The last person from the 90s

Andrei Pertsev talks about the longest governor's career - for Evgeny Savchenko, who managed the Belgorod region, she finally ended

The head of the Belgorod region, Yevgeny Savchenko, who ruled the region for 27 years and was the last governor of the Yeltsin era, on September 17, unexpectedly announced that he was accepting the mandate of a deputy of the regional parliament and would become a senator. He did this before the appearance of the official decree of President Vladimir Putin on the dismissal of the head of the region: the last regional heavyweight, which managed to win the governor’s elections with Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the 1990s and not to let Yuri Luzhkov as the mayor of Moscow, said his decisive word. The Special Corps of Medusa Andrei Pertsev tells his story.

Yeltsin Governor in the Red Region

“A dashing means, bold, unpredictable, impudent. It seems to me that this concept is literally not translated into a foreign language. Like the will. Will the stranger understand? And the Russian is immediately clear, nothing needs to be explained. For me, in the word “dashing” more positive than negative, ”Yevgeny Savchenko said about the“ dashing 90s ”.

After the resignation of the Governor of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev in 2018, Savchenko remained the last acting Russian governor from that time. President Boris Yeltsin appointed him the head of the Belgorod region back in 1993. Savchenko was born there, his father worked as the secretary of the party committee of the large state farm, so Eugene quickly made his career on the party line and, already at the age of 35, led the city committee of the large in regional scale of the industrial city of Shebekino. And a few years later - received the post of deputy head of the regional executive committee. Perhaps Savchenko would have managed to head the region back in Soviet times, but in 1988 he had to leave for Moscow.

“For the fact that he began to build a house, they slapped me a strict, announced a strict reprimand on the party line. More precisely, even I built, and my father took 20 thousand rubles in the bank. Then all front -line soldiers were given loans for construction at a small percentage. My father was allocated, and I began to build, helped. It seemed immodest to someone, ”Yevgeny Savchenko himself described the situation that prompted him to move so. At the same time, the book of political scientist Vitaly Ivanov “Head of the subject of the Russian Federation” mentioned that the dismissal of Savchenko from the post of head of the regional party committee could be associated with abuses in the distribution of Volga status cars.

The Belgorod functionary found a new job in the Ministry of Agriculture, where he continued to work in the collapse of the USSR. The Kremlin noticed a relatively young official - and in 1993 they offered to return to the head of the native region, to the post of head of the administration (at the time the governor Savchenko was appointed 43).

“They searched among the Belgorodians who worked in Moscow. I was the deputy head of the headquarters, apparently I got into the personnel file cabinet. And now ... [C Yeltsin] We did not even meet then. Only with the head of the administration [president] Sergei Filatov spoke and - forward. I went to fulfill duties. With great pleasure! The point is not in position, not in status, I was attracted by the area, my native places, ”Savchenko describes this way.

Then he was quite consistent with the type of new democratic governors: he was critical of the Soviet past (Savchenko will retain these views - in 2013, a monument to Lenin from the central square of Belgorod will be transferred to a less prestigious place).

But already in 1994, the Belgorod governor chose a special development path for the economy of the agrarian region: the regional administration began to take large land plots into property and encourage the creation of agricultural holdings (and their owners were often affiliated with the administration). He himself claimed that he “spied” the system of creating agricultural holdings in Belarus. “What we saw in Belarus, we liked. Then we still studied the experience of Canada, the USA - took all the best, ”he explained.

"Real Zhirinovsky" against Savchenko

In 1995, Savchenko won the first governor's elections for himself. The Belgorod region enters the chernozem region, which was then considered a “red belt”, but the current chapter received 55% in the first round of voting and defeated the nominee from the Communist Party. Perhaps the reason for the victory was the actions of the Belgorod authorities to create agricultural holdings, then perceived by local residents as a return to Soviet roots - large collective farms and state farms. The rest of the “red” Black Earth region Belgorodchina looked like an island of calm, where you can find a job (albeit with a non -highest salary), a place where roads are being repaired and housing are built. The author of the material, who in the 1990s lived in the Kursk region, himself heard from local residents in the 1990s.

In 1999, Savchenko went to the second elections. They could have passed routinely, but the leader of the LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the region, nominated as a candidate for governors. Savchenko himself publicly stated that the shocking party came to the region because the presidential administration promised him the governor's post for refusing to support the impeachment of Boris Yeltsin in the State Duma.

