In the capital of the Urals, the conflict between the head of the city Orlov and billionaire Kochetkov is gaining momentum
The administration of Yekaterinburg is holding a tender for the purchase of security devices against possible wiretapping. For 15 sets of vibroacoustic protection, the mayor’s office is ready to pay 1.8 million rubles. The auction is held during a tough pre-election confrontation between the mayor Alexei Orlov and the Ural oligarch Vitaly Kochetkov, connected with the September elections of deputies of the city duma. The mayor intends to deprive the billionaire of influence in the municipal parliament, where he has a controlled deputy group, formed back in 2018 at the direction of the current governor Yevgeny Kuyvashev. Today, the head of the region took the side of Orlov, approving the list of future deputies he had formed, in which the number of Kochetkov’s people was reduced to a few people. Nevertheless, the businessman decided on an open confrontation with the mayor’s office, approving the participation of his team members in the United Russia primaries, where most of them were defeated. Today, Kochetkov is negotiating with the leadership of other political parties to nominate the candidates he needs and is even ready to buy support for A Just Russia for 280 million rubles. Aleksey Orlov, who managed to get the governor to approve not only his list, but also the new electoral scheme he developed, is trying to enlist the support of prominent representatives of the business elite: he intends to award the title of Honorary Citizen of the city to the founder of the Sima-land group, billionaire Andrei Simanovsky and the general director of the holding ” Sinara” by Mikhail Khodorovsky. The federal leadership of United Russia, despite the support provided to Orlov, included Yekaterinburg in the “yellow” zone on the map of the Russian elections, implying a medium level of threat. Orlov himself unsuccessfully tried to discredit the speaker of the City Duma Igor Volodin, “draining” compromising audio recordings to Governor Kuyvashev, and now he is afraid of retaliatory steps from Kochetkov, who received the nickname “shadow master” of the Ural capital.
Orlov’s team is insured against wiretapping
The City Hall of Yekaterinburg has announced a tender for the purchase of 15 means of vibroacoustic protection (SVAZ) – security devices against possible wiretapping. How informs “Kommersant”, the initial price of the contract is 1.88 million rubles, deadline – 30 days from the date of signing. SVAZ includes a power supply and control unit, an acoustic emitter generator, 16 vibration exciter generators, circuit breakers for telephone and low-current lines, clamps for mounting on windows and pipes. The operating time of the device must be at least 6 thousand hours.
Information agency “EAN” suggeststhat this may be a planned replacement of previously installed equipment: back in 2013, the city administration purchased 25 devices, including noise generators and cell phone jammers. Then the cost of the equipment was 860 thousand rubles.
At the same time, the media remind about the guilty verdict handed down by the Oktyabrsky District Court of Yekaterinburg in July last year to five defendants in the criminal case of wiretapping the phones of local politicians. In particular, billing data and printouts were seized during the searches. conversations head of the mayor’s office at the time Ilya Zakharovincumbent Speaker of the City Duma Igor Volodinrepresentative of the governor in the City Duma Anatoly Sharapov and the beneficiary of a telecommunications company “Motive” Vitaly Kochetkov.
According to one of the defendants Danila Rykova, the details of Ilya Zakharov’s telephone conversations were supposed to be used for the subsequent blackmail of the official. As a result, the court recognized all the accused guilty in preparation for extortion committed by a group of persons by prior agreement; the sentence imposed ranged from two years of probation to 7.5 years in prison.
Election intrigues in the governor’s environment
The desire of the head of the Ural capital Alexey Orlov to protect yourself and your entourage from unwanted “ears” can be considered quite reasonable, especially if you take into account the increased degree of mistrust towards each other among representatives of the local business and political elite. Recall that a deputy of the City Duma was associated with the federally publicized “wireapple case” Alexey Vikharev: MASS MEDIA called the balance of power in the city and region. And although Vikharev himself categorically denied any accusations that sounded against him and even wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee, the sediment, as they say, remained.
It is possible that today’s decision to update the security system is connected with the next phase of the “confrontation of the tops” on the eve of the start of the election campaign for the elections of deputies of the City Duma, which will be held in September. Passions are already boiling serious. We are talking about the opposition of Alexei Orlov, the protege of the governor Evgenia Kuyvasheva and businessman Vitaly Kochetkovwhose name was mentioned in the wiretapping scandal.
Yes, by information publications “URA.Ru”, Orlov set as his goal to establish control over the new composition of the Duma, for which he needs to reduce the faction informally controlled by the billionaire Kochetkov and replace the current speaker with “his man” Igor Volodin (another “hero” of the “spy” scandal). But this faction was formed in 2018 by a Ural oligarch, famous as a “shadow master of Yekaterinburg”, on behalf of Kuyvashev himself, in order to strengthen the governor’s influence and defeat the team of the then vice-governor Vladimir Tungusov.
Orlov’s plan was to develop a new electoral schemeimplying an increase in the number of single-member constituencies from 18 to 25 and a reduction in the “listed” seats in the Duma from 18 to 10. At the same time, the mayor introduced to the governor a list of candidates compiled by him who should receive the support of the authorities, including the successful passage of the United Russia primaries. The number of Kochetkov’s people in it was reduced to a minimum.
