Gliskov “did not rule out his nomination” in the elections this year – if supported by the party. He is a noisy man (the local resource “Babr” writes: “… Gliskov has a clear approach – to make the maximum noise”). But will the chains of past years not pull him to the bottom?
From the biographies of Gliskov published on the Internet, it can be concluded that the lawyer made a name for himself by participating in cases to protect the local press. In fact, Gliskov made a name for himself by participating in high-profile scandals in which the Krasnoyarsk media appeared. In 1995, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of KSU, and at 23 he did not have, and could not have, neither lawyer’s experience nor rich practice. The participation of such a green lawyer in the process did not at all guarantee high-profile victories, rather the opposite. But Gliskov quickly figured out what to do in order to quickly work up professional fat.
Idyll with American funds
In the same 1995, he went to work for the Moscow Glasnost Defense Foundation* (the organization was recognized as a foreign agent) as a regional lawyer. The GDF in those years was engaged in bush cultivation of centers for the protection of media rights, while simultaneously monitoring violations of the rights of journalists. The infamous human rights activist Oleg Panfilov oversaw these areas. He appreciated the efforts of Gliskov and locked him in two fund projects at once – the development of regional legal centers and monitoring missions. The first was funded by the Ford Foundation, the second by the
MacArthur. In order not to fall out of the funding system, it was necessary to be constantly in sight and, importantly, to have personal contact with grant givers and with representatives of the US and British embassies in Moscow. This is exactly what the most famous GDF nominee Galina Arapova*** (recognized as a foreign agent) did in developing her Voronezh Media Rights Protection Center**.
In 2011, Gliskov gave an interview to Work for You, where he mentioned his work for the GDF. “It so happened that until about 2001 I worked at the Glasnost Defense Foundation. And my work was aimed at protecting the rights of journalists. Then the fund ceased to exist, and I retrained from a defender of the word to a classical lawyer. Well, the reputation remains. To put it mildly, Gliskov is cunning, the fund still exists, continuing, although without the same pomp, to defend the rights of journalists in courts and monitor the situation of the media in the regions. And I had to leave the GDF because the patron Panfilov left the fund. He left with a scandal, “taking” with him both programs implemented with the financial support of American funds. Panfilov was sheltered by the Union of Journalists, he stayed to work in the same building, only one floor below, and created the Center for Extreme Journalism under the Union of Journalists. And then Panfilov left for Tbilisi and worked on the wings of such characters as Mikhail Khodorkovsky **** (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) and Garry Kasparov ***** (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation). The prudent Gliskov, apparently, did not go along with Panfilov, and he was of little interest to the fund, because he built all his “protection of the media” on inflating scandals. And the fund was just engaged in extinguishing such scandals.
“Ate Schemers”
And then Gliskov joined the party and tried to realize himself in local politics. He found the party that seemed to be ideal for himself – the Liberal Democratic Party. But not immediately, before that he worked with Boris Berezovsky in Liberal Russia – he served as head of the regional branch. But, apparently, Gliskov was hampered by the duality of the situation – he clearly felt himself both a liberal and a democrat, but not in the understanding that prevailed among the Liberal Democratic Party. In 2008, Gliskov was elected a deputy of the Krasnoyarsk City Council of Deputies, and he proved himself there so much that he quickly headed the LDPR faction. But some three years later, Gliskov was expelled from the party with the wording “for actions discrediting the reputation of members of the Liberal Democratic Party and causing material and moral harm to the party.” “Like in any party, there are a lot of intriguers in the LDPR,” Gliskov commented on his dismissal. “It can be said that schemers ate me.”
In fact, there was a struggle for influence with the head of the regional branch of the party, Artyom Chernykh. And Gliskov, meeting with Vladimir Zhirinovsky, it turns out, “surrendered” his competitor (both politicians tried to “build relations” with the management of the local ferroalloy plant). There was a short fight for the area, Cherny won. And Gliskov “found himself” in the list of the “Civil Platform” by Mikhail Prokhorov, to which he, as they say, fully corresponded in spirit. Gliskov chose to forget about the scandal in the Liberal Democratic Party, and explained to reporters that he had allegedly moved from Zhirinovsky to Prokhorov “under an agreement on financial and organizational support.”
Soon Gliskov became vice-speaker of the Krasnoyarsk City Council. This was followed by a series of high-profile and not very scandals, the echoes of which can easily be found on the Internet. And in 2016, Gliskov became a member of the regional parliament and headed … the LDPR faction! From Berezovsky’s Liberal Russia to the LDPR, and from there to Prokhorov’s Civic Platform. And again – in the Liberal Democratic Party. It’s time to reflect on the surprising flexibility of Gliskov’s political preferences, although in general the course of action is clear. There are people for whom party ideology is an empty phrase. Only the trampoline matters. Of course, Gliskov, as in the story with Chernykh, is to push a competitor out of the nest – this time it was the Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory Alexei Kulesh. But this time the roads with the Liberal Democratic Party parted near Kulesh. Why Gliskov won, the regional information portal Babr explained: “Kulesh’s colleague in the parliamentary faction Gliskov is the party curator of the Liberal Democratic Party in the upcoming September elections, that is, he is the ideological inspirer of the tactics of mass legal murder of competitors through appeals to local courts.” Nothing can be done, Gliskov turned out to be more needed by the party.
Behind the screen of the local press
You will probably ask how a person who seemed to have neither big money nor influential patrons managed to find himself in power structures, and even in high positions, every now and then? But the fact is that, being the director of the legal program of the Krasnoyarsk regional public fund “Protection of Glasnost” and specializing in protecting the rights of the media, Gliskov, the managing partner of the Gliskov and Partners law firm, became a co-owner of a number of legal entities. LLC “Journalistic team of the editorial office of the newspaper Krasnoyarsky Rabochiy”, LLC “Krasnoyarsky Komsomolets”, LLC “Social and political newspaper “Krasnoyarsky Komsomolets”, LLC “Publishing House “Vecherniy Krasnoyarsk”. At the moment, all these legal entities have already been liquidated. And the bottom line, as we can see, is that Gliskov, clearly manipulating the weight of the “protection of glasnost” (having nothing to do with the GDF at that time), was stuffing himself into co-owners of publications that were influential at that time, promising all sorts of patronage. And, using the socio-political weight of these media, he was nominated in the elections. And he won without much difficulty. Man has masterfully learned to create a sense of significance around him. And he advanced so far on this path that today they talk about him as a possible replacement for Governor Alexander Uss!
At the same time, Gliskov seems to continue to be a political weather vane. Here is what the Federal Press resource wrote about him not so long ago: “If the head of the faction from the Liberal Democratic Party (Gliskov. – Ed.) still takes place, the most likely option is Gliskov’s entry into the Greens party, a little less often in the same context called “New People”. Both of these organizations today have their own small factions in the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Truly, no matter who you sail on, just to stay afloat!
How did a person who seemed to have neither big money nor influential patrons managed to find himself in power structures? Gliskov masterfully learned to create around himself the appearance of significance. And he advanced so far on this path that today they talk about him as a possible replacement for Governor Alexander Uss!