However, a source in the LDPR, who participated in that campaign (asked Medusa about anonymity), rejects this version. “Zhirinovsky was then preparing for the elections to the State Duma, he needed money to campaigning the party. He asked for a serious amount in support of the LDPR from Savchenko: “I will move to the governor otherwise.” Savchenko either did not give the principle, or he did not have so much, but he refused Zhirinovsky. The party leader to keep his face had to be advanced, ”he recalls.

According to the interlocutor, Yevgeny Savchenko was then not a “superhubernator”, he was simply considered a strong business executive, so the federal politician could really win the elections. “Although at that time Belgorod was different from other Russian cities, even from Moscow. In the ordinary regional center, devastation and despondency were greeted, in Belgorod everything was clean and licked, ”says the source of Medusa.

And Zhirinovsky’s victory was interfered with his shocking image - a policy that promises each woman a man, and every man - on a bottle of vodka, or calls to wash his boots in the Indian Ocean. “We then came up with the concept of“ real Zhirinovsky ”: the leader of the LDPR - in fact, an experienced and wise statesman. The whole shocking is a skillful installation of journalists who are only fried facts and loud words and betray. Zhirinovsky himself really liked this: “I am like that!” However, a good idea has not lived for a long time ... ” - the interlocutor who worked at Zhirinovsky’s headquarters shrugs his hands.

Savchenko techno quickly realized that this concept can be destroyed using pain points in the character of Zhirinovsky. “You come to the village-next to the meeting place there is a huge K-700 tractor with a working engine, this prevents us from talking. The charged grandmothers from the headquarters of Savchenko come to the meeting, they ask uncomfortable questions, and Zhirinovsky flashes like brushwood: “Shut up, I say here!” “The source of Medusa recalls these techniques.

After one of these meetings, the flashing Zhirinovsky at the exit from the village noticed a herd of geese, stopped the motorcade, asked the guard from the guard and began to fade around the birds - but, according to the recollections of the staff, he did not hit anyone.

“There was such a case. Before leaving for one of the districts, a “loaf” with agitation [for Zhirinovsky] went there, she was cut by her brother on red “Audi”. Soon, the motorcade of Zhirinovsky passed by this place. He went out, went to his brother, and he was already ***** [very surprised]: Wow, Zhirinovsky came to disassemble. The LDPR leader demanded his right and tore them: they say, you bought them. Zhirinovsky’s guard pushed Audi in a ditch, and he put his brother on his knees. I learned about this and took it negatively, ”says a source in the LDPR and sighs.

Girinovsky did not add popularity to the campaign machines from the regional branches of the party, collected from all over Russia, on which it was written “on Belgorod!”: Residents of the Patriarchal region perceived Zhirinovsky’s coming as an occupation. As a result, the LDPR leader received only third place in the election - the second was taken by the communist Mikhail Beskhmelnitsyn. Savchenko scored 53.4%. The interlocutor close to the administration of the Belgorod governor admits that the results could be corrected in favor of Yevgeny Savchenko to avoid the second round - but "not that strong."

Orthodox region without Valentine

Six years after this campaign, in 2005 (Savchenko during this time managed to re -elect the governor again), a new conflict of the Belgorod governor with a federal level person occurred. Savchenko opposed the company "Intaco-Agro" by the wife of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkova Elena Baturina.

Initially, Inteko came to the region with the support of local authorities, bought the land from the administration of the region and began to buy them from the inhabitants of the hinterland. At some point, the governor felt a threat: Intaco paid well for employees, competing for shots with local holdings, the company took control of the local branch of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The formal cause of the discord was the land in the Yakovlevsky mine, which belonged to the Metal-Group company Vitaly Chernomyrdin (son of the former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Chernomyrdin)-the company built a railway branch on them. The regional authorities claimed that Inteko transferred these lands to the ownership of the region, and he, in turn, transferred it to the “metal groups”. In Intaco, they considered the deal to be failed. Intaco lawyer Dmitry Steinberg was killed in Moscow, and in Belgorod there was an attempt on the executive director of Inteko-Agro Alexander Annenkov. The peak of the conflict came to the election to the Legislative Assembly of the Belgorod Region. Then Elena Baturina turned directly to President Vladimir Putin.

