A Muscovite throws out twice as much garbage as a resident of any other city in Russia. The policy of Sergei Sobyanin has been for two terms - no new landfills. In other words: get rid of garbage at any cost, just push it out of the city - and forget it. As a result, while the authorities were creating a comfortable environment inside the metropolis, a garbage crisis was ripening outside. The city floods the region with garbage - the Moscow region responds with protests. Defiantly closing "Kuchino", the president for some reason disrupted the schedule of Governor Vorobyov for the smooth conservation of the remaining 15 of the 39 large landfills in the region. The whole system “floated”, unable to quickly redistribute the load. Now the scale of the rallies in the Moscow region, with poor publicity, will be the envy of many opposition politicians. The Village tells how the 2017 "garbage riots" took shape in a new protest movement and how the region will try to break the "Neapolitan impasse".
How to eat now
This story is not about ecology, but about guilt. Greenpeace estimated the area of all landfills in the Moscow region at 15 square kilometers - this is a bald patch of garbage the size of the Garden Ring. It's not even a matter of "can you see garbage from space" - the capital, in principle, creates a fifth of all household waste in Russia. We burn and process less than 10% of this dirt, everything else - 7 million tons per year - is simply transported to the region.
The Kuchino landfill in Balashikha (150 meters from residential buildings) was closed in one day, "in emergency mode" - that was the president's instruction. But the garbage stream cannot be stopped even for an hour. KamAZ trucks from Moscow, like endlessly falling figures in Tetris, were hastily directed by operators to any other training grounds they could find. The Village tracked these reconnaissances back in July. Many landfills were not ready for the increased load from the capital, even in the project. At the same time, the collection of garbage from the locals stood in kilometer-long queues - it was then that the region “collapsed”, like the Italian Naples.
In the fall, in Podolsk, Vidnoe and Pushkin, spontaneous piles of garbage appear right on the city streets. Metropolitan officials and operators continue to look for alternatives for dumping, but they find only landfills around which protest activity is in full swing. The lack of real political will is felt by all market participants. Moreover, for two terms in power, Sobyanin never signed an official agreement with the Moscow Region for the removal of household waste - then the flow scheme could at least be brought out of the shadows. Now, the contracts of six city operators with large landfills in the Moscow region remain a trade secret.
The president's populist decision on the Balashikha landfill eventually provoked garbage riots of new strength. At two landfills, a victory was won in 2017 - landfills were closed. The launch of two more polygons was stopped. But the "territorial scheme" published in January - the "bible" for the garbage business - revealed the authorities' larger plans. The Village tells about the most striking confrontations in this war and shows the alignment of forces at the moment.
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Kuchinsky gambit
The landfill in Balashikha was closed with a scandal precisely in order to advertise the project of four waste incineration plants in the Moscow region: now they are becoming “indispensable,” a source in The Village in the waste business is convinced. Several regional protest movements are emerging at the same time, such as Stop Ejection and Dushegubka.rf. In network groups, activists bit by bit collect new information about future sites for the construction of factories, for example, in Mogutovo or in the village of Svistyagino.
In October, the movement tries to hold an all-Russian protest action on the same day as Kazan (where they will also build an incinerator under the Clean Country program) and Nizhny Novgorod, but a week before the rally in Moscow, Sokolniki Park withdraws the agreement. On the evening of November 4, a part of the initiative group decides to take a radical step: 80 people block the federal highway, Novoryazanskoye Highway, not far from Voskresensk. The activists demand a meeting with the head of the district Vitaly Chekhov. Chekhov replies that the rally is being carried out by “a protest-charged group of people who travel all over the Moscow region,” and refuses to go out to the activists, citing being busy. The next rallies (an average of a thousand people each) in Podolsk, Naro-Fominsk, Voskresensk and Troitsk are already held with the support of political parties like the Communist Party of the Russian Federation or the Liberal Democratic Party - it's just easier to get an agreement with them, says The Village's source in the activist community.
At the moment, protests against waste incineration plants (MSZ) in the region have not led to anything, although the initiative groups believe that the authorities reviewed the location of construction sites several times, and local residents managed to disrupt public hearings (they are advisory in nature). On December 29, Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said that the authorities would not stop at the four already approved incinerators and, most likely, the region would need four more plants in the future.
Wedge. The battle in the Aleksinsky Quarry
"Aleksinsky Quarry" - the record holder for power and violations. The protest movement around the 30-meter firing range became visible after activists recorded an identical appeal to Putin's direct line. Only the latter were lucky, but the landfill in Klin was not. Now, during peak loads, 700 KAMAZ trucks of garbage come here a day.
The nearest residential buildings are less than half a kilometer away. Citizens regularly complain about the suffocating smell in the Ministry of Emergency Situations, residents of the nearest 14 villages from landfill gas have a sore throat and watery eyes. There is no removal of liquid flowing from the landfill, the leachate enters local rivers and reservoirs, the layers of garbage are not covered with soil. Unable to stand the long queues, many drivers decide to dump the garbage just along the road, in the surrounding forests.
