Murmansk found a compromise mayor

On the same day, city deputies also unanimously elected Igor Morar, deputy chairman of the city council, as the head of the municipality. At the same time, he became chairman of the city council of deputies.

Regional politicians believe that the choice of compromise figures Morar and Serdechkin put an end to the “entrances” – the so-called long-term confrontation between the governor of the Murmansk region Andrei Chibis and State Duma deputy, former head of Murmansk Alexei Veller.

The decision was made on the Old Square

The federal center, as a rule, seeks to prevent any significant elites in the regions. Residents of the Novgorod region remember very well the era of confrontation between the governor of the Novgorod region, Sergei Mitin, and the mayor of Veliky Novgorod, Yuri Bobryshev. Information attacks and provocations caused dissatisfaction with the Presidential Administration. Sergei Mitin was told that he could forget about the second term, and a new governor appeared in the region – Andrei Nikitin. Now Sergei Mitin is a senator of the Federation Council, and Yuri Bobryshev has changed his seat in the State Duma to the post of chairman of the regional parliament. Later, an attempt by the mayor of Veliky Novgorod, Sergei Busurin, to play in opposition to the governor of the region, Andrei Nikitin, ended in the resignation of the mayor. The vertical of power does not tolerate fluctuations.

In the Murmansk region, the confrontation between Alexei Veller and Andrei Chibis went on for quite a long time, and Moscow did not seem to pay attention to how the United Russia city deputies, controlled by Veller, rejected the candidacies of Olga Dzyuba and Yuri Serdechkin, strongly promoted by Governor Chibis.

But in the face of a tough confrontation between Russia and the countries of the West, the federal center decided that it was time to finish with the “departure”. According to some information, the candidacies of Serdechkin and Morar were discussed for a long time in the Presidential Administration as a kind of compromise between the State Duma deputy and the head of the region. But Chibis, unlike the Novgorodian Mitin, won a tactical victory, because the decision-making center for Murmansk moved to his man, Yuri Serdechkin. Igor Morar, who is considered the man of Alexei Veller, got largely representative functions in the two-headed system of government of Murmansk.

“Perhaps the end of the long-running conflict will finally be put to rest,” Alexander Makarevich, deputy of the Murmansk Regional Duma, told Octagon.North-West. – If earlier Murmansk had a strong city council and a strong head of the municipality, now we will not have such a strong council of deputies and the head of the municipality, and the center of power will shift towards the executive branch of government, the city administration.

Local entrepreneur and official from Moscow

The Octagon’s interlocutors note that Igor Morar is a politician whose main feature is the ability and desire to negotiate. In the last, fifth convocation of the council, he was elected from Mikhail Prokhorov’s Civic Platform party. He was nominated and elected to the current composition of the deputy corps from United Russia. Morari was the deputy chairman of the city council of two convocations.

From 1994 to 2014, Igor Morari was engaged in business. Now his activities in the business sphere are formally terminated. Morari’s name is associated with three local news agencies: Biport, Nord News and Bolshoi Radio.

Big claims to the entrepreneur Morariu arose from the FAS regarding the installation of billboards in Murmansk by the Propaganda Kolokol company. The owner of the company at that time was Igor Morari. In the summer of 2008, the Murmansk administration gave him permission to install 166 billboards for a period of five years. In 2013, the permit for 101 advertising structures was extended, another 59 stood and brought money to the owner without any permission, until Morar’s competitor, Seid Company ZOO, wrote a complaint to the OFAS. In 2013, according to some reports, the future official sold billboards and took up the position of Ombudsman for Entrepreneurs of the Murmansk Region.

Propaganda Kolokol LLC is an operating company owned by Igor Morar’s daughter Daria. The main customer of the company’s services is the Committee for Urban Planning and Territorial Development of the Administration of the City of Murmansk. A total of 11 contracts were signed for more than 25 million rubles.

The information that Igor Morar runs the Arctic Observer telegram channel, in which Governor Chibis is often “pulled”, was not confirmed by Octagon’s interlocutors.

Unlike Igor Morar, Muscovite Yuri Serdechkin is a typical official, not even indirectly connected with business, he worked in the structures of the tariff service, first at the Moscow City Hall, then in federal structures. In February 2020, Governor Chibis invited him to Murmansk to become his deputy. Under the leadership of this profile vice-governor, the Safe and High-Quality Roads project was implemented, about 1.6 million square meters were asphalted, and the region was awarded the Golden Skating Rink. But, apparently, he did not become his own for Murmansk.

Bayonet to the ground?

Are you surprised that Morari’s election went so smoothly? Certain agreements were simply reached in advance. Given the long period of anarchy in Murmansk and the situation in the country, such a decision was made. The city requires a lot of attention, the winter was snowy, the whole city will flood in the spring, the flood situation will be very difficult. The city needs power! – Tatyana Kovaleva, deputy of the City Council, told the Octagon. – Perhaps these appointments will put an end to the strife between the “entrances”.

City Council deputy Sergei Korobkov told the Octagon that Yuri Serdechkin took into account the mistakes that he made during the first election.

– There were many meetings, programs, the composition of the future team, and so on were considered. Mistakes were also taken into account in terms of the speed of the appointment attempt, – Sergey Korobkov is sure. – I want you to understand the main thing: the deputies voted unanimously for both Morar and Serdechkin. Murmansk has problems, but the deputies voted in the hope that the city will develop further.

Victory or defeat of Chibis?

Political scientist Sergei Markelov is sure that the decision to reconcile Chibis and Weller was made on Staraya Square, but the political scientist has big doubts about a lasting peace between the city and the region.

– Governor Chibis, a typical Varangian technocrat of Sergei Kiriyenko’s draft, never became a politician. Now it seems that he won, because Staraya Ploshchad intervened in his conflict with Weller, and he got peace,” Sergei Markelov says to the Octagon. – But imagine that a husband and wife are arguing, and the mother-in-law, who lives in another city, came to reconcile them. Outwardly, everything is smooth, but internal contradictions have not gone away. So it is here: city and regional elites will still sabotage the decisions of the governor. Such conflicts cannot be extinguished by pressure from above, otherwise Chibis, unfortunately, does not know how.

The political scientist is sure that Governor Chibis did not win, but lost. A hidden, artificially conserved conflict will certainly make itself felt, and a tactical victory will turn into a strategic defeat.