Criticism in public pages is cleared out, dissatisfied people are banned
The authorities of the Moscow region spent 3.54 billion rubles on covering their activities and supporting state media in 2023, according to figures released by the Moscow region authorities. Almost the same amount last year went to housing and communal services in the city of Podolsk, where in the January frosts more than 20 thousand people sat without heating for almost a week.
Details. According to reports published on the website of the Moscow region government, the budget for PR of regional authorities and support for state media in 2023 turned out to be the largest in the last three years: in 2021 it was spent 3.46 billion rublesin 2022 – 3.36 billionin 2023 – 3.54 billion.
TV Channel 360, which belongs to the region, received the most money from the regional budget – 1.4 billion rubles. It was created by the governor Boris Gromov in 2003. Since 2013 channel took in Moscow the Euronews frequency, it is also available in packages of satellite and cable operators.
The authorities of the Moscow region transferred more than 760 million rubles to the state publishing house “Podmoskovye”. Until December 2023, the publishing house published the newspaper “Daily News. Moscow Region” and “Our Moscow Region. Week”, but now works only on the Internet, publishing messages on the sites “Moscow Region Today” and “Regions.ru”.
The third largest government support – 440 million rubles – was the regional state institution Content Center, which promotes the work of the authorities in the media and social networks. For example, this year the center plans to spend 30 million rubles to advertise the governor’s work in federal telegram channels.
However, the real expenses of the Moscow region authorities on PR may be higher, since, according to budget execution report for 20233.75 billion rubles were allocated for the article “Mass Media”.
According to the report of the administration of the Moscow region city on budget expenditures, 3.6 billion rubles were spent in 2023 on the housing and communal services of the entire Podolsk, where more than 350 thousand people live. These funds went to the articles “Housing”, “Utilities”, “Improvement” and “Other issues in the field of housing and communal services”.
Context. During these New Year holidays, a large-scale utility accident occurred in the Klimovsk microdistrict of Podolsk, due to which about 20 thousand people were left without heating for almost a week. Head of the Moscow Region Andrey Vorobiev did not react to the situation for several days, intervening in it only two days before Vladimir Putin (*international criminal). The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case and detained the deputy head of the administration of Podolsk, the director of the cartridge plant and the head of the boiler room.
In some cities of the Moscow region, problems with housing and communal services are even more serious than in Podolsk: if in this city the wear and tear of heating networks exceeds 70%, then in other settlements of the region it can reach up to 89%.
On the resignation of the governor of the Moscow region Andrey Vorobyov “It’s out of the question,” three interlocutors close to the AP say in one voice: Vorobiev is an extremely influential head of the region with huge connections in the federal center, so they will help him carry out the reform.
The work of the block working with social networks raises complaints: this is not the first time that people have complained that in the official public pages of districts or urban settlements, comments from dissatisfied residents are simply erased, and users are banned, which only increases the negativity. The Moscow region does not work with the system of Regional Management Centers (Dialogue project), they have their own monitoring and feedback system, says a source familiar with the situation.