In autumn, the initiative group filed two lawsuits against the management of the landfill. The first claim was rejected, but on the second, on October 13, the city court suddenly suspends the operation of the quarry for three months. The locals celebrate the victory for half a day, but then they notice that the queue of KamAZ trucks from Moscow has not disappeared anywhere. Already in the evening, several dozen people gather at the gates of the landfill to block the entrance and monitor the execution of the court decision. By nightfall, bailiffs appear with a new paper - one judge illegally cancels the decision of another. Activists come into conflict with the protection of the landfill, some throw themselves under garbage trucks. In the morning, riot police arrive at the gates of the Aleksinsky Quarry, and the police push the activists off the road with batons. A day later, local activist Irina Govorova witnesses Aleksinsky Quarry accepting aborted fetuses from Khimki and Solnechnogorsk maternity hospitals (usually, medical waste is separated from all other waste). Then activist Rashit Shidakov declares a hunger strike at the administration of Klin in his car covered with posters. Several large rallies for 700 people are again held in November and December.
Surprisingly, the loud protests in Klin led nowhere: the Aleksinsky Quarry was one of the main landfills for a new waste separation scheme, about a billion rubles will be spent on its modernization and expansion.
Serpukhov. Blockade "Forest"
DISTANCE: 73 kilometers from Moscow
The Lesnaya landfill in Serpukhov was supposed to be closed back in 2013 after instructions from Vladimir Putin (as in Balashikha). Since then, "Forest" has grown to the height of a nine-story building, the outdated landfill has collected fines for violations of 200 thousand rubles and continues to work. According to The Village, up to 300 KAMAZ trucks of the capital's garbage a day call in at the landfill. On November 7, Alexander Shestun, the head of the Serpukhov district, gathers a rally for five hundred people literally in an open field - at the garbage truck parking lot on the way to the Lesnaya landfill.
At the same time, activist Nadezhda Chervochkina went on a hunger strike. Then six more activists of the local branch of the Communist Party are connected to it: they move to a change house right on the side of the highway. Then the director of the private security company guarding the road works here claims pressure from the police: the guards are taken several times for interrogation at the police department for not driving away the hungry, and the director is threatened with the withdrawal of a business license. Later, one of the starving people is hospitalized. At the end of November, the rally is repeated - about a thousand activists decide to block the road to the landfill in a crowd, a line of garbage trucks appears. Police arrive at the scene of action: activists are pushed off the road, more than 30 people are detained. Finally, in early December, State Duma deputy from the Communist Party Vladimir Kashin came to Lesnaya and "persuaded" the starving people to complete the action. In addition, according to Life, on December 6, the head of the Serpukhov district, Alexander Shestun, was temporarily put on the wanted list in the case of blocking the road.
So far, the protests around the landfill have come to nothing. The regional Ministry of Natural Resources plans to extend the work of Lesnoy until 2024.
Kolomna. Standing in Volovichi
DISTANCE: 85 kilometers from Moscow
After the closure of the landfill in Balashikha, the load on the 30-year-old Volovichi landfill increased several times - the smell was first felt in the city of Kolomna itself. Activist Vyacheslav Yegorov says that now there is less than a sixth of local garbage in Volovichi with a flow of 300 KamAZ trucks every day. On the narrow road leading to the landfill, a kilometer-long queue of trucks regularly appears.
The Volovichi protest group is one of the brightest, with more than 10 thousand people subscribed to their VKontakte page. The activists achieved the installation of webcams around the perimeter of the polygon. In three lawsuits against the management, the court sided with the plaintiffs. A fire broke out several times in the landfill, then a poisonous fog spread over the nearest villages. The head of Kolomna, Denis Lebedev, was forced to personally conduct tours of the landfill in order to reassure people. In January, residents of the villages of Baranovka and Sychevo held “tea parties” for 50 people in an open field, after which the police “walked from house to house” and called the participants for questioning.
On January 15, influential eco-activist Valentin Sokolov was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for reposting in Odnoklassniki, which he made back in 2015. Sokolov was the organizer of several major rallies in the Moscow region, associates consider his criminal case a way of pressure. Last Sunday, February 11, the largest rally in the history of "garbage protests" in the Moscow region took place in the city - about 3 thousand people protested against the dump, the federal media noticed the action.
So far, the protests around Volovichi have not led to anything - according to the new “territorial scheme”, the landfill is still in plans for expansion and modernization, although the head of Kolomna, Denis Lebedev, is now convincing people that they will not cut new plots of land to Volovichi . At the same time, the authorities decided not to close the Astapovo landfill in the neighboring district (more than 100 kilometers from Kolomna) for the time being, otherwise the garbage load on Volovichi will increase before modernization.
Chekhov. Kulakovskaya siege
DISTANCE: 51 kilometers from Moscow
The Kulakovsky landfill in Chekhov was already in the plan for conservation in 2017, just on a par with the Astapovo, Kaurtsevo and Tsarevo landfills (the last two were also closed). However, Kuchin's exit out of turn catalyzed the protests around them. Vladimir Putin supported the closure of Kulakovsky five years ago: from a huge pile of garbage - 120 meters to residential buildings and 400 meters to a local school.
