Autumn weeding

Why does the Kremlin change governors?

Photo: dachnaya-zhizn.ru

The presidential administration began a new series of resignation of governors. Elderly and odious officials are leaving, young, technocrats similar to each other are replacing them, although Krasnoyarsk has become an exception in this row. The permutations promise to complete by October 10. The New Times sorted out the reasons for the permutation

DELECE PROGRACTION

They decided to begin weeding the governor’s corps in the Kremlin from the head of the Samara region Nikolai Merkushkin. The exposer of the Dulles plan, critic Alexei Navalny, he bored even the most faithful United Russia. Local businessmen scolded Merkushkin for the fact that Mordovian companies began to defeat in many tenders for public procurement (for a long time Nikolai Merkushkin headed Mordovia). “Even sweets in children's gifts for the New Year or oil in veterans sets - and they were Mordovian. Tint networks also forced to buy Mordovian. Mordovian firms were built, and the stadium for the World Cup, including the cement, sold Mordva, ”complains one of the Samara merchants. Nikolai Merkushkin loved to remember about the Mordovian period of his life - especially about the Mordovian results in the elections. He did not hesitate to say that Moscow generously finances only those regions that give the parties to records of record interest. “Before the elections, and without them, collects state employees or even to force the workers of private firms and begins to reason. He could last for hours - he already wanted to go home, and he says and speaks everything, ”recalls one of the Samara employees of the budget sphere. Despite the love of communication, Nikolai Merkushkin did not find understanding from the interlocutors: he sent workers who were delayed by salary to the US Embassy, ​​publicly insulted a woman who dared to criticize the authorities. At the same time, the Samara region, before the appointment of the governor from Mordovia, was not distinguished by special respect for power, began to give the Mordovian result to united Russia. In the elections to the Gordum of Samara and the Legislative Assembly, Merkushkin conducted the people loyal to him, but at the same time quarreled with many influential local politicians. In 2015, a scandal arose at the primaries of United Russia in the Gordum of Samara, which reached the federal leadership of the party: the list of United Russia was adjusted by the governor, it included not the voting winners, but those whom Nikolai Merkushkin indicated. The federal United Russia returned part of the winners, and the head of the region tried to resist. It was from that moment that Nikolai Merkushkin became one of the main candidates for resignation. He was also criticized by the head of the party council of the party, Sergei Neverov, the conflicts did not encourage the Kremlin. The governor tried to answer - now in Samara they are judged by blogger Dmitry Begun, who told the security forces that Merkushkin paid him for criticism of Neverov, other federal figures and even the former patron of the governor, then the first deputy head of the presidential administration Vyacheslav Volodin. Since 2015, rumors about Merkushkin’s resignation appeared constantly, but he managed to preserve his post. Since last winter, regular rallies have been held in Samara for the resignation of the head of the region: the governor deprived pensioners of part of the benefits.

Nikolai Merkushkin. Photo: Fedpress.ru

“It was believed that he could provide a record result in Vladimir Putin in the presidential election. But now there is an understanding that the Merkushkinsky result is not needed, ”the interlocutor, close to the presidential administration, told NT.

The acting governor was the senator from the region, the former mayor of Samara Dmitry Azarov. His relationship with Nikolai Merkushkin was difficult - the mayor was sent to the Federation Council as a link. Before that, he helped the governor cancel the elections of the mayor of Samara, and the city itself was divided into areas with its deputies and appointed chapters. Thus, direct elections of deputies of the City Duma were also canceled. Nevertheless, in the city about Azarov, a good memory - the cancellation of the elections is associated, first of all, with Merkushkin. Also, the new acting governor is associated with the head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov - he worked in the team of his first Zam Vladimir Artyakov, when he headed the Samara region. Now Azarov promises to reconsider the inheritance of Merkushkin. “The decision to replace Merkushkin has been made for a long time. But he actively resisted this, besides there was no consensus about the successor. Too many big players were interested in Samara. Azarov met everyone and arranged everyone. His first steps are still incomprehensible. He was at work for only a couple of days and went to the PFL PFL summit. While he is only accepting cases, ”said NT political strategist Oleg Molchanov.

