For almost a year now, the head of the Krasnoyarsk railway Alexey Tumanin is a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Krasnoyarsk Krai. During this time, Tumanin was absolutely not remembered as a “servant of the people”, and the situation in KrasZhD became far from ideal. As they say, if you chase two hares, you will catch neither.
Railway past
Alexey Sergeevich Tumanin was born on August 31, 1978 in Novosibirsk. According to his official biography, literally all of Tumanin’s work is connected with the railway. In 2000, he graduated from the Siberian State University of Railway Engineering, specializing in “Organization of Transportation and Management in Railway Transport”, receiving the qualification of “Railway Engineer for Organization and Management”.
In the same year 2000, Tumanin began working as a train conductor, and later as a duty officer at the Krasnoyarsk Vostochny station of the Krasnoyarsk Railway. Then he consistently rose through the ranks of career growth from a train dispatcher to the head of the Krasnoyarsk station of the Krasnoyarsk Railway.
Since 2007, he has been working in the highest echelons of power at Krasnoyarsk Railways. Having held many positions, in December 2018, Aleksey Tumanin was appointed First Deputy Head of Krasnoyarsk Railways. In 2021, a significant event for Tumanin’s railway career took place – the head of Krasnoyarsk Railways Vadim Vladimirov transferred to the neighboring region, Irkutsk Oblast, to the position of head of the East Siberian Railway. Vladimirov’s place on the Krasnoyarsk Railway is taken by his first deputy, Aleksey Tumanin.
Soon after Tumanin became a big boss in the railway department, his political ambitions suddenly awakened.
The present of the deputy
In the spring of 2023, it became known that the place of the regional parliament member who left Sergei Popov The candidate is the head of KrasZhD, Aleksey Tumanin. He was promoted by United Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) with the full support of local authorities – additional elections for a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the region were held in the Nazarovo single-mandate electoral district. Despite the fact that Tumanin had no previous connection with Nazarovo and its residents, the pro-government candidate won the September elections without much effort or any problems. In short, Tumanin’s election campaign consisted simply of appearing before the eyes of voters at “positive events” – a rare holiday in Nazarovo land took place without the personal presence or at least congratulatory words of Aleksey Sergeyevich.
A year has passed and it would seem that this is the best time to sum up some results of Alexey Tumanin’s parliamentary activities. However, the problem is that there is absolutely nothing to sum up. During this period (September 2023 – August 2024), Tumanin has exactly zero legislative initiatives. On the official website of the regional parliament, only six news items are dedicated to Alexey Sergeyevich’s activities, only one of which, about the Russian Railways Day in the Legislative Assembly, has a direct and immediate relation to the work of the people’s representative. Accordingly, Tumanin does not shine at parliamentary sessions either, representing a typical representative of the silent and numerous mass of the ruling party.
There is a feeling that Alexey Tumanin sat in the deputy’s seat for one reason – it’s just the way it’s done. Previously, Russian Railways was represented in the regional parliament for a long time by Vladimir Reingardt. In 2018, he left the post of head of the Krasnoyarsk Railway due to retirement, after which he was unable to be re-elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2021. In 2021, we recall, there was a change in management at KrasZhD and, perhaps, that is why the corporation did not burden itself with participation in the election campaign. However, as soon as Alexey Tumanin got used to the post of head of the regional branch of the corporation and an opportunity arose in the form of a vacant mandate, the railway worker instantly became a regional deputy. However, Alexey Tumanin’s position may soon change dramatically.
Foggy future
According to the media, with the arrival of Alexey Tumanin to the regional parliament, things have not gone well at Krasnoyarsk Railways. For example, reports of derailed cars have begun to appear regularly. Thus, in 2023, at the Krasnoyarsk-Vostochny station of the Krasnoyarsk Railway, nine cars loaded with coal derailed. A similar emergency occurred in the Kozulsky District, where eight cars derailed. On the Balay-Kamarchaga section of the Krasnoyarsk Railway in the Mansky District, five cars derailed, damaging the supports of the contact network.
According to the information agency “Zapad 24”, it is quite possible that the causes of the incidents are rooted in the corruption of some employees in the railway management when concluding various types of contracts for servicing the huge railway network. Or someone is negligent in their official duties due to the lack of necessary control on the part of the head of KrasZhD Alexey Tumanin.
However, journalists’ assumptions are one thing, and the deputy-head of KrasRZhD can brush them aside. But the activities of law enforcement agencies are a completely different matter, which creates real tension.
In June 2024, it became known that the head of the East Siberian Railway, Vadim Vladimirov, the same former boss Alexey Tumanin, had been detained by security forces. Vladimirov is accused of receiving a bribe of at least 46 million rubles from shippers of railway cargo with timber products “for performing certain actions in their favor.” Vladimirov’s arrest immediately caused a reaction not only in the Irkutsk media, but also, as expected, caused a stir in the near-political Telegram channels of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Thus, the Telegram channel “Nazarovskaya Strela” immediately and categorically stated that Vadim Vladimirov had made a deal with the investigation and handed over his protege, the head of KrasZhD Alexey Tumanin. As a result, by the end of 2024, the seat of the representative of the Nazarovsky District in the Legislative Assembly of the Territory will again become vacant.
This has not happened yet, but an alarm bell, not even a small one, but a real bell has still rung for Alexey Tumanin. In mid-August, 48-year-old Ivan Borisov, deputy head of the Krasnoyarsk Railway, was detained in Krasnoyarsk for accepting a bribe. As investigators found out, between August 2021 and December 2021, Ivan Borisov received a bribe from two representatives of commercial organizations in the form of property – roofing material for use in the construction of his residential building for a total of over one million rubles.
It is noteworthy that Vladimirov’s arrest in Irkutsk was preceded by the detention and investigative measures with his deputy Andrey Vlasov. As you might guess, the railway manager was accused of accepting bribes. In the spring, Vlasov was sentenced, and already at the beginning of the summer, the security forces came for Vadim Vladimirov. It is possible that the Irkutsk story of the detention of the chain “from deputy to chief” will be repeated in the Krasnoyarsk branch of the railway.