The main actions around "Kulakovsky" unfold in parallel with the epic in Balashikha. The initiative group MUSORKA.NET planned a rally in June, but the authorities suddenly denied them permission. Then the activists go on a hunger strike with the headquarters of the action in the village of Manushkino near the landfill. On June 17, two days after the direct line, the starving activist Mikhail Burdin was detained in the parking lot near the railway station: he was pulled out of his own car, then 30 police officers with dogs searched, seized personal belongings and copies of the Doloy newspaper. Burdin is brought to the department and on the same day he is tried for organizing an illegal rally. At the same time, the 82-year-old activist Olga Churikova was also detained in the Chekhov-Manushkino bus - she had the same protest newspapers in her hands. Police chief Andrey Bolshakov dragged the woman out of the bus “by the scruff of the neck”, after which Churikova suddenly throws herself under a police car. For two more days, the pensioner was forcibly kept in a psychiatric clinic without any documents.
Despite police aggression, local authorities responded to a protest in July. By September 1, the Kulakovskaya landfill was closed ahead of schedule. The flow of garbage from here, however, was simply redirected to the Lesnaya landfill in Serpukhov, which is described above.
Mobilization of Orekhovo-Zuev
DISTANCE: 70 kilometers from Moscow
The reason for the rebellion was the June post of the governor on Instagram. Then Vorobyov, without any specifics, mentioned a new waste plant in Orekhovo-Zuyevo immediately after the closure of Kuchino. Rumors instantly spread throughout the town of 120,000. At the end of the month, the administration suddenly tries to change the purpose of a 60-hectare site on the outskirts from a farm to "special needs" (suitable for a landfill or a factory).
The mayor himself learns about it two days before the public hearing. More than 300 people crowd into the miniature hall, the residents vote against it. Over the next two weeks, activists manage to collect 43,000 living signatures for a protest petition - this is a third of the city's population. Vorobyov retreats, they decide to look for another place for garbage.
Troitsk. Malinkovo truce
DISTANCE: 0 kilometers from Moscow
In October, RBC reveals plans to launch a new mega-polygon in Malinki near Troitskoye, on the territory of New Moscow: the old landfill, expanded eight times, instantly becomes the largest in Europe. To residential buildings from it - 500 meters. It is curious that the construction around the landfill secretly began back in January 2017, but until the fall, the authorities presented it only as “reclamation” (improvement of landfill land).
Residents of Troitsk and surrounding villages create the #StopMalinki movement. For two months they collect more than 50 thousand signatures against, hold rallies in Troitsk and Podolsk. The turning point comes in November: the new "mega-Malinki" are first entered into the register of landfills - that is, they announce the discovery - and are excluded a week later. According to The Village, the "connections" of activists from among the residents of the elite cottages of Krasnaya Pakhra helped.
Finally, in December, Sobyanin himself reacts: he signs an official conservation order, after the Presidential Human Rights Council drew attention to the Malinok problem. The StopMalinki movement is celebrating the victory, but the locals are still skeptical. The mayor's paper does not contain exact indications of which particular landfill is closed - the old Malinki, or the new ones, that is, the attached 46 hectares. Now a "pilot site" is planned on this land - even a waste incineration plant fits this wording. The Village’s sources in the garbage business say that “too much money” has already been invested in Malinki: de facto, the landfill is completely ready, you can bring garbage there even right now, but Malinki will open now only after the presidential elections.
Partisans "Yadrovo", "Nepeyno", "Torbeevo"
DISTANCES: 86, 57 and 7 kilometers from Moscow
Mass actions throughout 2017 were also held in other cities, where the garbage flow was redistributed. For example, locals call the rally against the expansion of the Yadrovo test site the largest in the history of Volokolamsk, "to which the authorities did not have a hand." In October, the rally is repeated in heavy rain, the initiative group demands the resignation of the head of the district.
Now all the northeastern garbage of Moscow is sent to Yadrovo, the flow capacity reaches 200 trucks per day. At another modernized training ground, Nepeino, in the north of the Moscow region, a protest group has existed for more than three years. Their 300 KamAZ trucks per day pass right along the main street of the village of Orudyevo, and the village of Nepeyno itself (600 meters from the landfill) is populated by mothers of large families under the presidential program. They learned about plans to expand the landfill back in February - much earlier than the Kuchino landfill was closed, the first people's gatherings were held in April. Local rallies were also held at the Torbeevo training ground in Lyubertsy, which was the first to take the blow from the Kuchinsky stream. There is a little less than 50 meters to residential buildings from the garbage mountain, several cottages overlook the landfill across the road. The new "territorial scheme" plans to expand both Yadrovo and Nepeyno. The work of the Lyubertsy landfill will simply be extended until 2021.
Vladimir bridgehead
DISTANCE: 57 kilometers from Moscow
Two weeks ago, on January 27, the largest rally in the Vladimir region over the past seven years was held in the small town of Kirzhach. Even the head of the city, Nadezhda Skorospelova, joined the crowd of two thousand. The protesters demanded that a new landfill be prevented from being created on the site of a tank training ground in the Filippovsky settlement. A piece of forest here was previously "quietly" bought by the legendary Moscow businessmen Andrey Bokarev and Iskander Makhmudov,
through a "laying company", for only 27 million rubles, at a price 100 times less than the cadastral value of the site (the court on this transaction has been dragging on for more than a year). The area of the future waste complex is 1,200 hectares, which is slightly larger than Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg. The authors of the project say that the landfill will occupy only 57 hectares, the rest - technical buildings and the exclusion zone. However, several environmentalists, including Oleg Mitvol of the Greens, believe that the new private landfill at Filippovsky is “tailored for Moscow renovation.”