“Before the elections, and without them, collects state employees or even to force the workers of private firms and begins to reason. He could last for hours - he already wanted to go home, and he says and speaks everything. "

Kremlin landscaping

Nizhny Novgorod governor Valery Shantsev, settled after Mercushkin, was not such an odious character for ordinary Nizhny Novgorod, but for local elites was a strong stimulus. “Shantsev was the deputy of Yuri Luzhkov in Moscow, his right hand, and the methods were Luzhkovsky: to put pressure on all the disagreements, to impose their orders. At first he attacked the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod Vadim Bulavinov with the help of local politician Oleg Sorokin, then Sorokin intensified, and Shantsev began to fight with him. The people did not really like this Barin-Moscow either, ”says one of the local deputies of the Legislative Assembly. These conflicts resulted in scandals in the elections. The regional administration tried to influence the primaries of the United Russia, where the candidates from Shantsev was opposed by nominees of local elites. It was also criticized by the local system opposition. Valery Shantsev also did not get along in the cities of the cities - often the speakers of the City Duma and the heads of administrations, despite the abolition of direct elections of mayors, were not the ones whom the governor put on, but designated his sympathies Valery Shantsev quite openly. For example, in 2015, Ivan Carnin, and not the protege of the regional authorities, Dmitry Krasnov, who was also officially nominated by United Russia was elected speaker of the Lower City Duma. “EP had a majority in the proud dream, but voted not in a party, but in an elite one,” the interlocutor in the regional Duma told NT. The same Sorokin was able to dismiss City manager Oleg Kondrashov close to Shantsev. Now Oleg Sorokin is the vice speaker of the regional Duma.

Valery Shantsev. Photo: Fedpress.ru

Not a local politician (as in the case of Samara), but the Varangian, not from Moscow, as a former governor, and from St. Petersburg, the young deputy minister of economics, Gleb Nikitin, replaced. He had no connections with the Nizhny Novgorod region before his appointment. Experts characterize Nikitin as an example of an ideal technocrat, however, after its appointment, the pressure on the opposition in the region did not decrease. The city administration, which agreed on the rally of Alexei Navalny under Shantsev, with a young and progressive technocrat withdrawn coordination. Such a procedure is not provided for the law, but the headquarters of the opposition and his supporters began to warn against participation in an unauthorized event. As a result, Alexei Navalny and his head of his headquarters Leonid Volkov were detained, and a strange event was held on the square where the rally was supposed to take place - the Positive Lower Festival. Almost no one came to the festival, but the supporters of Navalny drove round dances around the stands, where the leading festival suffered alone.

Igor Koshin, who led the Nenets Autonomous Okrug for three years, fit into the portrait of the young governor, who is now PR in the Kremlin. The prominent propagandist Maxim Kononenko even mistook him for the newly known acting, the young deputy minister of the Russian economy, Alexander Tsybulsky, on the basis of external resemblance to the new -naked Nikitin and Azarov - glasses, a short fashionable haircut. Merkushkin and Shantsev were Varangians at old age, Koshin was local and young. But formal compliance with the new priorities of the Kremlin did not save the head of the NAO. “Koshin quickly lost popularity. The district is small - only 40 thousand people, any mistake and injustice is in sight, ”says political scientist Konstantin Kalachev. Due to the drop in oil prices, the district budget decreased by 30%, the governor predictably began to cut expenses, including social ones. However, in local media there were rumors that officials and deputies continue to use benefits. Igor Koshin was appointed Acting Governor as a counterweight to the past Varangians - Igor Fedorov and Valery Potapenko, immigrants from the neighboring Arkhangelsk region. 76% of local residents voted for him - they knew the new interim well, before that he was a senator, the speaker of the Legislative Assembly. “But the real popularity was outdated in three years, there was little left of it,” a source in the regional administration told NT.

The city administration, which agreed on the rally of Alexei Navalny under Shantsev, with a young and progressive technocrat withdrawn coordination

Koshina was replaced by a Muscovite, Deputy Minister of Economics, Alexander Tsybulsky, who oversaw the department of the Arctic. For a distant district where strangers do not like, the decision is not the most obvious. In addition, after the appointment of Tsybulsky, rumors about the unification of the NAO with the Arkhangelsk region or Komi immediately - for a promising deputy minister, the district seemed too small. So far, there is no news about the personnel priorities of the new acting, and RBC he promised to leave the dependence of the NAO budget on oil prices. The head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov has already managed to call the new Kremlin appointments of young technocrats "landscaping".

Resignation continues

In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, everything happened the other way around - Varangian Viktor Tolokonsky went to resign, and Vrio became a local - speaker of the regional assembly of deputies Alexander of the USS. Not a young technocrat, but an age politician. Tolokonsky was previously the mayor of Novosibirsk, then the governor of the Novosibirsk region, the presidential envoy in the Siberian District. In Krasnoyarsk, he worked for only three years, although he went through direct elections and scored 63% of the vote, he never became his own - rumors about his resignation appeared constantly. Alexander the USS was the speaker of the Legislative Assembly since 1998, headed the electoral block “Ours”, who fought with Governor Alexander Lebed. He also participated in the 2002 governor’s elections - he won in the first round by the head of Taimyr Alexander Khloponin, in the second he lost to him. “The commission then refused to accept the results due to a large number of violations. In favor of Khloponin, admin resource acted somewhere, during the campaign he generously spent money, but the Kremlin put it on it. During this crisis, Putin appointed Khloponin Acting, then invited him and the USS to him, and the commission recognized the elections to be held, ”recalls NT source. After this, the SAS became a permanent speaker. Locals say: the dream of the chairman, who became the governor. Prior to the appointment of Alexander USS, completely different candidates were discussed - the head of Oboronprom, Sergei Sokol (previously was the deputy governor of the region) and the young technocrat, the head of Fano Mikhail Kotyukov (also worked in the regional administration). Behind the first stood Rostec and Sergey Chemezov, after the second - the Kovalchuki brothers. The appointment did not ask - Victor Tolokonsky announced the departure, but there was no new acting for two days. As a result, the Krasnoyarsk residents were satisfied.

“Young officials who are obliged to Putin personally come to the old chapters, with whom he can talk about the image of the future, such a picture arises. But within the framework of this concept, the president’s environment solves the problems of the appointment of his people "

This four of the resignation of the heads of regions will not be exhausted. The head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, has already announced his departure, the decree on his resignation has not yet been signed, but the sources are called the deputy head of the Russian Guard Sergey Melikov as a successor. “Dagestan is revived with the personal support of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. And we must rally around our national leader in order to ensure a safe, prosperous and worthy future of Dagestan and all Dagestanis, citizens of the Great Fatherland, ”the residents of the republic finally advised Abdulatipov. The source of RIA Novosti in the Kremlin promised that the resignations will end on October 10, by that time they would have time to leave at least 4 (and no more than 8) governors. The applicants for rotation are Murmansk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Ivanovo Region, Altai Republic, Altai Territory, Kalmykia and even St. Petersburg.

Political scientist Konstantin Kalachev talks about the logic of resignations. “Shantsev and Tolokonsky did not put the situation in the regions under control. Merkushkin was demanded to remove, in Samara there was a request for his own, ”says Kalachev. He believes that the resignations are connected with the presidential campaign, not only because they change unpopular chapters. “This is the topic of renewal of personnel policy in general. The old chapters are replaced by young officials who are obliged to Putin personally, with whom he can talk about the image of the future - such a picture arises. But within the framework of this concept, the president’s environment solves the problems of the appointment of his people. Of course, now everyone is talking about young technocrats, but once they talked about strong business executives, once about young reformers. New wine is poured into old bellows. Someday in young technocrats they are disappointed, and maybe we are talking about governors-politicians, ”the expert predicts.