instrument

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As a result, the city does not want to see no one associated with the current government from our court . Evgeny Urlashov in his election campaign rests precisely on this, two of his main slogans: “I will return the city to people” and “Yaroslavl without crooks and thieves”. Billboards with a portrait of the candidate himself alternate with photographs of ordinary citizens who are campaigning for him. Urlashov builds the image of a “guy from our yard”, and people seem to like it. Moreover, the candidate really holds all meetings with voters in the courtyards: local recreation centers, theaters and concert halls either refuse him or exhibit fabulous amounts for rent.

“The administrative resource earned from the first day of the campaign. The signatures for the nomination of our candidate were checked several times by handwriting, lawyers. Registered. Then the shaft of black PR began. Urlashov has no criminal past, but in the leaflets they began to hint at drunkenness, they used photoshop. The distributors of our newspapers were delayed by the police, access to the city media was closed, ”says Inessa Fedorovna, staff of the headquarters of Urlashova. In the "Black" newspapers, an opposition candidate was remembered even by a trip to the United States: "Communication with the State Department."

Even on the eve of the first round, there was a loud scandal around the local NTM television company. Its editor-in-chief Anton Golitsyn went on vacation, releasing a statement-showing to the authorities who accused them of pressure on the media: “You have gathered the elections of the mayor of Yaroslavl. When you understood this, you began to clean the candidates. Five cleaned up, the sixth did not have time. Now you decided to clean the media. ” Golitsyn will return from vacation after the second round of elections or not is still unknown.

The competitor of Urlashov Yakov Yakushev was almost appointed , despite the fact that he went to the polls as a self -nominated man, from the very beginning of the campaign did not hide the fact that he was a candidate from the authorities. United Russia tried to carry out the primaries, but not one of the winners arranged the governor. Two weeks before the end of the nomination, the head of the region, Sergei Vakhrukov, called Yakushev and invited him to become a candidate. “It is difficult to refuse the governor’s offer, especially if you have enterprises here” (Yakushev owns one of the main enterprises of the region, the paintwork plant. - The New Times), ”a source in the regional“ United Russia ”grins. The advertising campaign of Yakov Yakushev is very simple: he himself depicts all billboards, the inscription reads - "strong, reliable, responsible." There are a lot of posters, one of them was stretched on the bridge across the Volga, the inhabitants have already managed to call him “Yakov Bridge”. In addition, urban television helped the author of the authorities, which, as the results of the first round showed, did not help him a lot.

After March 4, the author of the authorities decided to adjust the campaign. Nizhny Novgorod political technologists left the city, Muscovites arrived in their place. The PR managers decided to go to Va-Bank. Yakushev was appointed first deputy mayor, and in television, they began to represent as an acting mayor. The candidate himself announced meetings with federal officials who allegedly promised the city financing. “Yakushev says: I will solve this problem and solve this, and they will give money in the center. Plus, many citizens do not understand the difference between the mayor and acting, ”one of the local united Russia explained the new strategy. The calculation turned out to be in many ways true: some residents of Yaroslavl, whom The New Times asked who they think to vote for, was surprised to say: the mayor was already appointed. Someone believed in the high ties of the candidate in the Kremlin: “Not every official has them, understand, maybe Yakushev will achieve what! Moreover, he has billions, he will not steal, but Urlashov has what is there? " - The New Times convinced the strong pensioner in a protective jacket.

For more advanced in politics, people in Internet media were placed half-wrapping-plunism about the meeting of Governor Vakhrukov and candidate for mayor Yakushev with the leadership of the presidential administration. "Is it true that they are with Voloshin ... Oh, no, did they meet Volodin?" - one of the interlocutors asked quite seriously. The headquarters of Yakushev refused to meet with The New Times, it was not possible to contact the candidate through the press service of the city hall: they said that he was not officially registered, so the administration could not help.

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Supporters of self -nominated Urlashov are convinced of his victory in the second round and expect unpleasant surprises from the power of the power until non -recognition of the results of the elections

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The proprietors of Urlashov, however, are still convinced of his victory in the second round and expect unpleasant surprises until the non -recognition of the elections of the elections. There are only two scenarios. Or Yakov Yakushev is removed from the race - and then the elections break off. Either the election room finds “falsifications” in areas where more than a quarter of voters are registered, and cancels the voting results.

“Here such a technology is used. In the Poshekhonsky district, the Communist Party supported one of the candidates for the post of chapter, during the day it became clear that he was winning. Then 25 falsified ballots were discovered in two sites, they wanted to cancel the results, but people went out into the streets, we defended their candidate, ”recalls the regional council deputy Alexander Vorobyov. True, in his opinion, it will not be easy to implement this scenario in Yaroslavl: the city is too large, but the communist does not doubt the possibility of falsification. For Governor Vakhrukov, “delivery” of Yaroslavl can cost a chair.

Sources close to the governor’s administration, on the terms of anonymity, say that the aggressive character of the Yaroslavl campaign is very annoyed by the new chief Kremlin ideologist, the deputy head of the AP Vyacheslav Volodin, who refused to help the governor and advised him to deal with problems on his own. The interlocutors add that Vakhrukov managed to reach some agreements with the head of the internal policy of Apannin Kostin, but in the Kremlin they are still set up "not to give." Last week, a landing from high -ranking United Russia and media people loyal to power was supposed to go to Yaroslavl, but at the last moment the trip was canceled.

“The Kremlin should understand that public policy is not games with people, that people are not an instrument ... If they don’t understand, the authorities are worse,” says Oleg Vinogradov, a member of the headquarters of Urlashov, a former assistant to the former governor Anatoly Lisitsyn. By the way, the ex-governor also carefully supports the opposition candidate. Now at Urlashov headquarters awaiting observers from Moscow: the Voice association, the Communist Party of the Communist Party, volunteered. Following the example of Moscow, on March 4, oppositionists want to “close” the city by observers and to the maximum to prevent falsification. “In that case, the victory will be behind us,” Urlashov is sure. “If force majeure does not happen.”