Regime assistants. Kremlin PR people

In its entirety, the number of members of the highest caste of the elite ruling Russia - i.e. classmates, colleagues, colleagues and neighbors of the “national leader” in the cooperative - does not exceed several dozen people who would never have been able to subjugate a huge country without voluntary assistants who chose to serve the ruling regime in exchange for their career growth and the financial well-being of their families

The “exploits” of these volunteer helpers should be the subject of special interest on the part of the protest movement...

An important role in ensuring the existence of the regime is played by our fellow citizens, who use all the resources and leverage available to the Kremlin when carrying out propaganda work for the benefit of the regime - in other words, the Kremlin PR specialists and propagandists.

This post is dedicated to these “invisible” fighters on the propaganda and PR front...

Many people know the “exploits” of the Kostin family. V. Surkov’s long-term subordinate, Konstantin Kostin , until recently headed the Department of Internal Policy of the President of the Russian Federation, which is one of the pillars of the Kremlin’s propaganda work. In May 2012, K. Kostin resigned and headed the Civil Society Development Foundation he created.

K. Kostin’s wife, Olga Kostina , also spares no effort in protecting the interests of the regime:

• in 2005, O. Kostina created the “independent” human rights organization “Resistance”, which in recent years has been, by the way, one of six organizations that operate state support for non-profit civil associations. Thus, in 2012, the share of “Resistance” was 170 million rubles;
• in 2008, the human rights activist became a member of the Public Chamber;
• in September 2011, the human rights activist headed the newly created Public Council under the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, designed to become a bridge between the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the public;
• in May 2012, the human rights activist repeatedly spoke out about the events on Bolotnaya Square: “The situation in the area of ​​the Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge is very tense. Apparently, a pre-planned and well-organized provocation is taking place...” and “I heard a cry from the crowd some time ago - “ Give me Bloody Sunday! I have a feeling that this was apparently the goal of the organizers.”

At the beginning of July, it became known that another joy had befallen the Kostin family - human rights activist Olga Kostina joined the board of directors of the Transneft company, headed, by the way, by a colleague of the “national leader” from the GDR times, N. Tokarev.

Another close associate of V. Surkov, now Deputy Secretary of the General Council of United Russia, Alexey Chesnakov, is currently on his way to the Federation Council. For such a noble goal, in the month of May the city duma of the city of Kasimov in the Ryazan region was dissolved; Elections to the City Duma are scheduled for July 22.

Despite the active propaganda campaign on the part of the protest movement, A. Chesnakov’s entry into the City Duma (and then into the Federation Council) is a practically resolved issue, since the future senator received a passing second place on the United Russia list, which guarantees his entry into the city ​​Duma due to the votes of pensioners, many of whom traditionally vote for the party of the “national leader”.

Typical representatives of another - lower rank - category of regime assistants are a galaxy of fairly young political strategists who were recently employed by their employers in the State Duma and the Federation Council. It was through these “deputies” that the creators from Old Square “gave a start to life” to the most scandalous bills of recent times, which, for obvious reasons, more prudent representatives of the political elite prefer not to get involved with.

The most prominent representatives of this galaxy, of course, have long been known to everyone:

Provincial political strategist and now State Duma deputy Alexander Sidyakin has been involved in regional political campaigns for many years under the leadership of R. Khabirov (one of V.Yu.’s subordinates), and is now mercilessly used by the leadership to fight the opposition. A. Sidyakin initially “became famous” at the federal level after introducing a bill to increase the fine for desecration of religious objects revered by believers and insulting religious feelings. And when the young deputy acted as the initiator of a multiple increase in fines for violations of rally legislation, and a little later, the author of changes about “foreign agents,” it became clear that gr. Sidyakin’s senior comrades are assigned the role of the main “deputy of the scapegoat . ”

Another newly-minted deputy, Ilya Kostunov , has a rich track record behind him - three-time director of the Seliger forum, coordinator of the failed “anti-corruption” project “White Aprons”. This citizen became known to the general public after a leak of correspondence attributed to Anonymous V. Yakemenko, in which a young deputy asked a senior comrade for advice about which State Duma committee he should go to.

On the political front, Mr. Kostunov became famous for his persistent, albeit fruitless struggle with A. Navalny. In his fight against the opposition blogger, the newly-minted deputy, who sometimes unwittingly resembles a vengeful rejected high school student seeking to punish the womanizer who dishonored her, acts very inventively:

• in February 2012, I. Kostunov sent a request to the Moscow prosecutor’s office with a request to check for extremism the statements Navalny made at the rally on December 5th on Chistye Prudy. The young deputy was left with an indelible impression by the speaker’s words like “I will rip the throats of these brutes out. We will all do this together!” , which he talked about on his blog in a post under the self-critical title “Until they cut their throats out...”;
• in May 2012, the tireless deputy asked the FSB and Rosfinmonitoring to check the sponsors of Navalny’s activities, suspecting that there had been legalization of funds from a sponsor through Yandex.wallet. The comment of the Yandex.Money press secretary about the documents on the basis of which the request was made is funny - “mythical documents from the mythical former employee of Yandex, which Deputy Kostunov is talking about, can only be a fake.” Rosfinmonitoring, however, began checking ;
• in July, deputy Kostunov compared Navalny to Mavrodi, suggesting that donors were deceived during the collection of donations.

