Why Astrakhan Governor Igor Babushkin is lobbying for the candidacy of Oleg Polumordvinov, who has been brought to trial, and covering up for regional Deputy Prime Minister Denis Afanasyev.
A strange impression is made by the personnel policy in the Astrakhan region. Oleg Polumordvinov, who has a criminal record for abuse of power, became the mayor of the Astrakhan region’s capital there. It is noteworthy that despite the guilty verdict handed down only two years ago, Polumordvinov not only was not excommunicated from the civil service, but also continued to move up the career ladder.
All this suggests that this official has some unique abilities and is therefore irreplaceable, or he has some kind of secret influence on Governor Babushkin, forcing him to interact with a person with a dubious past.
Correspondent MorningNews understood this situation.
Who “framed” the official Polumordvinov?
The trial of Polumordvinov at the turn of 2019 and 2020 was also strange. Criminal case was initiated far from the first time, which gives grounds for assessing the level of influence of the defendant in the region (and maybe not only in it).
The history of the case is quite straightforward: in 2012, Polumordvinov, being the Deputy Prime Minister of the regional government and the Minister of Construction and Roads, allocated 672.9 thousand rubles from the regional budget for the purchase of housing for the then Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the region Denis Afanasyev, which he did not need.
Oleg Polumordvinov (pictured left) insisted that he was misled and did not at all seek to render a friendly service to Afanasyev
The court found him guilty and sentenced him to a fine and 300 thousand rubles, and the convicted official did not appeal the verdict, probably fearing that it could be changed in an undesirable direction for him.
It is noteworthy that this story did not affect the career of Denis Afanasyev, who is now nothing less than the Deputy Prime Minister of the Astrakhan government. Apparently, it is beneficial for Igor Babushkin to have subordinates “at his side” not only with a criminal record, but those on whom there is compromising evidence “a car and a small cart”.
And it’s true, already in April 2021, Polumordvinov returned to the bureaucracy and became the Minister of Construction and Housing, and a year later he moved to the chair of the mayor of Astrakhan.
In his official biography no mention of a criminal record, of course, no.
Lots of noise and nothing
To understand what is the value or even uniqueness of Polumordvinov, if the regional authorities cannot do without him and are constantly called to the civil service, it is enough to study what the Astrakhan media and bloggers write about him (excluding official resources, of course).
It is obvious that Polumordvinov is not an outstanding manager. in 2016 mass media wrote about how a commission from the federal Ministry of Construction came to the Astrakhan region to sort out the problems of garbage and waste removal from the capital, the head of which at that time was just Oleg Polumordvinov.
The prosecutor’s office of the Astrakhan region, which during the audit found that the relevant municipal services and commercial companies responsible for garbage collection, in fact, do not fulfill their duties. At the same time, the site of public initiatives was gaining momentum public petition for the resignation of the “garbage city manager”, as Astrakhan residents dubbed Polumordvinov.
Photo: gazeta-astrakhanskaia-pravda.ru
Protests against Polumordvinov have become almost habitual for the townspeople
In addition to this story, Polumordvinova reproached in lobbying the interests of developers, uncleanliness in public procurement. In particular, there was a lot of noise about the lot for the repair and maintenance of city fountains in the amount of 19 million rubles and their protection in the amount of 0.9 million rubles, as well as the story of the procurement and non-transparent wages of the head of MUP Astrakhanvodokanal, who was called a man Polumordvinova.
Obviously, all the criticism of the regional level for Polumordvinov was like peas against the wall. And the federal commission from the Ministry of Construction, most likely, would not have come if the popular blogger Ilya Varlamov had not burst out with a publication called “Dump City Astrakhan”to which it was impossible not to react.
And still, even with such a “background”, Polumordvinov worked as an Astrakhan city manager for about two more years, collecting a whole collection of scandals into his reputational “piggy bank”.
The one who is “helmsman”
Bloggersasked a non-trivial question: “So who is he, Oleg Polumordvinov, a naive victim of servility or a criminal authority?”
Probably, the reason for such a question was certain actions of Polumordvinov, which made it possible to suspect him of a sort of Astrakhan “fixer”. In support of this version, we can recall another scandal dated 2018. First, the deputies of the Astrakhan City Duma not accepted the city manager’s 2017 performance report, deeming it “inconclusive”.
A month later, passions ran high to such an extent that the Astrakhan deputies, led by their chairman Alena Gubanova, already openly rebelled against the city authorities and decided to vote for the removal of powers from the deputy chairman of the city duma, Igor Sedov, who was also called “Polumordvinov’s man.”
Sedov was reproached that, as a deputy, he does not represent the interests of voters at all, but openly lobbies the interests of the city administration, including the closure of the municipal trolleybus depot, which is categorically opposed objected townspeople.
Photo: ast.mk.ru
Wayward Alla Gubanova did not stay long as the chairman of the Astrakhan City Duma
There are open access protocol this meeting, during which Oleg Polumordvinov, who personally appeared at the event, very rudely interrupted Gubanov, insisting that Sedov should remain in his place.
As a result, two years later, in 2020, Igor Sedov himself became the chairman of the Astrakhan City Duma, which can be read in his official biography. Of course, now the Astrakhan authorities are in complete harmony.
Apparently, this state of affairs also suits Governor Igor Babushkin. The head of the region is quite satisfied with the “peace and quiet” in Astrakhan, about which Oleg Polumordvinov regularly informs him. And the Astrakhan authorities, apparently, have long treated the protests of the townspeople as the vagaries of the weather.
Now the main thing is that some curious blogger from Moscow should not be brought to Astrakhan again. And the new mayor of Astrakhan will certainly “resolve” and “destroy” all other issues.