In September, the authorities suddenly canceled a public hearing that was needed to secure the land's new use as a landfill. Surprisingly, a protest group led by municipal deputy Elena Gashina last week even won a lawsuit against the head of Filippovsky, Oleg Ivanov: he must now resign. It is Ivanov who is associated with the illegal sale of land for a landfill. Now activists are preparing new lawsuits and rallies.
How did the authorities react?
Federal officials generally do not comment on local protests. Only the governor of the Vladimir region, Svetlana Orlova, hinted that the rally in Kirzhach was organized from Moscow, as people were "taken in cars with Moscow numbers." Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin only spoke specifically about the situation with Malinki on the eve of the conservation of the landfill, and also promised to help the Moscow region with the rehabilitation of already closed landfills, calling them a "common problem."
The existence of a “garbage collapse” as a whole was recognized back in August by Sergey Donskoy, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation. Finally, Vladimir Putin spoke in general about the protests at a meeting with the minister in November: “It is impossible to encourage a situation where a landfill is closed in one place, and they begin to transport it to another place on a completely uncontrolled scale, to unprepared sites, again next to housing, and so Further. This causes an absolutely legitimate negative reaction of people,” - now this quote is always remembered on occasion in initiative groups and at rallies.
In addition, the Minister of Ecology of the Moscow Region, Alexander Kogan, said in November that it was precisely because of the local protests that the authorities were changing the “territorial scheme” of waste division - the closure of several landfills was postponed so as not to overload the system even more. In December, he also talks about plans to open several new landfills: “Moscow wants us to make the most of our resources, because we really don’t have enough capacity to work with Moscow’s waste.”
Why are some landfills not closed?
According to The Village's interlocutor in the garbage business, control over many landfills in the region is still retained by local organized crime groups. They, along with the export operators, remain the main lobbyists for new “territorial schemes” in Russia: “The decisions of politicians to close or not close many landfills are actually just the surface of their relationship with local organized criminal groups, and what is really happening there, we can only guess,” concludes the source.
The Village found that the management companies of two of the most controversial operating landfills, Lesnoy and Aleksinsky Quarry, are connected, even though the landfills themselves are on opposite sides of Moscow. So, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the general director of the Klin LLC "Kombinat" (serves "Aleksinsky Quarry") Yuri Tsyrulnikov and the owner of the enterprise Leonid Shkapin are connected with a group of companies of businessmen Nikolai and Maxim Nefedov through former shares in LLC "Agiasma", as well as through a kind of shell " Fatherland Veterans Support Fund. Apart from the creation of an Orthodox gymnasium in the 2000s, nothing is known about the foundation's activities. But he owns the Khimki company Ekopromservis in half with the Hikon Group. The last press connected with the influential family of businessman Pyotr Katsyv, the former Minister of Transport of the Moscow Region, a top manager of Russian Railways and a defendant in the Magnitsky case.
It was Katsyv’s lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya who mentioned Nikolai Nefedov’s connections with criminals, calling him “Nefed Nizhny Novgorod” (several anonymous compromising biographies from the 2000s, as well as the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper in 2010, mention him in the same role). Finally, according to Kommersant's Card Index, through a chain of Khimki companies, Ekopromservice is connected with businessman Andrei Chernukha, who, judging by his former and current positions, is an old business partner of the Nefedovs. It is Andrei Chernukha who is the 100% current owner of Skyway LLC, which operates the Lesnaya landfill in Serpukhov. Recall that both landfills will continue their work in the new “territorial scheme”, despite many violations and large-scale protests, and about a billion rubles will also be invested in the modernization of the Aleksinsky Quarry.
Two large landfills in the region, which the authorities solemnly closed in 2017, were linked to crime by the Dozhd TV channel. Thus, the journalists named the Balashikha organized criminal group as the beneficiaries of the management company of the same Kuchino training ground, and the Kulakovskiy training ground in Chekhov was associated with the Podolsk group. Suspicious connections and unexpected appointments of regional activists are also traced to other landfills, even without connections with the criminals of the 90s. For example, the modernized Nepeyno landfill is serviced by a company belonging to the family of Vladislav Yudin, the head of the neighboring Taldomsky district of the Moscow region. And the leadership of the mentioned Volovichi training ground near Kolomna is now the same people who oversaw the Necklace necklace in Kashira - they could not put it out for about a year.
Right now, the new regional "Territorial Waste Management Scheme" (full document at the link) is undergoing "public discussion". Here are some important takeaways from this massive document:
THE REGION WAS DIVIDED INTO SEVEN CLUSTERS. Similar to the Moscow garbage collection scheme, which The Village has already written about, in each cluster a separate operator company will take over the removal (the competition for their choice will be held until the end of spring). The Village sources claim that “the result will be expected” and the metropolitan operators will win.
FIVE POLYGONS WILL BE MODERNIZED, THE FLOW OF GARBAGE ON THEM WILL INCREASE. The list includes Aleksinsky Quarry, Yadrovo, Nepeyno, Volovichi and Khrabrovo. The authorities say that more land will be "cut" to the existing landfill area, but only to build infrastructure for sorting and partial processing there. The Village's source in the waste business says that in practice, some of the landfills will also expand the active disposal zone.
