Labbation

A new wave of exile of opposition deputies from St. Petersburg municipalities launched. A little more than a year after the election passed and it seemed that everything was tired in the city, but no. Before the elections to the Legislative Assembly and the State Duma, which will be held in September 2021 in Smolny decided not to act with a scalpel, but with an ax.

In the sense of local politics, the so -called "cultural capital" is a model of the Pirate Island of Tortuga. Political clans rule here, and the elections resemble the capture of a defenseless merchant ship, where the winner receives everything, and the loser is launched along the board with blindfolded eyes over the sea, teeming with sharks.

Until 2019, the United Russia party, belonging to the clan of the speaker of the Parliament of St. Petersburg and the leader of the city Party of Power, Vyacheslav Makarov, in St. Petersburg municipalities.

The triumph of the Pirate Flotilla Makarov is the 2014 election when municipal election commissions were detained from the elections of almost all opposition candidates. To do this, fake lines were used in the election committee consisting of young people of strong physique, which accumulated in the corridors of the municipalities before the work of the commissions, and if representatives of opposition parties came early in the morning, then they discovered rocks indoors - they got there earlier than the discovery.

Many election commissions became "phantoms" and simply disappeared. There were no registration addresses, and it was not possible to find them in another place, but they managed to register candidates, but only those who were needed. Other commissions worked five minutes a day and it turned out that the hours of their work, by pure chance, were known only to representatives of the United Russia party.

Then an early vote struck and there was no chance of even those few oppositionists who managed to break through the fire of pirate ships during the registration period. In several municipalities, they voted so triumphantly that candidates from United Russia gained more than 100% of the votes of voters who came to sections. A textbook example of the head of the Polustovo MO Andrei Zhabrev, who gained 117% of the votes.

As a result: the crushing victory of the Party of power and its accomplices. Of the 1525 seats in 111 municipalities, 1187 were taken by representatives of United Russia and another 200 received self -nominates close to this party. LDPR, fair Russia and the Communist Party received a little more than 100 mandates for three.

With this result, the party of power was calm for the upcoming elections to the Legislative Assembly, which took place in 2016. The fact is that the deputies of the St. Petersburg Parliament distribute almost 2% of the revenue part of the budget of St. Petersburg to the needs of their districts, and this is more than 5 billion rubles a year for 50 people. These funds are not distributed evenly, but part of the money goes to municipalities controlled by deputies.

With this money, new benches and playgrounds appear before the elections in the yards, grocery sets and material assistance are generously distributed to pensioners and poor. All this is done on behalf of the deputy of the Legislative Assembly, who tells voters that this is done at his expense. The municipal newspaper endlessly glorifies the deputy for budget money. In fact, the municipalities of St. Petersburg became the election headquarters and "wallets" of deputies of a higher level. Having an overwhelming advantage in municipalities and their people in election commissions of all levels of the United Russia party triumphantly won the elections to the St. Petersburg parliament in 2016 and received 36 mandates from 50. The party members took all 25 single -member districts and received a record 41% of party councils. The path to the next happy five years with unbridled budget development was opened.

In 2019, municipal elections were no longer so rosy for the authorities. A long economic crisis, the fall in the popularity of United Russia and the coming into the policy of young activists who were ready to resist the pirate election commissions, although with difficulty, but did their job.

United Russia received 957 mandates, which is 230 less than five years ago. Another 258th place was received by the so -called "midwives" - quasi -dependent candidates, who, after the victory, joined the party in power.

Dissatisfied United Russia decided to take revenge after the election. In some municipalities, where the oppositions won, pro -government candidates demanded the recalculation of the ballots. The most funny story with the Passing was at the Lake Lake Lake Lake Lake, where police officers made opposition candidates and journalists from the premises, where activists guarded the ballots from theft. The parade was commanded by the chairman of the local territorial election commission No. 9 Vyacheslav Subbotin - the son of the right hand of the speaker and the head of the apparatus of the Parliament of St. Petersburg Mikhail Subbotin.

As a result, about 25% of the mandates were taken by the opposition representatives and fraud. Fair Russia, who received 108 mandates and took control of the Haban MO Vasilyevsky Island, working under the leadership of Nelly Vavinina, performed well.

Vavilin’s authorities like a bone in the throat. Thanks to her, it became known about the wild cases of infection of the Covid-9 doctors in the hospital of war veterans, a terrible atmosphere in his branch in the LenExpo during the first wave of the pandemic and about the consumer attitude to the staff and patients of the medical institution Maxim Kabanov. Due to his complaints, Vavilin now goes to give explanations to law enforcement agencies. Vavilina is also fighting with the development of green zones on Vasilievsky. She can become a successful candidate for deputies of the Legislative Assembly and the authorities do not like it.

But basically, from two to five representatives of the opposition now work in many municipalities. They require direct broadcasts of meetings, open budget fraud and betray them. In the Pravoberezhny MO Nevsky District, the deputy of the Legislative Assembly from United Russia Igor Vysotsky tried to send opposition deputy Fedor Grudin to the army. Vysotsky brought the military commissar directly to the meetings of the municipal council, so he wanted to hand over a young, intractable opposition with higher education in the barracks, so as not to interfere.

And now, when more than a year has passed after the election on the offensive by opposition in the municipalities, the executive power of the city went. In July 2020, a new vice-governor Alexander Belsky appeared in Smolny-one of the most trusted people of Governor Alexander Beglov. At first, Belsky was engaged in youth policy, and in the fall he received a political block of government in the leadership.

Previously, Belsky worked in the resort area - the estate of Alexander Beglov. Since 2014, Belsky has been the head of the municipal council of Sestroretsk and the deputy chairman of the Council of Municipalities, the Advisory Body, which includes most city municipalities.

Belsky knows the “municipal cuisine” well and understands what danger opposition deputies can pose, who will endure the “IS from the hut” during the election period.

Perhaps that is why the mandates were deprived of opposition deputies: Anna Karulicheva in the Narvsky District MO, Vera Morozova in the Malaya Okhta MO and Svetlana Utkin in the Finland District MO. Their personnel officers of Smolny found inaccurate information in income declarations. These are zero banking accounts of spouses, which were not listed in the declaration, and somewhere the low-ended 700 rubles of income. For such violations, the law provides for warning, but Smolny demanded deprivation of mandates, and the Soviets meekly complied with the order.

The shadow hung over the Gavan MO NALILIA VAVIVINA. There, the prosecutor's office wants to check the income declaration. And it already looks definitely like political revenge.

In turn, opposition municipalities leave the council of municipalities, which did not even try to act as disgraced colleagues. MO No. 72 and MO “Citizen” came out of it, where most of the opposition is. This does not affect the position of Smolny and looks just as a declaration of solidarity with colleagues.

The story of the persecution of opposition municipal deputies showed that the current owners of Smolny are used to listening only themselves and it can be assumed that stripping municipalities from the opposition will continue. Whether this will help the United Russia party and Smolny win the elections to the State Duma and the Legislative Assembly in 2021 - this is a big question.

Sergey Kovalchenko - journalist

The "Opinion" expressed in the heading of the point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial office