Sobyanin is to blame for everything

"Medusa" tells how the mayor of Moscow tried to cope with the coronavirus - but eventually harmed his image and quarreled with Putin

In the spring of 2020, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin turned out to be one of the most common heroes of publications and plots dedicated to the fight against coronavirus in Russia. Moscow first began to introduce quarantine restrictions that other governors began to take as a sample - it was their federal authorities that were actually appointed responsible for the fight against coronavirus. The Medusa specialists Andrei Pertsev, Farida Rustamova and Anastasia Yakureva tell how the mayor of Moscow and his subordinates worked during the epidemic, while taking care of their own image, and what consequences for Sobyanin himself led.

Almost the main coronavirus

On March 14, Sergei Sobyanin became the first deputy prime minister Mikhail Mishustin in the government coordination council for the fight against coronavirus created on the same day . The next day, Vladimir Putin organized a working group at the State Council at the head of the Moscow mayor himself-it also includes government officials, including Andrei Belousov Deputy Prime Ministers, Tatyana Golikov and Dmitry Chernyshenko. “Many people had an idea that Sobyanin is the main thing to combat the virus, because the working group was created under the“ presidential ”State Council, it is higher than the Premier Council,” said the presidential administration official in March Medusa.

To establish subordination, the Kremlin had to publicly explain who the senior according to the epidemic was vertical: the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the main prime minister Mishustin was still. “The State Council, of course, these are regions, and work with the regions will be established here. This is such a advisory body to extend the achievements to the regions, get a point of view, information, ”he described the functions of the group.

Since the fight against coronavirus was, according to the official messages of the Kremlin, the prerogative of the governors, Sobyanin remained its frontman. “He is very effectively holding group meetings. Puts accents that is priority, which is not. His brains work well, here Sobyanin is well done, you won’t say anything, ”Meduza tells one of the participants in the meetings of the working group of the State Council.

The Medusa source close to the Kremlin based on their conversations with the governors claims that the heads of territories appreciated events with Sobyanin more than meetings of the Governmental Council, headed by Mishustin: “This is heaven and earth”. “Mishustin constantly sounded reproaches to the numbers:“ You have registered in table 185, and you say 183 - why so?! ” A lot of time takes this accounting, it measures everything in numbers. But not all processes can be digitized. And they are technocrats - they say, the digitization will establish everything. The governors who are burning, this infuriates that a person spends half a meeting on the verification of numbers, ”he explains. However, the resentment against Sobyanin among the governors also slipped: many believed that the virus came from Moscow to their regions, and even called to stop the transport communication with it.

“Two bodies - the Coordinating Council under the Government [where Sobyanin was the deputy of Mishustin] and the working group of the State Council [which Sobyanin headed] - arose rather from managerial angelism. In the State Council, the group arose due to the fact that it was initially decided to decentralize-so that the governors themselves take responsibility for decisions to combat the epidemic. But how can the government not stay away? Hence all this confusion, the system that showed catastrophic inefficiency, ”says the interlocutor of Medusa, close to the Kremlin.

Officials and interlocutors, who are close to the city hall, the government and the Kremlin interviewed by Medusa, agree that Sergei Sobyanin got the lead in the coronavirus agenda in a natural way. “He was simply more experienced and resource,” says Medusa’s source close to the Kremlin. The former government official notes that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin did not strive for some kind of leadership in this matter: “He only received a post, sorted out his work, he did not yet become a full-fledged prime minister, Sobyanin wanted and could take responsibility.”

Initially, according to the Medusa interlocutor close to the City Hall, the old friends Sobyanin and Mishustin sharply perceived competition among themselves, but then, in their expression, it was “reconciled”. Together, before the meeting in Kommunarka, on March 24, the president convinced the president to transfer the correction to the Constitution and “Enravity” from April 22 (as planned originally) for an indefinite period. Joint efforts had fruit: on March 25, the president turned to the nation and still transferred the vote.

“This is not Europe. This is Asia "

In Moscow, according to the interlocutor close to the city hall, Sergei Sobyanin set to introduce the toughest restrictions - up to the stop of the metro, the input of troops and the installation of commandant hour. “Vedomosti” also wrote about this, although Moscow officials themselves officially denied this repeatedly. Quarantine measures in Asia states - and above all in China, became a model for Sobyanin; This was told by several sources of Medusa in the Kremlin, the city hall, as well as the interlocutor close to the government.