IN THREE DISTRICTS OF THE MOSCOW REGION, NEW POLYGONS WILL BE OFFICIALLY OPENED - these are the urban district of Serebryanye Prudy, the district of Kashira and the Sergiev Posad district. The exact addresses are still not known: the authors of the scheme note the “significant social tension” that accompanies the launch of any new landfill. All new and modernized landfills differ in the amount of garbage they will accept (here you can see a fragment of the scheme with a table). The largest remains the Timokhovo landfill in the Noginsk district, which from 2019 will receive up to 1,500 thousand tons of garbage per year. According to experts interviewed by The Village, more than half of the garbage that each landfill will receive will still be transported from Moscow.
THREE POLYGONS WILL BE CLOSED UNTIL THE END OF 2018. These are the Malaya Dubna test sites in Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Kargashino in Mytishchi and Saburovo in the Shchelkovo districts of the Moscow region.
GARBAGE RATES WILL GROW. Now, along with the territorial schemes, the federal law “On Waste ...” is also being updated. In December, they almost added a condition about reduced export rates for already sorted garbage - to encourage people to collect glass, plastic and paper separately. But at the last moment, the government's amendment was withdrawn - now this idea is only being discussed again in the FAS and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In a January interview, the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Sergey Donskoy, even suggested welding garbage chutes to encourage people to collect separately; some media misrepresented his words as a decision already made. However, in the suburbs they will still create a network of waste transfer and sorting stations - new operators will pay for the construction, and they will eventually raise tariffs to cover the costs. Perhaps this will also affect tariffs within Moscow.
THE EXACT ADDRESSES OF FOUR FUTURE INCINERATION PLANTS HAVE BEEN KNOWN. All of them, however, were known to protest groups before. These are sites near Solnechnogorsk (the village of Khmetyevo), Voskresensk (the village of Svistyagino), and Naro-Fominsk (the village of Mogutovo), as well as near the Timokhovo training ground. It is curious that in the documents of the MSZ they are called "heat treatment plants".
Waste incineration as a panacea
Both Moscow and the region are making a serious bet on waste incineration plants. The capacity of four in total is 2.8 million tons of garbage per year. Half of them will be loaded with garbage from Moscow, but for the capital itself, this will be less than a quarter of all the waste that the city produces. Governor Andrei Vorobyov has already announced that he is looking for a site for four more plants. The Village chose the main arguments for and against the technology.
For burning trash
EVERYONE DOES IT. Thermal disinfection plants are being built all over the world; this is one of the most popular ways of waste disposal in developed countries. A popular example is the incinerator right on the banks of the Seine in Paris.
FACTORIES WILL BE CLEAN. RT-invest says that the plants are being designed jointly with the Swiss-Japanese company Hitachi Zosen Inova. Rosprirodnadzor considers the stations "completely environmentally safe."
FACTORIES PRODUCE ELECTRICITY. True, energy from combustion is 13 times more expensive than from conventional thermal power plants.
Against incineration
THE JAPANESE DO NOT CONTROL THE PROJECT. Experts interviewed by The Village believe that Russian factories, even those based on Japanese projects, will differ. The development is carried out by the Novosibirsk company Kotes, which has no experience. The filters are designed by Rosatom, and the boiler is made by one of ZIL's daughters. Hitachi will only supply the "grids" (the high-tech part of the boiler where the actual combustion takes place).
DIOXINS ARE POORLY STUDYED. These are volatile poisons that are formed during the combustion of waste. In addition to chlorine-containing dioxins, which already know how to filter, there are also fluorine, bromine, and iodine dioxins, which are poorly captured. In addition, even the designer of the plants doubts that the garbage entering the plant will be pre-sorted, as is done in Europe.
NO WHERE TO GO ASH. After burning, a powder is also left, which is much more toxic to both the soil and surface water than ordinary household waste. It is impossible to bury this ash in ordinary landfills, and there are no specialized landfills in the region.
Lately there have been "voluntary" resignations of governors en masse. “Unbearable when forced. But voluntarily unbearable.
A lot has already been written and said about this "voluntary gubernia", so there is no point in repeating it. Once again, the authorities have demonstrated that they do not care about the opinion of voters. In principle, the majority of voters do not care about their opinion. They believe exclusively in the "good and chief king", who alone knows who should rule the local electorate.
It is in this context that one can say why Putin dismissed one and not the other. We do not know the intentions of the guarantor, but in principle any leader of the region can become a "volunteer", otherwise ... You yourself know that the choice of those who do not want to become a volunteer is very small. Everyone has their own "skeletons in the closet". True, there is information that the planned resignations are over. Only if force majeure.
In this regard, a significant part of law-abiding residents of the Moscow region asks a perplexed question: “Why is there no governor in the list of“ volunteers ” Andrey VOROBYOV.
It seemed that after the “straight line” with Putin, which talked about the garbage dump in Balashikha, the governor’s days in office were numbered. The names of successors have already been named, but in the end everyone remained with their own.
