The stadium is more important than schools

The Zenit Arena stadium will be completed at the expense of social facilities-schools, kindergartens, clinics

Among the three dozen objects that will not be built this year are the new building of the hospital No. 9, the new ambulance station and the children's tuberculosis sanatorium, the social house and the clinic in Kolpino, the bath complex in the Red Selo, as well as the reconstruction of the optical-mechanical professional person, 6 schools and 7 kindergartens.

The Government of St. Petersburg redistributed the funds of the targeted investment program for 2016, withdrawing 2.6 billion rubles from the city budget from these and many other facilities and sending them to the construction of the Zenit Arena football stadium. As a result, schools are not counted 505 million rubles, kindergartens - 313 million, cultural institutions - 126 million, and the largest piece is cut off from money allocated for the construction of healthcare institutions - 925 million rubles.

“Zenith Arena” with the infrastructure adjacent to it should be ready by the end of the year-with the calculation to accept the matches of the Confederations Cup. The stadium began to be built in 2008, its initial cost was less than 7 billion rubles, but over the years of construction, it exceeded 42 billion, so now it is considered the most expensive stadium of the world - after the London Wembley.

The contract with the former general contractor for the construction of the Zenit Arena stadium, infrontsstroy-spb was terminated at the end of July this year. Then the city administration transferred information about the disappeared advance in the amount of 2.5 billion rubles to the prosecutor’s office, which the company did not have time to work. On August 19, the city government concluded new contracts with the completion of the construction and improvement of the stadium in the amount of 7.8 billion rubles with the Metrostroy company.

Distribution of information about the cutting of funds intended for social facilities, for the completion of the stadium published by many media, Vice-Governor Igor Albin, on his Facebook page, called stupidity and explained that redistribution of funds is just a "technical operation, when the construction committee made a temporary, short-term decision to increase the construction limits of a single facility through the construction of one facility. limits of other objects. " Albin also explains that "all the objects that this decision affected are transitional objects, the deadlines for the completion of work on which are 2017-2018." The official is outraged by the attention aimed at redistributing the budget: “However, how much noise, pathos, evaluative judgments, stupidity and criticism. As if oligarchs and friends of oligarchs have no other problems, except for the Zenit AREN stadium. Comrades capitalists, calm down: schools, kindergartens and hospitals will not be injured and will be introduced into the terms established by the investment program and state Contracts! "

Economist Vladimir Gryaznevich does not understand why it was once again sending huge funds to the Zenit Ansa long-building.

They say that this is an advance, given to the previous general contractor, and that they are going to recover it, but this is a very long process

- It is very strange that again they add money to this black hole, because already in April 4.5 billion was sent there additionally, making a change to the law, and then again 2.6 billion. True, they say that this is an advance given to the previous general contractor, and that this advance is going to recover, but the return of money is a very long process. Although such a practice of transferring money from some objects to others exists, this is not the first time, and I hope for one thing - that this money will still not be removed from the salary fund, but from real estate. And I also hope that this money was not withdrawn from the kindergartens under construction, a clinic, a perinatal center, but with preparing objects. It is known that in recent years it often happens that the relevant committees have not been mastered on the deadline for the money, because they do not have time to prepare, and most importantly, to coordinate projects-money is released, and sometimes it takes up to two years for approval. For this, by the way, the governor of officials repeatedly publicly baked. I hope that the money was withdrawn from such, not yet prepared projects. Now both the Education Committee and the Health Committee cheerfully report that their plans will be fulfilled, that all schools and clinics will open by the deadline in September. If the money is withdrawn from the objects under construction, then for this, officials should simply be dismissed.

This becomes possible because our governor has only one voter - Putin

Earlier, an official message was published by the press service of the Construction Committee that "the redistribution of funds within the framework of 10% is a standard practice for the executive authorities and is aimed at more efficient development of funds." The deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Alexander Kobrinsky, agrees that formally the actions of officials are quite legal, but he believes that money can be withdrawn from the objects under construction.

- To pick up money from kindergartens, schools and hospitals only because the previous general contractor did not return the advance - this is a disgrace. And most importantly, not St. Petersburg should finance the construction of the stadium, because the World Cup is not Petersburg, but the All -Russian, and all objects of this kind in different cities are built at the expense of the federal budget. Removing money from the construction of schools and hospitals, from my point of view, is an absolutely immoral thing. They say that this money will return, but when they return and with the help of what - no one knows this. It is very likely that you have to sue, and it is completely incomprehensible how the court will end and when it ends. And money from social objects is being taken now-it is extremely immoral! It seems to me that in the elections of September 18, Petersburgers should express their attitude to this act. If it remains unpunished, then we can wipe our feet about all of us. This becomes possible because our governor has only one voter - Putin. If he were really chosen in the popular elections, if he had been standing for new elections, if he had connected his fate with St. Petersburg, he probably would have thought ten times before calling the bridge by the name of Kadyrov and giving money from the budget to the stadium.