“China, Singapore - in principle, Sobyanin has been guided by their practices for a long time, since the time of work by the Governor in the Tyumen region, there these traditions are still preserved. This is not Europe, this is Asia. This is the Asian style of urbanism, this is Asian quarantine, ”says a person who worked in the presidential embassy in the Urals Federal District and is well acquainted with the style of Sobyanin's work. A source close to the presidential administration calls politicians who are guided by the Moscow mayor: the current chairman of China Xi Jinping and the former Prime Minister Singapore, already deceased Li Kuan Y.

However, resorting to the most stringent measures - for example, to the metro stop or input of the troops - Sobyanin did not dare to. The point was not so much in his personal position as in relation to the federal center, which was apprehension with serious quarantine restrictions, two Medusa interlocutors close to the presidential administration are sure.

“At the Kremlin level, meetings with epidemiologists were held: what is better to do - choose a strategy for developing collective immunity or quarantine measures,” recalls the events of the Medusa interlocutor close to the government. The source close to the presidential administration also remembers these events: “No one understood how serious everything is, so no one wanted to take responsibility in the center, it was lowered down. At a meeting of epidemiologists of the voice [supporters of quarantine and less stringent measures] were divided equally. ” Sobyanin at that time “Italy was already standing in front of my eyes,” recalls a government source.

Sobyanin signed a decree on the introduction of increased readiness in Moscow on March 5 - and did this the first among the heads of the regions. At that time, only one sick coronavirus was officially registered in Russia - a man who came just from Italy. At first, restrictive measures included self -isolation for people who came from 11 countries, but gradually their list grew. Since March 29, the city introduced the self -isolation regime for all residents, catering establishments, hairdressing and non -food stores closed.

“Someone will call it panicirism, but he really quickly reacted to what was happening abroad, and realized it. Most officials took a wait -and -see position, ”the source of Medusa, close to the city hall, describes the reaction to Sobyanin. “He had more information, and he knows how to analyze it,” his acquaintance praises the mayor.

At the same time, the source close to the presidential administration says that now Sobyanin’s fears look, to put it mildly, exaggerated: “Hundreds of thousands of deaths, Big Bergamo , were waiting for the city hall, but this did not happen.”

A friend of the mayor notes that it was because of the fears of ultra-high incidence that the city hall did not think, in particular, serious help to business. “The city hall did not understand the losses, including deaths, did not understand whom to save. They had a scenario when there will be a complete ass and they will not help small and medium -sized businesses at all - there will simply be no money, and it will leave the agenda. It's like a war - who should be saved, business or people? If 50 thousand people died , no one would remember about your small business. ”

It cannot be said that the mayor's office did not help businessmen at all: for example, the authorities canceled the rent for land and non -residential premises owned by the city, promised to compensate for property tax and allocate subsidized loans. But, apparently, support for small and medium -sized businesses did not help very much - only 112 stores and cafes have already closed on the main trading streets of Moscow.

The head of the press service of the city hall Gulnara Penkov did not answer the questions of Medusa.

Damaged advisers

The main adviser to the Moscow Mayor for the fight against coronavirus was his deputy social development Anastasia Rakov, who is subordinate to the Department of Health. "He is listening to Rakov!" - So a person who is well acquainted with Sobyanin answered the question of Medusa about the main consultant to the mayor on the fight against the epidemic.

According to the interlocutor close to the presidential administration, Anastasia Rakov, an adviser to the Moscow mayor, is not only in matters of the pandemic, but "in general in all matters." Raca herself, during the fight against the epidemic, turned into a public person (which was not there before): she gave interviews , starred in television.

“Sobyanin’s deputy is historically not super -public people, they fulfill the media plan - and that’s all, tried not to shine. Rakova went into the public by the will of Sobyanin; Including this is done in order to bring it to a large political arena as a separate unit. It was necessary to make it a speaker on the topic “Crown” in order to at least somehow reduce the number of speculation due to numerous jambs in order to demonstrate openness, ”the source close to the city hall claims.

The most cancerous publicity is unpleasant, several Medusa interlocutors converge. “She does not love people, but she loves computers,” the familiar mayor says about her.