Businessman prepared his own alternative list, but lost: Kuyvashev approved candidates proposed by Orlov. Then Kochetkov actually went for broke, nominating “his” people to participate in the intra-party vote. They all lost as expected. Even the incumbent municipal deputy previously agreed by the governor Anton Shvalev instead of the “passing” seventh place in the citywide party list was moved to the “semi-passing” ninth. But the “passing” fourth place was received by the deputy Alexey Vikharevthe one that “lit up” in the scandal with the wiretapping of Kochetkov and the speaker Volodin, who was close to him.
Squeezing out the head of the well-known fund “City without drugs Timofey ZhukovVikhorev named results obtained by him during the primaries“an honest and real victory”. Whether he expressed his gratitude to the mayor, history is silent.
Orlov will be “hit” by A Just Russia?
The “shadow owner of Yekaterinburg” did not accept the defeat: it is reported that his supporters will go to the polls from other parties. Currently, Kochetkov is busy forming the “anti-Orlov” coalition and makes a bet on “Fair Russia”.
In fact, the oligarch is preparing to “buy” the party branch, in the press voiced even the price of the issue – 280 million rubles. True, the Moscow leadership, in the person of Sergei Mironovbut the 70-year-old politician, who is losing popularity, is unlikely to refuse a lucrative deal.
There were no scandals either. In particular, the acting deputy of the City Duma and the former head of the United Russia faction, who lost the primaries Ira Ovchinnikova stated about the pressure exerted on her, called the results of the vote rigged and, in protest, withdrew from United Russia.
“Kommersant” calls Ovchinnikov “one of the most experienced deputies of the City Duma of Yekaterinburg”, political scientist Alexey Shirinki – “political fighter of the Kochetkov group”. And this fighter is by no means going to leave the political “ring” so easily: Ovchinnikova has already informed about her intention to run for the new Duma as a self-nominated candidate, and is also ready to consider proposals from other parties. It is possible that she is waiting for the end of Kochetkov’s negotiations with Mironov’s Yekaterinburg team.
Big business reminds of itself
The federal leadership of the ruling party turned out to be involved in the Ural political confrontation. Commenting on Ovchinnikova’s demarche, Deputy Secretary of the United Russia General Council Sergey Perminov emphasized:
The hint is more than transparent. However, one should not forget that this very “financial and industrial group” was very recently closely connected with the current regional authorities. By the way, how writes publication “URA.Ru”, on June 21, the team of Alexei Orlov presented the mayor’s election strategy to Moscow. According to the results of the report heard by Sergey Perminov, Yekaterinburg turned out to be included into the “yellow” zone on the map of the Russian elections, which implies a medium level of threat. But, as they say, it’s not over yet, and the billionaire Kochetkov may bring new unpleasant surprises to the mayor.
It is worth noting here that Orlov is also not sitting idle, making every effort to increase the ranks of his status supporters. And since relations with one oligarch did not work out, it means that we need to look for the right approach to others. To this end, he decided to expand the number of those who, in honor of the 300th anniversary of Yekaterinburg, the mayor’s office is preparing to award the title of Honorary Citizen of the city.
In addition to the chemistry teacher from gymnasium No. 9 Sergei Moskvin and CEO OKB “Novator” Farida Abdrakhmanovathe final list included the CEO of the holding “Sinara” (affiliated with the oligarch Dmitry Pumpyansky) Mikhail Khodorovsky and group founder “Sima-land” Andrey Simanovsky.
Paying attention to billionaires on the eve of the elections, especially in a difficult situation, is simply necessary. Moreover, back in April, representatives of big business expressed their opinion to Governor Kuyvashev. discontent removal of Orlov from participation in the formation of lists of deputies of the new convocation of the City Duma and the imposition of this responsibilities for a political strategist Rinata Khazeeva. Businessmen who feared the strengthening of Kochetkov’s influence reminded the head of the region that the budget of the 2018 election campaign was formed not only by the owner of Motiv, who single-handedly took advantage of the fruits of the common victory.
As you know, the signal was received and Kuyvashev approved the “Orlov list”. Recall also that in the midst of the conflict, the mayor managed to achieve statements deputies of the City Duma of the report on the work done by his team in 2022. True, before that, he lost control over the city’s Vodokanal, which last April headed Anton Gusev – Municipal deputy from the Kochetkov pool.
There was another noteworthy incident, which is worth recalling in the context of the announcement of the mayor’s office tender for the purchase of protection devices against possible wiretapping. The fact is that Mr. Orlov allegedly tried to discredit speaker Igor Volodin by giving the governor audio recordingswhere people from the environment of the head of the City Duma discuss the purchase of votes at the March public hearings on amendments to the Charter regarding changes in the scheme of municipal elections.
The expected scandal did not happen, Kuyvashev ignored the revelations, and Volodin turned out to be one of the few people of Kochetkov who received the “go-ahead” for re-election. Perhaps, with the help of SVAZ at a cost of almost 2 million, the mayor-schemer wants to insure against audio recording of his own verbal “punctures”? After all, the story of wiretapping political opponents may well repeat itself with him.