Professor of the European University in St. Petersburg, economist Andrei Kosostrovtsev believes that the next jump in the costs of Zenit-Arena was actually planned.

- When relations with the previous contractor were interrupted, the new contractor requested new amounts. This suggests that the authorities prefer global, highly prestigious projects to the daily needs of citizens. But the point here is not only in the St. Petersburg authorities. It is clear that the decision was made at a much higher level. Now we will not read all these schools and kindergartens, the money will go to the prestige of the powers, to the World Cup, and of course we can’t see these money. I think that the previous contractor is not wealthy enough to return this money. In the same way, at first we were told that the funded part of the pensions was seized, and then they would return, now the authorities are silent about it.

- Everyone knows about the decision of the St. Petersburg authorities why people are not indignant?

We have such a prestigious consumption of an authoritarian state-Zenit Arena, and the war can also be an object of such prestigious consumption

- Yes, this information is publicly available, but people are passive, they believe that nothing can change in this situation, and, in general, it is. Of course, these social objects are very necessary for the city, on the other hand, it will hardly imagine a less necessary object than Zenit Arena. But this issue is much deeper than a specific situation - whether society should finance professional sport. After all, this sport only in words lives at the expense of his income, in fact, he lives at the expense of taxpayers. From my point of view, it should not. Professional clubs should at their own expense build stadiums, live on the principle of self -sufficiency. And “Zenit Arena” is not the only such object, let's recall how much the Olympics cost in Sochi, because she broke all the records and cost more than the summer Olympiads-this is the most expensive Olympiad in the history of mankind. The authoritarian state has its preferences, which often do not coincide with the preferences of the population. We can say that this is such a personal consumption of autocrat. It’s like rich people-someone buys yachts, someone holds beauty contests, someone finances Formula 1, and we have such a prestigious consumption of an authoritarian state-“Zenit Arena”, and the war can also be the object of such prestigious consumption. They won’t protest - there is such a phenomenon that is called the “effect of a non -core”: whoever comes out, gets a hat, we have a rather expanded repressive legislation. Who is the first to move, he will suffer the most costs, and everyone argues: what, do I need the most? If you calculate the amount that every Petersburger loses as a result of this decision of the authorities, it turns out that it is not a sufficient incentive to go out. But there are no other forms of protest - a normal political struggle in our society is excluded.

The draft resolution of the city government on the redistribution of the budget appeared last week, says Boris Vishnevsky, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.

- Since the surrender of the stadium on time is the task of extreme state importance, it is ordered to solve it at all costs. They paid any price - they donated hospitals, clinics, schools and kindergartens. As the administration was explained to me, these are not the current, but next year - but this means that next year the construction of social facilities will slow down, and it is not known where this money will be taken to the stadium, whether it will be possible to recover it from the former contractor. In any case, I consider the outrageous situation to complete the construction of the stadium at the expense of social facilities. In our city, crowded groups in kindergartens and classes in schools, we have huge queues for doctors, especially for specialist doctors in clinics, we have lines for hospitalization in hospitals, and still the city administration easily withdraw money from these facilities, because we need to complete the stadium, otherwise Putin will not stroke the head. Apparently, it is believed that residents of the city dutifully demolish such a transfer of money. I turned to the governor, demanding this not. The response to me was the government’s decision to transfer money. I wrote to the head of the government Medvedev and the head of Gazprom Miller, offering to at least partially participate financially in the construction of the stadium. There are no answers yet, and I suspect that they will try to evade financing the stadium. Because the city authorities dutifully agree to lay all the burden of building on the shoulders of St. Petersburg taxpayers, since the money is not their money, but ours with you. And in general, this is an abnormal situation: not a single large European club that succeeds, say, in the Champions League, requires budget money for the construction of the stadium for itself. He builds at the expense of sponsors, at the expense of his own income, at the expense of the club owners, but not at the expense of taxpayers. But we are building a stadium for Zenit at the expense of all residents of St. Petersburg. Back in December last year, vice-governor Igor Albin said that the management company will be one of the structures of Gazprom. I am with both hands for Zenit, so that he has a stadium and the opportunity to play normally, but I am against the fact that the money is taken from my pocket. Gazprom owns Zenit-not the poorest company in the country, but for some reason he does not want to pay for it.

Meanwhile, the day after the publication of the plans of the city government to transfer money from the construction of social facilities to complete the stadium, another information about future expenses appeared. The chairman of the St. Petersburg Construction Committee, Sergei Morozov , announced that since the 2020 European Football Championship will also be held in St. Petersburg, the new stadium will need adaptation and modernization in order to bring it into compliance with UEFA standards. And this adaptation and modernization will also cost billions of rubles.