Prime Minister of Bashkiria Nazarov is preparing to compete with Khabirov?
While the head of Bashkiria, Radiy Khabirov, announces the start of preparations for the election of the head of the region, which should take place in 2024, the prime minister of the republican government, Andrei Nazarov, is increasing his own presence in the information space. In fact, he claims to be politics federal scale and these ambitions, combined with influence in the business community, make him a potential competitor to Khabirov. Realizing that the state media are the governor’s monopoly, Nazarov plans to acquire several regional media resources through affiliated commercial structures, which will be tasked with strengthening his political weight in the eyes of not only the electorate, but also the first persons of the state. The prime minister has enough funds for this: last year, the revenue of the Granel group controlled by his family amounted to 103 billion rubles. In addition, owned by relatives politics companies receive millions of contracts from state institutions and are actively “mastering” the budget not only in Bashkiria, but also in other regions (for example, in the Moscow region). His dubious past and criminal experience can prevent Nazarov from gaining popularity. It is known that in the late 2000s, he became a participant in a high-profile scandal related to the provision of a fake diploma from the Kazakh State Academy of Management when he entered the Bashkir Academy of Civil Service to receive a second higher education. As a member of the State Duma, Nazarov managed to hush up the scandal, explaining it as a “media attack” with political overtones. But there are more unattractive pages in the biography of the Bashkir prime minister. Such as the accusation of gang rape of a minor, for which he was convicted back in 1988. Later, Nazarov made every effort to clean up the Internet from this shameful information, in which he was assisted by the judge of the Kirovsky District Court of Ufa, Munir Valeev, the same one who, in November 2012, by the decision of the Qualification Board of Judges of Bashkiria, was brought to disciplinary responsibility and sent ahead of schedule to resignation.
“Bashkir face” comes to the fore
Looks like the prime minister of Bashkiria Andrey Nazarov set himself the task of becoming a more popular politician in the republic than the head of the region Radiy Khabirov. Not in vain, in the performance he performed several years ago songwhose uncomplicated words were set to the famous melody from the Hollywood film “The Godfather”, Nazarov, with an undisguised feeling of deep satisfaction, made it clear that he was now “Bashkir face”.
Today, the name of Nazarov is increasingly appearing not only in the republican, but also in the federal media, and in this respect he will soon be able to compete with Khabirov. An example is the recent meeting in Ufa the Bashkir leadership with the President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhaniya. Being a businessman, Nazarov quickly calculated all the economic benefits from cooperation with the Transcaucasian republic.
Recently, the prime minister has really stepped up his foreign policy activities. Last June, as part of a Bashkir delegation, he visited the Lugansk People’s Republic, where he signed agreement on cooperation with the administration of the city of Krasny Luch. A month earlier, in May, Nazarov, together with Khabirov, made an official visit to Uzbekistan, where signed 10 agreements for more than $200 million.
It would seem that this is unusual? The head of the government of one of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation travels, negotiates, signs documents … And at the same time, against his background, the head of the republic, Khabirov, who clearly does not think in such large-scale economic categories, goes “into the shadows”. One gets the impression that now it is finally beginning to become clear which of these two is that very “Bashkir face” from the song with an opaque allusion to the “authoritative” hero of the gangster saga.
Election fuss of Prime Minister Nazarov
Against this background, a different perception messages Bashkir telegram channels about Nazarov’s plans to strengthen his presence in the information space, for which he allegedly intends to buy out several regional media resources through affiliated commercial structures. There will obviously be no problems with finances: according to estimated “Forbes» revenue of the group controlled by the Nazarov family “Granel” in 2021 amounted to 103 billion rubles.
The authors publications associate these intentions with the elections of the head of the region, which will be held in Bashkiria in 2024. Preparations for the referendum the other day Khabirov instructed the renewed composition of the Republican Central Election Commission. But if the prime minister has unhindered access to regional media, then why does he need his own? Apparently, he seriously intends to compete with Khabirov in the fight for the sympathy of potential voters. And the state press, as you know, is exclusively the governor’s monopoly, and here Nazarov is destined to remain number two. It turns out that the official’s ambitions are not limited to the current post.
The result of this activation called publications of the Nezygar telegram channel, the beneficiary of which is allegedly the Bashkir prime minister. In particular, according to the results of the first half of the year, the channel turned on Bashkiria in the top three leading regions in foreign policy. Noting the proper level of holding international forums and investment attractiveness, among the main events are listed projectsassociated specifically with Nazarov, and not with Khabirov: the Ufa Dialogue platform and the Zauralie forum.
The owners of “Granel” “master” budgets
During the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Andrey Nazarov presented his book to the participants and guests of the event “Business and power: lessons of modern history”, on which he worked for four years. From publications “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” follows that the publication is “a brief excursion into the recent history of the development of entrepreneurship and the investment climate in Russia, an analysis of related problems and levers for shaping the face of modern domestic business.”