Indeed, why not dismissed. It must be understood that the arrival of Vorobyov to the governorship as a whole in the Moscow region was perceived positively. First, he came with such pre-election promises that were very attractive to the electorate. Prohibit multi-storey and "spot" buildings. Put things in order in the sphere of housing and communal services, medicine, education. Second, he replaced as governor Sergei SHOIGU, which for a short period of leadership managed to win the sympathy of the inhabitants of the region. Given the close and close relationship, they hoped that Vorobyov would become a worthy successor to the Minister of Defense. Maybe he would be a worthy successor. We do not know what kind of governor Sergei Shoigu would have been if he had stayed in the region longer.
Election promises in our country are rarely kept. Not implemented, and already good. But even this “good” did not work out. High-rise buildings were not only not limited, but also received a new impetus - a shameless and senseless scale. Municipalities, having lost their powers in the field of construction, most often act as outside observers or lightning rods, where the discontent of residents merges. In the housing and communal sector, the transformations were reduced to the redistribution of the market and the redistribution of financial flows. This was clearly manifested in the story of the management companies and the creation of MosOblLEIRTS, which ultimately led to huge debts to resource companies.
Local self-government has been virtually destroyed in the bud. Most municipalities no longer have direct elections of heads and deputies, and the municipalities themselves have actually become an appendage of the regional government. The main function of the local authorities was reduced to one issue. What would you like? The regional government itself is the government of incompetent "blondes" with all the ensuing consequences. You can list the problems that Governor Vorobyov created or exacerbated for a long time.
He deserved a “voluntary” resignation no less, and perhaps more, than those governors who were sent into retirement. However, Vorobyov is still the governor.
Why didn't the President fire Governor Andrei Vorobyov?
The explanation for this situation seems to lie on the surface. The governor has a powerful "roof". "Godson" - Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, regional prosecutor - son-in-law of the Minister of Defense, son of the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika for some time he was under the Moscow region authorities. With such a “roof”, resignation, if possible, is only upon receipt of an equivalent position for Vorobyov. There are rumors that he could head the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Thank God it's just rumors.
Moreover, there is information that the planned resignations of governors have ended. Only if force majeure. It is clear that in the current situation in the region, the socio-economic situation will only worsen: the growth of crime, the decline in living standards, the deepening of social stratification, etc.
Not only the population, but also the so-called "local elites" are dissatisfied with the governor's policy. They are increasingly irritated by the need to fulfill the various "Wishlist" of the governor.
Therefore, there is another more or less plausible version when the president will dismiss the governor. Closer to the new year, when the presidential campaign will begin, in order to remind the electorate once again before the elections, "who is the boss in the house." But in any case, nothing fundamentally will change under the current structure of power. Vorobyov will be replaced by the conditional Drozdov or Sorokin. The electorate will dutifully vote yes. And then once again it will wait for the president to remove the governor. “Here comes the master, the master will judge us”- the poet wrote about the psychology of serfs.
https://www.site/2018-03-23/kak_protesty_v_volokolamske_mogut_otrazitsya_na_sudbe_glavy_podmoskovya_andreya_vorobeva
Garbage wind for the governor
How the protests in Volokolamsk may affect the fate of the head of the Moscow region Andrey Vorobyov
According to the site, Andrei Vorobyov is going to run for governor again, but the problem with the landfill in Volokolamsk will complicate his campaign. Press Service of the Governor of the Moscow Region
The situation in the small town of Volokolamsk near Moscow, where residents have been suffocating for several months from gas emissions from the Yadrovo landfill, may affect the career prospects of Governor Andrei Vorobyov. Dozens of children have already been hospitalized with signs of poisoning, local residents are storming the city hall and organizing rallies. Vorobyov himself, who arrived at the hospital a few days ago, was pelted with snowballs - with the help of security guards, he barely made his way to the car under the whistle of the crowd. This is not the first conflict between the authorities of the Moscow Region and the residents in recent times, and experts admit that Vorobyov's position has weakened, but at the same time they argue that the chances of his re-nomination are high.
Andrei Vorobyov is an influential governor; Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who worked for many years in the Ministry of Emergency Situations together with Vorobyov's father, is considered his political patron. The future of such a figure in Russia, with its clannishness and nepotism, should have been cloudless. Elections of the governor of the Moscow region will take place this autumn. Interlocutors close to the presidential administration say that Vorobyov was confidently going to run for a new term. But at the same time, it was discussed that he would not mind being promoted to the government of the Russian Federation, which will be formed after the presidential elections (held on March 18), especially since Shoigu will retain his post in the new government with a probability of almost 100%. So, according to the site, Vorobyov could, for example, head the Ministry of Emergency Situations instead of the current head of the department, Vladimir Puchkov.
But the events in Volokolamsk, as well as the presence of a huge number of "hot spots" throughout the region, gradually developing into mass protests, call into question the possible prospects for an increase, and even a new governor's term. It is worth paying attention to the video circulated on the Internet, in which the governor with security makes his way through the crowd: snowballs fly at him, people shout: “Killers”.
The interlocutor, close to the presidential administration, says that the underlying reason for the current situation lies in the economic sphere.
