Battle on the Volga

On Wednesday, April 2, President Vladimir Putin dismissed the governor of the Volgograd region Sergei Bozhenov. The formal reason for the dismissal is the statement “of your own free will”.

Many perceived the resignation of the governor as a surprise, in such a vein, in any case, the head of the local branch of United Russia Vitaly Likhachev spoke. “Maybe this is due to the transition to a new job? I don't know, I can't comment. For me, this is a surprise, and I do not know what it is connected with, ”said Likhachev RIA Novosti.

However, Bozhenov was still not completely unexpected. In September, parliamentary elections will be held in the region, which, apparently, will become difficult for United Russia. The governor was resigned could cope with the region in “peacetime”, but did not reach decisive actions during the election campaign.

In some ways, the situation in the Novosibirsk region is similar, where the governor was dismissed on the eve of the election of the mayor of the regional capital, where the Communist Party candidate Anatoly Lokot has excellent chances of winning.

Sergey Bozhenov

Sergei Bozhenov was “Varangian” for the Volgograd region, which came not from distant and large Moscow, but from close and compared to Volgograd by Little Astrakhan. The whole career of Bozhenov was connected precisely with Astrakhan: there he received the specialty of the sailor, and later engaged in business, there he won the first elections, having chosen in 1997 to the city assembly of Astrakhan, and in 2001 in the regional parliament.

In 2004, Sergey Bozhenov was elected mayor of Astrakhan and retained his post until 2011, when he moved to work in the State Duma. A month after the election, President Dmitry Medvedev appointed him the governor of the Volgograd region.

Resistance to this purpose appeared among Volgograd residents in 2012. On January 30, the rector of the Volgograd State Technical University, Ivan Novakov, addressed the regional parliament and United Russia with a request to wait with the discussion of the candidacy of the new governor to the presidential election. However, the opinion of the rector and academician did not change the appointment of the governor.

Around Bozhenov, various scandals took place all the time. He repeatedly stated that key posts in his government should occupy “diamonds” from other regions. The appointed appointment, however, often did not linger at their posts longer than a month.

A few months after the appointment, Sergey Bozhenov and a group of deputies of the regional Duma went to Italy to "represent the economic potential of the Volgograd region." By accidental coincidence, a trip to Italy fell on the birthday of a new governor. Information appeared quickly enough that officials and deputies went to Europe with their families on a specially captured CRJ 200 aircraft and spent time there in a well -guarded hotel.

For the two years that the region headed Bozhenov, almost every month, reports of the next rallies for the resignation of the governor, investigations of corruption affairs, statements by the Prosecutor General’s Office about non -targeted spending, etc. came from the region.

Andrey Bocharov

Andrei Bocharov is also difficult to call “his own” for the Volgograd region. He was born in Altai, graduated from the Moscow Suvorov School and, as part of the airborne troops, went through the first Chechen war, where he received the star of Russia for a successful operation in the area of ​​the village of Komsomolskoye.

Andrei Bocharov is more than connected with Bryansk. Compared to Volgograd, this is also not a very large city, but it is far away. In 2005, Bocharov was appointed deputy governor of the Bryansk region, and in 2007 and 2011 he was elected from the region to the State Duma.

It is during the meeting in the federal parliament that one of the few references to Bocharov’s connection with the Volgograd region accounts. The Hero of Russia held the post of head of the Interregional Coordinating Council of the Southern Federal District, and in January 2012 he took part in consultations regarding candidates for the post of head of the Volgograd region - then the region, in addition to Bozhenov, wanted Senator Vladimir Plotnikov and deputy Oleg Savchenko.

In 2012, Bocharov returned to work in the Bryansk region, this time not as deputy governor Nikolai Denin, but as his opponent - he received the post of chief federal inspector for the region, that is, a person whose direct duty is to control the work of the regional administration.

Bocharov arrived in the Bryansk region immediately after Denin’s difficult victory in the election. A month before the vote, it became known that the Ministry of Internal Affairs suspects him of abuse of powers - the allocation of more than 20 million rubles from the reserve fund by which he himself had previously managed and which at that time formally belonged to his relatives.

A little more than a week before the vote, he was generally removed from the elections for providing fake ballots. However, later the Supreme Court returned his surname in the ballots and in the election he received almost 2/3 of the vote.

Denin Bocharov did not control the work of Denin, already in August 2013 he was recalled from the Bryansk region - he became the head of the Executive Committee of the All -Russian Popular Front. This, however, did not save Bryansk from the interest of Hero of Russia. At the end of March, the Izvestia newspaper published an article about the ONF closed report. According to the publication, the document refers to numerous violations of the law by the governor.

After the publication of the article, the local publications decided that the fate of the governor was hanging in the balance, and it was Andrei Bocharov that was the most obvious successor - the man who prepared the information attack on the governor and is well familiar with the situation in the region.

Vladimir Putin and Andrey Bocharov. Photo: kremlin.ru

President Vladimir Putin, however, decided differently. Even if the last campaign against Nikolai Denin ends with his resignation, Bocharov will not be able to use the fruits of victory - he was sent to Volgograd. Moreover, the new governor will have to not only win in the governor’s elections, but also provide loyal regional parliament.

Previously, the Kremlin often used the possibility of appointing governors almost a year before the election - this happened with Andrei Vorobyov, who was appointed acting The heads of the Moscow region in November 2012, and won the elections only in September 2013. Such a long period between the appointment and elections allowed the candidates to prepare well for them and prevent all possible surprises. In the Volgograd region, obviously, to repeat the result of Vorobyov, you will have to try well.