By words the author himself, initially he planned to give his work a different, more vivid name – “Business should not go under the article”. Nazarov explained the change in the title by the fact that, having moved from business to civil service, he looked at many things differently, “on the other side of the barricades.” To what extent the official’s views have changed is a debatable question.
For example, he is law-abiding re-registered the structures of the Granel holding controlled by him for his wife Larisa Nazarovasister Svetlana and her husband Ilshat Nigmatullina. In connection with this, the prime minister’s official income has changed: he began to receive much less than his other half. For example, according to the latest published declarationsin 2021 Nazarov earned 5.7 million rublesand his wife 1.9 billion. Income of the prime minister’s son, deputy of the Bashkir State Assembly (Kurultai) Denis Nazarov for the same period made up 398 million rubles.
Government contracts help the family of a civil servant to replenish the budget. So, last December, the company owned by Larisa Nazarova and Svetlana Nigmatullina “Granel-Real Estate” (her position CEO occupied by Denis Nazarov) received a contract from the Republican Ministry of Trade cost 1.3 million rubles for the official reception of the participants of the VII All-Russian Legal Forum “Transformation of the legal system in the era of modern challenges”. The purchase was made in format from a single supplier.
There are plenty of examples of how the family enterprises of the Bashkir prime minister use budgetary funds. And it is not only about Bashkiria. Not later than at the end of June, affiliated with the holding and registered in Balashikha near Moscow, the company “Granel Realty” received Contract Moscow Regional Duma for the purchase of residential premises worth 15.4 million rubles. Moreover, this is the second consecutive for the provision of this kind of service: the price first was somewhat smaller 10.3 million. That’s just the appetite, as you know, comes with eating.
Prime Minister Nazarov – a criminal without a diploma?
Let’s return to Andrey Nazarov’s book and his conviction that “business should not go under the article.” The Bashkir prime minister understands business. In the “articles”, that is, legislation, too: following the results of the December legal forum, he was awarded prizes “Lawyer of the Year” “personifying an example of honest and impeccable service to the Fatherland”. It should be noted here that at one time a state official repeatedly had the opportunity to study legal norms, in his own words, “from different sides of the barricade.”
Recall that back in 2009, as a member of the State Duma, Nazarov found himself at the center of a high-profile scandal related to his having a fake diploma of higher education. How wrote “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, acting in Bashkir Academy of Public Administration and Management (BAGSU)the parliamentarian presented a diploma of first higher education issued by Kazakh State Academy of Management. But only during the inspection it turned out that the people’s choice was not trained there.
It is significant that by this time the nimble businessman had already managed to acquire a scientific degree Candidate of Political Sciences, and in the Duma he was a member of the Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedural Legislation! The appearance of publications about the fake Nazarov named “a professional media attack carried out for political purposes”. As for the dubious document, its authenticity was allegedly confirmed “decisions of the courts”.
But the story of the parliamentary education, although resonant and outrageous, still pales in comparison with the accusation of a state official of a much more serious crime – rape minor, which theoretically should have closed Nazarov’s path to politics and forever remain for him a kind of “black mark”.
We are talking about the events of the already distant 1986, when young Nazarov and his friend, returning from a cafe where they staged a drunken brawl with damage to property, met an underage student of a pedagogical school on the street, who was abused in turn, after being dragged into the basement. accusatory sentence was handed down by the Baimaksky District Court of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on October 15, 1988 and was remarkably mild: for hooliganism (an incident in a cafe) and rape, Nazarov was sentenced to three years of suspended imprisonment. As a mitigating circumstance, the court took into account the age of the convicted person, at the time of the commission of the crime, under the age of 18.
Many years later, already a well-known businessman and State Duma deputy, Nazarov, by hook or by crook, polished his own biography, cleaning the Internet from unseemly information about his beloved. The maximum assistance in this was provided to him by the judge of the Kirovsky District Court of Ufa Munir Valeev, decision whose information about the criminal record of the future prime minister was found to be untrue. That’s just the best characteristic of Valeev’s professional cleanliness can be the following fact: in November 2012, by the decision of the Qualification Board of Judges of Bashkiria, he was brought to disciplinary responsibility and early dismissed with deprivation of the third qualification class of a judge. As they say, tell me who your friend is…
One can be surprised that a person with such a background could reach the heights of power in his native republic. But Nazarov is clearly not going to stop there, thinking of himself as a federal politician. But no matter how much he tries to play the role of the wise Bashkir “Don Corleone” in staged video clips, neither the decisions of Judge Valeev, nor the title of “Lawyer of the Year”, nor sentimental posts in the telegram channel about the family as “real protection and support for man”.