“Governor Yevgeny Savchenko, as well as his relative, the mayor of the city of Belgorod, Vasily Ogrozaev, using an administrative resource, repeatedly robbed the company and acted with threats to the leaders of Intaco-Agro, in particular, Alexander Annenkova,” wrote Baturina in appeal to the president. - Despite appeals to law enforcement agencies, not a single criminal case was instituted on these facts. The times of the Inquisition returned to a separate Russian region - newspapers are burned at stake, publishers of newspapers and agricultural producers chopped with axes. Again, blood, again intimidation ... Belgorod in front of the whole country turns into the criminal capital of Russia, where freedom of speech and freedom of entrepreneurship is strangled by criminal methods. ”

Evgeny Savchenko replied : “Today, all fecal pumps are included on me, on me, all fecal pumps are included in order to denigrate our conquests in order to discredit me in order to show in the eyes of the public that Belgorod is actually completely different that Belgorod is a space in which social issues are very poorly solved, a space in which it is very difficult to live. It’s time to think about changing the power in Belgorodchin. ”

The Belgorod governor came out of this conflict by the winner: “Inteko” left the region. Evgeny Savchenko did not have more conflicts of this scale.

Inside the region, the governor gradually built a fully controlled political system, not allowing a strong opposition to grow: the United Russia was always recruited in the elections to the Legislative Assembly in the region of 60–65% (they reached this result in the last elections on September 13, 2020). Evgeny Savchenko always headed the lists of the party in power.

The governor tried to prevent a possible competitor to take shape from among his subordinates - such promising officials were always sent to an honorary link. For example, the former deputy Savchenko Oleg Polukhin moved to the post of rector of the University of Belgorod, the ambitious political vice-governor Valery Sergachev was also resigned. Serious positions in the administration of the region and the municipalities of the region are held by relatives of officials from the closest encirclement of Savchenko. The closed system has also developed in the regional business: large agricultural holdings are guided by people close to the governor.

Under Savchenko, the influence of the Orthodox Church was seriously intensified in the region: temples began to appear not only in urban areas, villages and villages, but even at enterprises. The region began to call the region pathos (and someone with irony). In 2006, the region became a pioneer on the introduction of Orthodox culture lessons in schools, a law on “spiritual security” is in force in the region, and Halloween Day is prohibited in schools. In addition, women who want to have an abortion urgently offer to talk with the priest and psychologist before that. Even before it became fashionable throughout the country, ROC and rap concerts began to prohibit in the region. However, Savchenko could always afford much more liberties than any other Russian governor, and used it.

“Present me at least one governor who took place in the [federal] power. Here Borya Nemtsov is a talented person ... A person thinks in an original way. True, got into the political struggle, rested. And if his energy was directed in the right direction, so much benefit could bring the country ... ”-the governor reasoned in an interview with the conservative newspaper Culture in 2014. Nemtsov at that moment was in a tough opposition to the Kremlin - and already next, 2015 was killed.

By the end of the fifth period of Savchenko, in 2017, the residents of the region were tired of him significantly. He won the governor’s elections, but in the second largest city in the region - Old Oskole - lost, receiving 36% of the vote and losing to the communist Stanislav Panov. Political strategist Peter Bystrov, who worked in the region on several elected campaigns, assures Meduzu that since then Evgeny Savchenko’s rating has grown again. However, in any case, the sixth period was the last for him: according to the law of 2015, the head of the region, who won after the return of the governor’s elections in 2012, two election campaigns in a row have no right to run.

And yet, until the end of the last period - Savchenko’s powers expired in 2022 - he did not give the Kremlin the Kremlin to finalize the governor. At the same time, the Medusa source close to the presidential administration did not call the resignation of the unexpected: “His departure had already begun to be discussed in 2019, then it was planned to appoint a person from law enforcement agencies in his place, but the governor was given elections [in the Legislative Assembly on September 13]”.

The Belgorod governor thought about the successor. They, according to a source close to the regional leadership, could become the mayor of Old Oskol Alexander Sergienko. According to the interlocutor of Medusa, close to the presidential administration, Savchenko was afraid that Moscow wanted to see the head of the Federal Tax Service of the Federal Tax Service in St. Petersburg Alexander Gnedykh-his candidacy was supported by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin (Gnedykh worked as mayor of Old Oskol until 2017 and conflict with Savchenko).

Despite this, most likely, the acting head of the region will be the former head of the Russian ecological operator Denis Butsaev, who suddenly became the first deputy governor of the region on the day of the resignation of Savchenko. Thus, the last heavyweight from the governors will be replaced by a technocrat without political experience.

Andrey Pertsev