Translated material
Election bifurcation on the Neva
In St. Petersburg, two competing headquarters of Putin appeared at once. This is the result of the conflict between Smolny and the speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the scandal around a friend of President Vladimir Litvinenko
Rector of the Mining University Vladimir Litvinenko Photo: Old.spmi.ru
In the homeland of Vladimir Putin, the process of his election began with embarrassment. There were so many people who wanted to participate in this that two leading headquarters of the leader of the nation immediately appeared in St. Petersburg. The main character of the embarrassment was the rector of the Mining University Vladimir Litvinenko, who led the Putin campaigns in 2000, 2004 and 2012. He has already appointed a press conference to report that he would lead the headquarters this time. But at the last moment he was forced to cancel it.
Equation with three unknown
In the evening of the last media media, citing one of the members of the St. Petersburg headquarters, it was reported that he would be headed by a veteran-public Vasily Volobuev, General Director of Power Machines Yuri Petrena and 18-year-old student Anna Shuranova. These surnames do not say anything not only to the townsfolk, but also to the politicized public. Exactly at the same time, on the site “Expost-Sevele-West”, directly related to Vladimir Litvinenko, the news appeared that he would be the chief of staff of Putin. According to the site, the rector has already congratulated the deputy head of the presidential administration Sergei Kiriyenko with this.
On Thursday, Vladimir Litvinenko appointed his press conference on Friday. And on Friday she was canceled and, allegedly, flew to Moscow. He did not take any specific steps on the formation of the headquarters - at least this is not known.
In the Central Putin headquarters in Moscow, the situation was commented on streamlined. Its co -chairman Elena Shmeleva told Fontanka.ru that "all those proposals that are are actually strengthening each other's position, and in fact now we are talking about the optimal configuration to solve electoral problems." And she promised to voice the final decision in the coming days. NT sources close to Putin’s Federal Headquarters reported that the decision could be announced on Monday. But the ads never happened.
The end of the beautiful era
To understand how this could happen, you need to know the political history of St. Petersburg of modern times. From 2003 to 2011, the cultural capital with the Komsomol enthusiasm was ruled by the current speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko. She completely controlled the situation in the city and the local “United Russia”, so the presidential elections and the successor were clearly held. The executive branch ensured the mobilization of the administrative resource, unicorn-the desired degree of inflating the cheeks, Litvinenko rather performed representative functions (and the governor herself commanded the headquarters of Medvedev in 2008). The headquarters itself had several levels - political and administrative were engaged in serious work, public - meetings of proxies with labor groups, flags, flowers and other nonsense.
From this, however, it does not follow that Vladimir Litvinenko does not have sufficient influence in the city. On the contrary, he belongs to the neighboring circle of Putin, participates in resolving issues between oil workers, as the Fosagro shareholder with a fortune of more than $ 1 billion is included in the Forbes list and is the richest rector of Russia.
The only thing he did not succeed in his life is to educate Olga's daughter. Litvinenko elected her to the city parliament from the “Just Russia”, which he financed then. But then his father and daughter quarreled, he took Olga her daughter from Olga, and she herself escaped abroad, made friends with Mikhail Khodorkovsky and now calls on to include dad in sanctions lists. Some believe that the scandal with his daughter tuned the rector’s reputation in the eyes of the Kremlin, which was partly the reason for the current scandal.
Litvinenko chose a daughter in the city parliament from Fair Russia, which he financed then. But then his father and daughter quarreled, he took Olga her daughter from Olga, and she flew abroad, made friends with Mikhail Khodorkovsky and now calls to include dad in sanctions lists
In 2011, before the autumn elections to the Duma and the local legislative assembly, Valentin Matvienko was removed from the city, since her rating was such that even “United Russia” pulled down. Instead, the governor was appointed a personnel Chekist and the head of the Russian Athos Society Georgy Poltavchenko. “United Russia”, however, did not help - to keep her already quite modest positions (37%), she went to frankly rewriting electoral protocols.
The following a series of scandals, including the exile after Matvienko, close to her, the leader of the local “United Russia” Vadim Tulpanov, seriously cooled the relations of the party and Smolny. Therefore, in the presidential election of spring 2012, party members were involved in a minimum degree. Poltavchenko himself also did not show interest in them, and the supervisor of the administrative resource was carried out by experienced people in these cases Matvienko, temporarily returned from non -being. Thus, in the 2012 campaign, Litvinenko was already the main character. And, as they say, perhaps she was her sponsor.
Governor against the speaker
Poltavchenko photo: site.ru
Further life showed: Governor Georgy Poltavchenko is a supporter of the idea that if nothing is done, then everything will form by itself. From last year he has been predicted by an ambulance . In contrast to him, the new leader of United Russia and the speaker of the Legislative Assembly Vyacheslav Makarov turned out to be an incredibly active and ambitious person. In former times, he in the rank of colonel taught the history of the CPSU at the military school, and now he has become sincerely believers. Having completely turned the city parliament into a barracks, Makarov slowly begins to bite off the powers from the executive branch. And, apparently, he sees himself as a future governor. On the way to this purpose, he was believed to be the head of Putin's election headquarters.
However, a number of objective difficulties arose here. Firstly, Putin distances from United Russia, and if the Chief St. Petersburg United Russia is headed by his St. Petersburg headquarters, it will be wrong. Secondly, there are no speakers and parliaments for the presidential administration in the regions. There are governors - they are responsible for everything. Including the election. Therefore, in AP they immediately began to build communications with Smolny.
Having completely turned the city parliament into a barracks, Makarov slowly begins to bite off the powers from the executive branch. And, apparently, he sees himself as a future governor. On the way to this purpose, he was believed to be the head of Putin's election headquarters
In the summer, Konstantin Serov was appointed vice-governor in domestic politics (by the way, having a personal conflict with Makarov in background), who should be responsible for the elections. Serov began to work, went to Moscow to the Old Square at a meeting, he had his own political technologists, reinforced at the end of last year by people from the capital. That is, everything went to the fact that Smolny would be, as in all other regions, to be responsible for the successful election of Putin.
In fact, this team has already begun to work, performing the functions of the headquarters - with its efforts, in particular, signatures were collected. It was rented a premises in the business center on Okhta-far from the most central district of St. Petersburg, but in the neighborhood of Smolny (this address is also indicated on the official Putin site). At the same time, the formal chief of staff was not appointed. The city community was not very interested in those who will be. They periodically recalled Litvinenko, but since it became clear that Makarov would not lead the headquarters, interest in this story faded due to its non -involvement.
The initially voiced scheme with three co -chairs, copied with the federal, looked quite logical: they puff out their cheeks, and serious guys from the executive branch punch the future of the country. Why Smolny did not immediately include Litvinenko in this trinity is not very clear: there were no conflicts between them.
A certain understanding of the nature of the scandal arose from scratch, apparently, gives the fact that Vyacheslav Makarov turned out to be the deputy chief of staff, according to Vladimir Litvinenko. Realizing that in the Smolninsky headquarters nothing shines on him, the speaker obviously made every effort to make an alliance with Litvinenko, and successfully achieved his own.
What will happen next? Most likely, people responsible for the AP for the formation of regional headquarters, after all that happened, will not be able to just dismiss the rector. Obviously, the coalition headquarters will be compiled-Litvinenko plus someone from the trinity. It is not clear only whether people from Smolny control over the elective process, or Litvinenko will rely on their frames, as well as those people whom Makarov will offer him.