On the second on the third: whether the new term shines for Kuyvashev?

Despite all the experience and resources, Kuyvashev’s ambitions for re-election may be dashed by a wave of corruption, unresolved problems and Western sanctions.

According to a correspondent for The Moscow Post in the Sverdlovsk Region, the election of a new mayor has recently been thwarted in the Beloyarsk city district. Moreover, local deputies did it by a majority of votes – defiantly and with a challenge to the regional authorities, who were going to “bless” their man for the position of mayor.

According to the chairman of the competition commission, the first deputy head of the governor’s office, Vadim Dubichev, 11 votes out of 20 were required to elect a new mayor, but they failed to get them, so a new competition will be announced. The interlocutor did not go into details of what happened, but a source close to the regional authorities reports that this is not a technical misunderstanding, but a form of sabotage on the part of the deputies, because 15 out of 20 ballots turned out to be spoiled.

Mayor from Uralmash

Recall that the small town of Beloyarsky with 11 thousand people in recent years has continually experienced problems with the leadership. On January 17, the deputies of Beloyarsky removed from office and. about. Mayor Mikhail Ivanov, who worked for only two months. The prosecutor’s office insisted on this, having found out that the official was involved in fraud with the land. Writes about this “Kommersant”.

The same publication reports that Ivanov’s predecessor Andrei Gorbov lost his post in November 2021 after an anti-corruption check – for two years he accrued bonuses to himself. Therefore, the current election of the mayor was by no means a formal event for the townspeople.

It is unofficially known that the vote was held for the team of Governor Yevgeny Kuyvashev in a conflict with local deputies. The Duma of Beloyarsky is not de facto controlled by the residence: only six out of 20 deputies represent United Russia. The rest are mostly members of the speaker Vladimir Koshkarev’s team, supported by local businessmen. They do not hide that they would like to see Alexander Kozhevnikov, general director of the Belorechensky agricultural complex, as the head of the city.

The deputy’s demarche was a complete surprise for the candidate for mayor of Beloyarsk Grigory Vikharev

It is no secret that on this basis a group of deputies had a conflict with the governor’s residence, which agreed on the election of Vikharev back in February. And Kozhevnikov, as his strongest opponent, was not allowed to the final vote. The deputies believe that the commission simply “flunked” him. As a result, two candidates were presented to the Duma: Vikharev, officially recommended for election, and the ex-deputy head of Beloyarsky, Anton Poluyaktov – an obvious “spoiler”. Even then, the deputies made it clear that they would vote against both, but, apparently, they did not believe their threats.

By all appearances, the people of Beloyarsk had heard a lot about Grigory Vikharev. According to the authors of the Negovernor Kuyvashev telegram channel, allegedly the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Yevgeny Kuyvashev, is not at all an idle acquaintance with representatives of the Uralmash organized criminal group, but specifically through the Vikharev brothers, they are preparing to implement a land privatization scheme. Aleksey Vikharev, married to the daughter of Grigory Tsyganov, the founder of the “Uralmashevites”, will presumably control the transfer of the Shartash forest park to private hands.

And Grigory Vikharev was given a task in Beloyarsky, which borders Yekaterinburg. There, the Uralmashevites plan to develop cottage construction, as well as to prepare sites for logistics centers and a waste processing complex. It is clear why the Beloyarsk deputies opposed the arrival of such a mayor and preferred a fellow countryman who would care more about the city, and not about the interests of a group alien to the Beloyarsk people.

However, behind the nomination of a candidate, additional motives are guessed, which are relevant, first of all, for the incumbent governor. According to the authors of the same telegram channel Negovernor Kuyvashev, if Yevgeny Kuyvashev is nominated for a new gubernatorial term, the Uralmashevites could become a power group to force him to vote for his candidacy and to finance the election campaign by small and medium-sized businesses in Yekaterinburg.

Be that as it may, a quite reasonable question arises: if the governor cannot cope with the deputy corps of a small town, what can we say about such a large and complex region as the Sverdlovsk region.

“Everything’s under control”

Judging by the comments on social networks, many residents of the region are surprised by Kuyvashev’s mood for a new governor’s term, because he clearly has nothing to show as arguments in his favor. In January-February of this year, the governor’s team entered a deep dive, from which they are dismissed, and not for a new five-year term of governing the region.

Especially when you consider how many claims in all directions they tried to present to Kuyvashev before.

And yet, Kuyvashev tried to keep a good face on a bad game and even play “little president”, as local telegram channels put it. On February 25, he also met with businessmen, a day after Vladimir Putin did it. The governor was invited to take part in the annual meeting of the regional union of industrialists and entrepreneurs, headed by businessman Dmitry Pumpyansky.

