Novosibirsk parliamentarians in two readings adopted a law on the abolition of direct elections of the mayor of Novosibirsk and the head of the science city Koltsovo. This cancellation was significant, since Novosibirsk was the last city with more than a million people to retain direct elections for the head of the municipality. Apart from, of course, the federal cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol. And Koltsovo generally remained the only science city in the Russian Federation, where the townspeople themselves chose their mayor.
There is a double logic in the actions of the deputies of the Novosibirsk region, if we are talking about the position of mayor of the regional capital. On the one hand, there is a trend in the Russian Federation when elections cease to be a political event, with elements of a show, but become a kind of professional competition, in which there is a prerequisite – the submission of one’s own elaborated economic program to the judgment of a special commission. Yes, the mayor in such a paradigm turns into a kind of “supply manager”, but the city’s economy is, first of all, housing and communal services, roads, the construction of schools and kindergartens, and the topic of comfortable improvement.
On the other hand, quite often the element of show in elections was prevalent. Candidates were remembered not because of their career, legitimate ambitions and program, but because of “scandals, intrigues and investigations.” Often those characters who are more friendly with politics, and not with urban management, broke through. With all due respect to the mayor of Novosibirsk, Anatoly Lokt, he is still a talented speaker, to some extent a motivator and negotiator, but not the same “supply manager”. At a short distance, to create a coalition and defeat the United Russia candidate – Lokot succeeded in this. But the ten-year term of work in the city was not the most outstanding, Novosibirsk did not receive any impetus for development. Here, of course, a separate question for the people of Novosibirsk, why did they vote for the deputy and the tribune, but these are the political realities that local parliamentarians are going to change.
Another moment connected with Novosibirsk is the end of a kind of tacit agreement between the communist Lokt and United Russia governor Andrey Travnikov. On the eve of the elections of the head of the region in 2018, the two main political forces of the region divided the “zones of influence”. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation ignored the electoral campaign for governors, and United Russia did not nominate its candidates in the 2019 mayoral elections. The balance, of course, was shaky, but still respected. Now, apparently, everyone is tired of everything. Which proves that even in the presence of the status quo, the forward movement of the parties is necessary. Resting on our laurels and believing that unions have permanent status is dangerous. But again, there was nothing for the communists to do, I don’t understand what all the two terms of Elbow at the head of Novosibirsk were.