As a result of the “personnel leapfrog,” the region is losing professionals
Governor of the Chelyabinsk region Alexey Teksler is preparing another speech with a report on his work and the results of the regional government, which he will present to deputies and the local elite. An ordinary event in the Southern Urals is usually called a “message” and is held not within the walls of the Legislative Assembly, but at larger venues, gathering “proven crowd” and spending millions from the budget. This time, the venue for the “message” was the Taganay Congress Hall, which was being prepared for the SCO and BRICS summits that never took place. Taking into account the upcoming elections, observers expect from Texler not only the usual victory reports in such cases, but also programmatic statements for the “next five-year period.” However, deputies, political scientists and social activists emphasize that the governor’s previous promises were almost completely failed. Experts draw attention to the ongoing crisis in medicine, the “personnel leapfrog”, the disrupted concession with Rostec, which probably cost the lives of South Urals residents, the lack of progress in the environment, and Metrotram being idle at budget expense. The new program, in their opinion, will face the same “depressing outcome.”
In Chelyabinsk, active preparations were launched for the governor’s message. Thus, the media are already “heating up” information about a “unique” event: for example, a political scientist
Alexander Melnikov emphasizes that “for the first time in a quarter of a century, the current governor, who is seeking a second term through direct elections, will address deputies in the region.”
Another political scientist – Alexander Podoprigora, – on the contrary, he does not expect any sensations from Texler. “Evaluating the election speeches of politicians is generally a thankless task. They are written and pronounced in order to be treated as some kind of program, for the implementation of which the politician will then be responsible <…>. But such a system works effectively where there are competitive elections. Our elections are fictitious, there is no competition, the winner is known in advance. Therefore, on Thursday there will be a certain ritual that needs to be followed in order to show a beautiful picture,” Podoprigora gave his assessment.
The political scientist is confident that on June 13, the participants of the event will expect a speech with optimistic plans and forecasts, which has absolutely nothing to do with what is happening in the region. “Almost nothing of the statements made during the last gubernatorial campaign has been implemented. We are still building the metro tram and reducing emissions. Everything that is allegedly being done is only in words, in the expectation that no one will check. I think that Texler’s speech will not interest anyone except journalists writing on political topics,” concluded Podoprigora.
Let us recall that during the last elections for the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Texler’s headquarters released 5 newsletters called “Red Notebook”, on the pages of which policy statements were set out. The following theses were heard: “The Southern Urals deserves more”, “Medicine needs a doctor”, “People are not for economyA economy for people”, “Caring for everyone” and so on. Closer to the elections, information cubes appeared on the streets, and then posters with a phone number that residents were asked to call to make their proposals for Texler’s program. True, getting through to them was very problematic.
According to the head of one of the medical institutions, today the Southern Urals, as before, are experiencing an acute shortage of personnel. There are not enough ordinary doctors in the districts, narrow specialists, paramedics in small settlements, there is not even a “spare bench” for the chief doctors of medical institutions.
Several interlocutors, in turn, draw attention to the “personnel leapfrog” when managers are changed due to insubordination, regardless of their qualifications. So, for example, in the Chelyabinsk region there was no worthy place for an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Vazhenin, who is believed to have been initially “squeezed out” from the regional cancer clinic, and then he had to leave his post as acting Rector of the South Ural State Medical University. “In the Chelyabinsk region there are only 3 active academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences: chief designer of the rocket center Vladimir Degtyarscientific director of RFNC-VNIITF Georgy Rykovanov and Andrei Vazhenin, who remained out of work. So much for Texler’s declared attention to people,” says one of Vazhenin’s former colleagues.
An employee of the government of the Chelyabinsk region, on condition of anonymity, also spoke about the alleged disruption of the implementation of a medical concession, which would have made it possible to immediately equip medical institutions with the latest radiation diagnostic equipment. “The deal has been prepared for nine months. All services participated on our side, and the Rostec group of companies on the opposite side. A letter of offer was received about RG – Medical Systems LLC. The project envisaged a full cycle of formation and operation of radiology equipment complexes, including replacement, modernization, maintenance of 21 units of MRI and CT machines in nine organizations, as well as updating those already in operation,” the source shares the details.
According to him, it was planned to purchase and install the equipment at once, the concessionaire’s investments were to amount to 1.816 billion rubles, the project implementation period was 9 years 3 months. During this time, the region had to return the invested funds to the concessionaire, as well as pay for operation, the total amount of the fee was 2.35 billion rubles. In turn, the investor would provide maintenance of the devices under the contract.
In the team of the acting governor, according to the official, she was considered ineffective and cited a lack of need. Subsequently, when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, the region had to urgently purchase CT machines to replace units that had failed due to increased load. These actions then resulted in a criminal case regarding the purchase of tomographs.
A number of the agency’s interlocutors said that Texler’s promises in the field of ecology were not fulfilled – to rid the Southern Urals of hazardous industries and “get the garbage issue off the ground.” Despite statements by the head of the region about the elimination of unauthorized landfills and the widespread re-equipment of container sites, photos of tanks filled with waste regularly appear on social networks, and residents of the capital of the Southern Urals “regularly see the air quality from their window.” Roshydromet reports also indicate problems.
It should be noted that a reduction in harmful emissions by 44% is announced as an achievement in the field of ecology. However, as Alexander Podoprigora noted, this figure consists of the volume of the closed city landfill, the reclamation of which began under the governor Boris Dubrovsky and was completed practically without the participation of Texler and the flooded Korkinsky mine. Otherwise, residents of Chelyabinsk do not record any global changes.