In July, according to media reports, members of the official Russian delegation G. Reshetnikov and I. Kostunov “shared” their accreditations with those on the “Magnitsky list” and led the latter to the building of the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, where a meeting of the OSCE Assembly was taking place.

The activities of two natives of the Chelyabinsk region deserve special attention from the public - Senator R. Gattarov and his inseparable comrade - deputy V. Burmatov , whom fate tightly connected in the mid-2000s in the ranks of the Chelyabinsk regional branch of the Young Guard of United Russia.

In 2008, R. Gattarov headed the political council of MGER; V. Burmatov immediately became deputy chief of the MGER Central Headquarters. In mid-2010, a duo from the Chelyabinsk region had another “minute of fame” when they managed to explain to fellow party members of the older generation who were far from “these Internets of yours” , many of whom began to engage in Komsomol or party activities during the life of Leonid Ilyich, about the importance of doing work online. Burmatov was named as an Internet guru, whose manipulations to increase the popularity of his blog became the subject of sincere interest from participants in the blogosphere, who “rewarded” the young blogger with the humiliating, but somewhat fair nickname BINH .

Be that as it may, in May 2010, V. Burmatov, in front of the approvingly nodding management, “ like a blogger with a blogger,” talked with D. Medvedev. And in June 2010, United Russia created the “Blogosphere” public council, designed to popularize the “party in power” online. The council was headed by R. Gattarov; blogger Burmatov once again became the deputy of his fellow countryman.

The attempt at popularization ended sadly for the duo...

In August 2010, a scandal broke out in which Senator Gattarov was accused of participating in the compilation of staged videos and photographs in which Young Guards bravely “put out a fire” in the Ryazan region. As a result of the scandal, Gattarov and Burmatov left the Young Guard, the Blogosphere project was curtailed, and one of the influential United Russia functionaries at that time, A. Chadayev, spoke quite critically about the achievements of the duo: “What does MGER have? I'm afraid that apart from their own photo shoot and isolated isolated efforts of a small group of local activists, Ruslan and the company have nothing special to boast about. As, indeed, do “Ours” with their would-be headquarters.”

In an attempt to divert public attention from the scandal, the Young Guard blogger accused Yuri Shevchuk of looting, but very soon he was caught in a lie .

Be that as it may, in December 2011 the country gained deputy V. Burmatov, who also became the first deputy of the education committee. Against the backdrop of mass protests, the young deputy developed his main activity, however, not in the field of education, but on the battlefield with the opposition, joining the same ranks with the head of V. Putin’s election headquarters, S. Govorukhin, and turner-deputies V. Trapeznikov.

Among the most noteworthy “exploits” of the young deputy are the following:

• in March of this year, Burmatov made his debut in the film industry, starring in the film “Anatomy of a Protest,” where a young deputy, modestly called a “political scientist,” expressed his “independent” opinion about the protest movement in Russia;
• in June, a young deputy launched a website for members of United Russia who want to bring A. Navalny to justice for the expression “United Russia is a party of swindlers and thieves,” on which he touchingly shared his plans to recover 60 billion rubles from the opposition blogger and nobly told about readiness to give away the “billions won” for the greening of Moscow.

The latest feat of the duo from the Chelyabinsk region also concerns A. Navalny. After the correspondence between the blogger and N. Belykh was published on the Internet, the senator and deputy almost simultaneously contacted law enforcement agencies demanding an investigation into possible violations of the law and theft from the budget.

For Kremlin propagandists with parliamentary mandates, the authorities have provided more than one feat. I. Kostunov and V. Burmatov are already speaking with pathos about the imminent introduction of amendments to the media legislation introducing the term “media operating in the interests of foreign states.” However, the future senator Chesnakov was already surprised by the agility of his young comrades and explained that the party has no such plans.

Time will tell which of the ideas of their leadership the brave deputies will manage to implement.

Kostin and Chesnakov, Sidyakin and Kostunov, Gattarov and Burmatov do not belong to the “St. Petersburg clan.” Their active work for the benefit of the clan is driven by the desire to ensure their own career growth and the financial well-being of their family. And in this activity, they, wittingly or unwittingly, cause damage to their people and their country.

And there is no doubt that all these people will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. At this stage, the public can only record the “exploits” of our fellow citizens on the propaganda front...

But there is another category of regime assistants who may be held accountable for their service to the regime today. We are talking about entrepreneurs who, thanks to the support of the “national leader” and “his correct course,” tirelessly forge their well-being. If from most PR people, as they say, “there is nothing to take except tests” or a cottage purchased for the relatives of the legal spouse in a not the most expensive European country, then the current “merchants”, who are building their business thanks to servicing the ruling regime, have something to answer ...

And we will talk about this very soon...