By the way, he turned out to be the only entrepreneur from the Sverdlovsk region invited to a meeting with Putin. It is obvious that it is Pumpyansky who is the main guarantor of Kuyvashev’s appointment for a new term. They say that he visits Moscow and sees the key figures of the Presidential Administration more often than Kuyvashev.

Dmitry Pumpyansky is the hope and support of Governor Kuyvashev. Photo: UrFU press service

With Yevgeny Kuyvashev, Pumpyansky is associated with construction projects at the budget expense, which the Sinara Group receives – in the sense that it is Kuyvashev that Sinara, for some reason, receives the most monetary contracts. 13 billion rubles were spent on the reconstruction of the Central Stadium in Yekaterinburg, 10 billion – on the Congress Hall of Yekaterinburg-EXPO. Another 34 billion rubles is the cost of the facilities of the Universiade-2023 village, being built by the general contractor Sinara Development.

However, it is quite possible that it is Pumpyansky who will frame Kuyvashev most by chance. The main complaint against the governor today concerns the preparations for the Universiade 2023, this work is far behind schedule, in addition, construction exceeds the planned budget, it is possible that due to cheating estimates by contractors. Let us clarify that the construction of the Universiade facilities was entrusted to Dmitry Pumpyansky and his Sinara Group.

During the recent visit of the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Oleg Matytsin, statements in the style of “everything is under control” were heard for the media on behalf of the governor. But in fact, it can be seen with the naked eye: if you do not throw unscheduled funds and do not attract additional forces, the objects of the competition will not be handed over on time.

The federal minister, on behalf of the federal authorities, asked private business to provide all possible assistance. Apparently, Evgeny Kuyvashev is no longer perceived by local industrialists as the subject of such conversations. With such an attitude, it is useless for him to turn to business for any support in the election campaign.

Although it is very likely that in this case, big geopolitics will play into the hands of both Kuyvashev and Pumpyansky. It’s convenient when you can explain the failure to fulfill orders by Western sanctions or, at worst, say that at first the coronavirus confused plans, and then big geopolitics finally failed.

They also say that the family of Moscow Mayor Sobyanin is “harnessing” at the federal level for Kuyvashev, because they knew each other well from their work in Tyumen.

It’s time to remember the labor prowess

Today it is already obvious that there are a lot of pain points on the map of the Sverdlovsk region.

A difficult situation has developed in the economy of the Sverdlovsk region. But here Kuyvashev was lucky – you can always refer to Western sanctions, an argument for all occasions.

The new wave of coronavirus has had an extremely negative impact on the primary health care system, in which digitalization is developing only on paper. At the same time, the security forces allegedly found channels for the withdrawal of hundreds of millions of rubles allegedly spent on “figure” in Sverdlovsk medicine – we are talking about suspicious purchases of equipment and services for medical institutions for hundreds of millions of rubles.

Last summer, just on the eve of Kuyvashev’s negotiations in Moscow and elections to the State Duma, a new move was made in a criminal case on bribery in the Ministry of State Property of the Sverdlovsk Region. The former head of the MUGISO, Alexei Pyankov, was finally charged with creating a criminal group that allegedly was engaged in the withdrawal of budget funds through shell companies. RBC writes about it.

The main thing for Kuyvashchev now is to remain optimistic. Photo: oblgazeta.ru

The acts that he is charged with took place directly under the rule of Yevgeny Kuyvashev.

The other day, Evgeny Kuyvashev, quite expectedly, told his subordinates at a meeting that the regional budget is under sanctions pressure. For this reason, government contracts will be reviewed, new budget commitments will not be accepted. This does not apply to expenses on the personal orders of Evgeny Kuyvashev.

Among these expenses, it is worth noting Kuyvashev’s fresh instruction on the allocation of more than 700 million rubles to the Nizhny Tagil City Hall, given to the regional Ministry of Finance. We are talking about preparations for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the city. It is known that officials want to spend a third of this amount on the erection of the City of Labor Valor stele, without which they cannot hold a holiday. And this circumstance was extremely outraged by the inhabitants of the region, as they reported on social networks.

In connection with the circumstances that have developed throughout Russia, they have not heard about savings. Or didn’t think. Recall that funds are allocated from the regional budget, which, as noted above, “is under sanctions pressure.” And this is the whole Kuyvashev – behind the beautiful speeches, business thinking and the ability to think for the future are completely absent.

In January-February, the governor’s team entered a deep dive, from which they are dismissed, and not for a new five-year term of governing the region.

As early as last October, Kuyvashev, as well as Chelyabinsk governor Alexei Teksler and Novgorod head Andrey Nikitin, were named members of the federal government’s personnel reserve. It is obvious that he has a direct path to a comfortable chair in some ministry. What the inhabitants of the Sverdlovsk region will be very happy about.

Source: The Moscow Post