It is not the first year that the authorities of the Moscow region have been developing a project to build waste incineration plants, but different clans (among the interested parties, the interlocutor names, for example, the head of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, as well as the Rotenberg brothers) are fighting for different projects.In addition, in places where factories are planned to be built, for example, in Voskresensk, there are protesting residents who do not want to breathe in potential emissions. The clans fought, the smell from the landfill intensified, as a result, “the situation got a little out of control, and so far it is not visible that the governor and his team have regained this control,” the source says. He adds that the current situation is unlikely to completely deprive Vorobyov of a political future, but may "slightly worsen" his original 100% chance, if not to get promoted, then to keep the position of governor.
Political scientist Gleb Kuznetsov recalls that the current events in Volokolamsk only continue the general negative background of news about Vorobyov's initiatives: "he is now at the epicenter of bad news."
How does Volokolamsk live after the mass poisoning of children and the visit of Moscow region officials
Indeed, protests are already underway in Balashikha - the landfill problem there is similar to the problem of Volokolamsk, Rospotrebnadzor refuses to notice the nauseating smell, while the unbearable stench has already reached the districts of Moscow adjacent to Balashikha. Voskresensk protests against the construction of a waste incineration plant, the north of the Moscow region protests against the construction of a private-state toll road "Vinogradovo - Boltino - Tarasovka", for the sake of which they will demolish residential buildings and cut down forests in the protection zone of Mosvodokanal.
“All the problems are somehow related to the fact that the regional administration is trying to either radically change the rules of regulation and the conditions in which people live, or, as in Volokolamsk, they cannot cope with the negative consequences of these changes. Regulation is an initiative to create a law simplifying the seizure of land and buildings from the owner, an initiative to make preliminary archaeological examination unnecessary when implementing large projects, an initiative to soften the rules for using land in the areas of the Moscow water intake (it did not seem to pass, but it was put forward and caused a lot of negativity ),” lists Kuznetsov. In his opinion, this is being done because "investors want easier access to land, infrastructure and construction." “But one must understand that this easy access is fraught with conflicts, and in the future, active protests. People don't get rich, they're irritated, and they think like this: “Well, ok. If you cannot provide us with the growth of well-being, do not touch our usual life. Do not give more money, give clean air and the preservation of the usual way. Instead, a bulldozer or a garbage truck arrives under the porch to talk about the happiness of the investor. Logic does not work here: “the more construction and economic revival there is, the better you will ever live,” the expert believes.
According to Kuznetsov, Vorobyov will have an extremely difficult time. “If the regional administration does not correct the system of explanations why the opinion of residents should not be taken into account when implementing large projects, if it does not learn dialogue, then, I believe, the Volokolamsk events will seem like a cakewalk to the governor,” the expert concludes.
Political scientist Vitaly Ivanov believes that recent events have greatly complicated the life of Andrei Vorobyov, although his situation is not yet hopeless. “Vorobyev has a chance for a second term if he changes his rhetoric, goes out to the people and radically renews domestic political management,” Ivanov says.
Political scientist Abbas Gallyamov recalls that President Vladimir Putin does not like to dismiss people under pressure from protesters, and this can play into Vorobyov's hands. “Of course, after the events in Volokolamsk, Vorobyov's position weakened. Nevertheless, do not think that it will be removed now. So his chances for re-nomination remain high, ”Gallyamov argues.
Political scientist Leonid Davydov says that the fate of the governors and the government will be decided during the "two-month marathon" that began this week with the re-election of Vladimir Putin to the presidency.This marathon, according to the expert, will last until his inauguration and reappointment of the government. “It is not a fact that the one who fell behind at the beginning of the marathon will not come to the finish line not the last. All the battles of the elites have just come out from under the carpet, and in the coming months we can see a lot of unexpected things, ”Davydov notes philosophically.
Vorobyov's enemies will now take advantage of the situation and wind up a protest, Konstantin Kalachev acts as a lawyer for Vorobyov's team. “Rumors about Vorobyov's transfer to another job have been circulating since the first year of his governorship. The Moscow region is always in sight, and there are plenty of interested people who want to take its place or put their own person there. According to objective indicators - the economy, investments, fulfillment of social obligations - the Moscow region occupies a worthy position in the country. So there should be no reasons for dissatisfaction on the part of the federal center. The garbage problem, of course, in this situation is not at all in the hands of Vorobyov. But it is not only regional. And affects at least Moscow. And there are no instant solutions. An active protest over garbage began last summer. It is obvious that initially the folk theme was "saddled" by professional dissatisfied people, who are many in such a region. The topic has received a second wind, external stakeholders have joined in, everyone who is looking for signs of an impending popular uprising in any local protest has perked up, ”Kalachev believes.
Alexei Makarkin, vice president of the Center for Political Technologies, is sure that Vorobyov's position and chances of staying in the region for another term have worsened not even because there was a scandal, but because the protests could not be hidden. “There are various protests and scandals in different regions, but if the conflict has come out, if they show how the crowd is pushing the head of the region, this is already a matter of the prestige of the authorities, which reduces his chances for a new term. At the same time, I would not rule out the option of his transfer to the government. For example, there was a precedent when the former governor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Yakovlev, became the Minister of Regional Development. Vorobyov has very serious connections, so even a transfer to the Ministry of Emergency Situations cannot be ruled out. For elected positions, the issue of maintaining the prestige of power is important, but for ministries it is not so important. The population does not really follow who occupies ministerial seats. For example, I remember once we conducted a poll to evaluate the work of Igor Sechin, who was then Deputy Prime Minister. The majority chose the answer “I don't know”. If we now conduct a survey on the Ministry of Emergencies, many probably believe that it is still headed by Shoigu. Therefore, the presence of public problems may not become a reason for not including a person in the government,” Makarkin sums up.