At the same time, it is Rakoka that the idea belongs to report the number of those who recovered in Moscow in the morning, and about the dead - closer to the night . “This is imprisoned for journalists so that it does not fall on the editorials, so that they write less. What is written in the night, no one reads, ”says the interlocutor, close to the city hall. At first, Rakov herself reported the number of recovered every morning, writing down to separate interviews so that positive news was associated with her-but then they abandoned this due to the energy consumption of the process.

The appearance of the deputy mayor on the television screen also led to side effects: the opposition politician Alexei Navalny discovered that the official’s wardrobe could cost about 15 million rubles, while her official income for five years is seven million.

Nevertheless, medicine and healthcare remained officially specialized for cancerous questions during the epidemic. A significant part of other areas-interaction with business, digital passes, PR block, politics and the working group of the State Council-was supervised by the vice-mayor and the head of the City Hall apparatus Natalya Sergeynina. For the work of transport and the construction of new clinics-also important during the period of the epidemic of the topic-were responsible for Vice-mayors Maxim Liksutov and Andrey Bochkarev.

“Sobyanin delegates quite a lot and trusts his deputies very much,” the interlocutor who is close to the city hall says. According to him, Sobyanin is trying not to hold major meetings with the participation of many officials, he prefers separate meetings with specialized depomes.

But despite many years of joint experience, during the epidemic, the activities of the Sobyanin team turned out to be catastrophically inconsistent, several Medusa interlocutors note. “The work was disconnected, wildlife -malling actions, which gave rise to numerous mistakes. A huge number of problems and confrontations have been exposed, ”says the interlocutor, close to the Moscow Operational Headquarters.

“The main problem of Moscow is the inconsistency of actions within the city structures: the Committee of State Services, Depostrav, Volunteers, Department of Trade, etc. This was especially clear when stories with fines began, with“ social monitoring ”,” says a source close to the government.

Dressed care

If at first the inhabitants of Moscow were more or less restrained in the actions of the City Hall to combat the epidemic, then by mid-spring the clearly malling work of Moscow officials was already criticized everywhere.

One of the most resonant stories is the mullet in the subway after the introduction of mandatory passes for public transport users. Then Sergey Sobyanin indirectly accused the police officers of this. “In the morning, due to verification measures held by the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, the lines formed in the subway, which in the current situation is very critical. He talked with the head of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, asked to organize the work in such a way that further checks did not lead to mass accumulation of people, ”the mayor wrote on Twitter. At the same time, the police unofficially called the City Hall itself guilty in lines.

The interlocutor close to the city hall explains that the launch of digital passes was supervised by the vice-mayor of Sergunin, but Alexander Gorbenko was responsible for checking the passes and the police, and the responsibility for the lines of the metro lies in many respects on it-and the general inconsistency of the actions of Moscow officials with each other.

The flurry of criticism also caused the program “Social Monitoring”, which should track the self -isolation of people with suspicion of coronavirus. For many users, the application was not installed on smartphones, others began to come to others, even when they were at home. The introduction of this application was also supervised by the vice-mayor of Sergunin. “She was shown a Singapore program that tracks every sick and his contacts. This program shows everyone in the public domain, including the citizens themselves, where an infected person went. But the city hall decided that this was too tough intervention in personal data and that something more humane should be done. But it turned out what happened, the Department of Information Technologies did everything crookedly, ”says the source of Medusa, close to the city hall.

By the end of the third month of quarantine, criticism and ridicule caused more and more significant actions of the Moscow mayor. Although the actual political satire is not a character for Russian television comedians, a parody of Sobyanin and Putin was released by a popular showman, leading Channel One Maxim Galkin. His video was very popular and gained 6.5 million views on Instagram, after which some Russian media began to remove notes from their sites, which talked about this parody. According to The Bell, this was done by calls of officials of the city hall and the presidential administration. The artistic director of the theater of nations Yevgeny Mironov also rushed to save Sobyanin's reputation. A great friend of Vice-mayor Sergunina, he could do this at her request, says the interlocutor of Medusa, close to the Moscow headquarters (Medusa contacted the representative of Mironov and sent him questions about this, at the time of publication of the material the answer to them was not received).

For the Kremlin official, failures are obvious in the PR anti-struggle to the fight against the epidemic: a scandal with “social monitoring”, accusations against citizens of non-compliance with insulation measures. He believes that Anastasia Rakova made mistakes here as the main adviser to the mayor: “She is very able -bodied, effective, decisive. The problem is that her environment says that she is right in everything. Therefore, she often breaks through the wrong solutions, without listening to anyone. Here, determination comes out sideways. ”

Work on PR and communications with the population during the coronavirus epidemic is failed, the interlocutor close to the Moscow headquarters agrees. “All restrictions, the same“ social monitoring ”-well, go out to people, tell me humanly that yes, we have screwed up there, but we do it for your health and your health, we will fix it all. But no, they cannot do that, it is higher than their strength. ”

One of the main reasons for this failure is the conflicting relationship between Cancer and Sergunina, the interlocutor in the presidential administration and the Medusa source close to the city hall claim. Несмотря на то, что формально Ракова больше не курирует политический блок мэрии (с 2018 года эта сфера перешла к Сергуниной), она все равно сильно на него влияет.

Так, по словам двух близких к мэрии собеседников, пиаром мэрии занимались технологи Анастасии Раковой, которая, перейдя на работу в социальный блок, все равно сохранила контакты с политтехнологами, сотрудничавшими с ней, когда она еще курировала политическое направление. Например, в соцсетях департамента здравоохранения и соцзащиты можно обнаружить десятки качественных видеороликов, похожих на социальную рекламу (по данным собеседников «Медузы», их производством занимался политтехнолог Михаил Черепанов; связаться с ним не удалось).

При этом размещение публикаций в телеграм-каналах и соцсетях лояльных блогеров перешло от Раковой к политическому блоку мэрии, который курирует Сергунина. «Критика противников карантинных ограничений, черный пиар — это все их [работа]», — отмечает источник «Медузы», близкий к мэрии.

Свежих открытых данных по рейтингам Собянина в Москве нет, при этом в рейтинге доверия политикам в целом по стране, по данным «Левада-центра» в мае, московский мэр показатели улучшил — с 2% в январе 2020 года до 4% в мае (у Владимира Путина за тот же период доля доверяющих ему граждан упала с 35% до 25%). Однако два близких к Кремлю источника со ссылкой на закрытые исследования говорят, что к концу мая рейтинги Сергея Собянина в Москве начали падать.

Жизнь по своему графику

Открытие предприятий того же малого бизнеса в рамках снятия ограничений Москва организовала по собственному графику, который мало совпадал с рекомендациями по снятию ограничений от федерального Роспотребнадзора. Например, как первый этап выхода из карантина было подано возобновление работы промышленных предприятий и строек, тогда как по рекомендациям Роспотребнадзора на первом этапе должны открываться небольшие магазины и фирмы в сфере услуг, например парикмахерские. До парикмахерских в Москве открылись и крупные торговые центры, которые по федеральным рекомендациям должны открываться на втором этапе снятия ограничений.

Мэрия не следовала не только порядку, но и условиям отмены карантинных мер, рекомендованным правительственным ведомством: этапы должны соответствовать определенным значениям коэффициента распространения вируса. В какой-то момент мэрия задерживала снятие ограничений, но потом достаточно быстро стала опережать графики Роспотребнадзора — скажем, почти сразу после парикмахерских в городе открылись летние веранды кафе и ресторанов, а на этой неделе начали работу внутренние помещения сферы общепита, а это уже третий этап снятия ограничений.

При этом самому мэру пришлось поучаствовать в съемке телесюжета непосредственно на веранде кафе, хотя еще совсем недавно он говорил об опасности преждевременного снятия ограничений. По словам хорошо знакомого с Собяниным человека, глава города сделал это, чтобы «внушить горожанам уверенность, ведь паника хуже пандемии».

Главный санитарный врач Москвы Елена Андреева в политике московской мэрии по борьбе с коронавирусом большой роли не играла, говорит собеседник «Медузы», близкий к московскому оперативному штабу. По его словам, она лишь выполняла роль звена в передаче методов московской мэрии на федеральный уровень Роспотребнадзора. Мэрия публично апеллировала к Андреевой только в момент введения режима самоизоляции, когда Собянина обвинили в незаконном ограничении передвижения граждан.

В качестве примера отношения к Андреевой собеседник приводит встречу Собянина с рестораторами, на которой она также присутствовала. По его словам, мэр, обращаясь к санитарному врачу, призвал проверять соблюдение ресторанами санитарных ограничений, но «со здравой логикой» — а рестораторы в ответ засмеялись и захлопали.

«Снимать ограничения по собственному графику — полное право Собянина, федеральный Роспотребнадзор же только рекомендует, дальше каждый регион решает сам», — рассказывает собеседник «Медузы», близкий к правительству.

«С ним [Собяниным] сложно решать вопросы, он считает, что прав только он. Я хочу все свое, я знаю все лучше всех — такая у него позиция», — говорит тот же собеседник. Например, в Роспотребнадзоре считали, что всех приехавших из-за границы нужно было отправлять в двухнедельную обсервацию, как в других регионах. Москва на это не пошла, вместо этого велев людям самоизолироваться дома, хотя некоторых случаев заражения таким образом можно было избежать, продолжает собеседник «Медузы».

Другой собеседник, близкий к мэрии и правительству, подтверждает: «Если другие губернаторы, которые послабее, Роспотребнадзора побаиваются, то на Собянина [глава Роспотребнадзора Анна] Попова наехать не может: все же понимают, что он такой типа вице-премьер по Москве. У них с Поповой неплохие отношения, но партнерские, она ему не начальник. Строго говоря, надавить на Собянина может только один человек — это президент, с правительством они общаются на равных».

Выходить из графика ограничений с опережением Собянину действительно пришлось после разговора с президентом — о голосовании по поправкам к Конституции и «обнулению» путинских сроков, которое должно пройти с 25 июня по 1 июля. По сведениям «Медузы», мэрия планировала отменить пропускную систему с 15 июня, после празднования Дня России. Однако в итоге пропуска отменили уже с 9 июня; после этого в столице открылась сфера услуг и общепита.

«Собянин не эмоциональный и очень расчетливый, он солдат Путина, совершенно эффективный человек, человек системы. Система такое решение приняла, он будет выполнять. Но при этом разгребать-то потом ему», — говорит «Медузе» знакомый мэра.

Отношения с Путиным

Несколько источников, близких к администрации президента, и собеседник в Кремле говорят, что отношения между президентом и мэром столицы во время карантинных ограничений серьезно испортились. «Началось все еще в январе, когда Путин собеседовал претендентов на премьерский пост — одним из самых вероятных кандидатов был Сергей Собянин. Но он дал понять, что хотел бы видеть своим преемником в Москве Анастасию Ракову, а такие решения принимает президент, он не любит, чтобы его к чему-то подталкивали. Потом Путину быстро наскучила борьба с эпидемией, ему нужно было скорейшее открытие экономики. Здесь позиция мэра противостояла президентской», — объясняет один из собеседников, близких к Кремлю. По его словам, несовпадение позиций президента и мэра стало очевидным, этим стали пользоваться и аппаратные противники Собянина.

Кроме того, мартовское лидерство московского мэра в коронавирусной повестке и ориентация губернаторов на Собянина тоже насторожила Кремль: ситуация стала восприниматься как действия главы столицы в гонке президентских преемников. «Собянин действительно оказался на подъеме, на пике. Это стало выглядеть как полноценная заявка на преемничество. В конкурирующих башнях быстро воспользовались ситуацией — президент тоже не любит рвения в гонке преемников», — говорит в беседе с «Медузой» кремлевский чиновник.

В итоге, по словам другого собеседника, близкого к администрации президента, в близком окружении Путина стало общим местом сваливать проблемы на московского мэра: «Он нагнал паники, пришлось вводить карантин, начались проблемы в экономике, поползли вверх протестные настроения. Это очень удобно: во всем виноват Собянин».

Публично претензии никак не транслировались, но мэр Москвы, по мнению его знакомого, быстро понял ситуацию и скорректировал поведение. «Он дошел до своего предела — своих полномочий, компетенций и своей аргументации. До какого-то момента тебя слушают, а потом окно возможностей закрывается. Wall. Нужно либо уходить, либо подстраиваться», — признает собеседник «Медузы».

«Сейчас проще ругать Собянина — сломал экономику; может, и правда по его инициативе все позакрывали и перегнули палку, — заключает источник, близкий к правительству. — Но, может, он действительно Москву спас!»

Авторы: Андрей Перцев , Фарида Рустамова и Анастасия Якорева

Editor: Peter Lokhov