The presidential candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for his "work" wants to get the post of governor of the Moscow region. It is possible then that from the spring of 2018, the current head of the Moscow region will be involved in a number of criminal cases.
In the event that Pavel Grudinin performs well in the presidential elections, the director of the State Farm. He will not remain Lenin. The presidential administration is ready to give him leadership over the Moscow region. It is even rumored that the future governorship became one of the conditions for his nomination. It seems that a communist with a capitalist spirit has foreseen all possible options in advance. But what will happen to the current governor of the Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov?
The last trill of the governor
Vorobyov, as you know, is a creature of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. It was he who replaced the official who had been in the chair of the governor of the Moscow region for only a few months, allegedly, precisely at his insistence. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and even elections have been held, but Andrei Vorobyov still remains in his place. But its positions are becoming more and more shaky day by day.
The first signal that he "it's time to bring down" sounded two years ago - then a conflict broke out with a landfill in Balashikha, which by the current moment has not only not subsided, but has flared up into real garbage battles. In particular, this led to a confrontation between Vorobyov and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin - and after all, initially they were put "in spite" of Luzhkov and Gromov, the conflict between which was open and had a very negative impact on both the capital and the region.
The patronage of a brother is, apparently, one of the main tasks of the head of the Moscow region. Samolet Development, a company associated with Maxim Vorobyov, obtains land and building permits at the click of a finger, which, as you know, is dissatisfied with both local residents and other developers. However, recently the situation has changed quite a lot: building permits in the Moscow region began to be issued at the click of a finger. Moreover, even unreliable developers, on which more than one long-term construction is already hanging. Among these, for example, the Rassvet Group of Companies - the buyers of their apartments in Tomilino are already preparing an application to the prosecutor's office, and the authorities have given the developer permission to build in Pushkino.
Sources in the administration explain this quite simply: no one knows how long Vorobyov and his team will hold out in this place. Therefore, they try to squeeze out the "maximum" by signing various pieces of paper, including issuing permits - it is not unlikely that officials are doing this for a bribe. In general, Vorobyov deserved his resignation only for this, not to mention the dominance of criminal authorities in the region, no one knows where the money goes from the budget and cooperation with dubious personalities. But will a better governor come out of Grudinin? They take doubts.
Old Spirit of the Moscow Region
Grudinin has been in some kind of opposition to the current authorities of the Moscow region for quite a long time. At the same time, a number of media outlets in laudatory publications, which, like mushrooms after rain, began to appear in various publications and, most likely, are custom-made, indicate rather strange reasons for this: allegedly, utilities at the State Farm are cheaper by a couple of thousand rubles, a modern school was built, and the head of the enterprise thought up to help the business at all! All this, in their opinion, does not please the leaders of the region. In fact, it's not quite like that.
Pavel Grudinin for many years in his interviews praised Andrei Vorobyov's predecessor, ex-governor Boris Gromov. Perhaps this is where the confrontation began. According to the presidential candidate, he helped him fight the raiders, including through the consolidation of State Farm shares in the hands of "like-minded people." And Gromov's social circle has long been known - an excellent marker here is deputy Dmitry Sablin, who, according to evil tongues, is closely connected with the criminal authorities of the Moscow region and raider seizures of land.
So with the coming of Grudinin to power, albeit not in the whole country, but in a single region, the era of Gromov will return rather than everyone will live in communism. Although the attitude of the candidate from the Communist Party to the ideas of Karl Marx and Vladimir Ilyich is also very doubtful.
Kommugarh Grudinin
From the moment Grudinin was nominated as a candidate for the upcoming elections, there has been a joke on the Web: how to combine the words oligarch and communist in one word to define it? It has aggravated the most in the last few days, when billions of rubles worth of "unrecorded" foreign accounts were discovered in his possession. Where the money comes from is an interesting question. The state farm does not live in poverty, but the working people there do not earn billions either. But Grudinin is making money. And he goes to Switzerland on vacation. And they haven't found foreign property yet! Or is it just for now?
And what can we say about a pseudo-communist, when securities are now not even interested in the very fact of their presence! - Grudinin keeps on offshore accounts in a very capitalist Liechtenstein bank Liechtensteinische Landesbank! And there is one point here - you can’t just break into this bank. We need connections in Europe and appropriate recommendations from significant (for the EU, not for Russia) people. And it turns out that Grudinin has them. Are Grudinin's securities hidden in elite offshores away from expropriators?
That is, he must represent the interests of the oppressed, while he himself is an oppressor. The alignment is interesting, but it can easily alienate the main electorate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. And the dacha is not talking about billions and not about the fact that he is not a member of the party. Here is an excerpt from the candidate's campaign program:
"Capitalism itself creates the prerequisites for the establishment of a more perfect social system. The main material basis for the inevitable onset of socialism is the socialization of production. The driving force behind this process has been and remains the working man, the working class. Scientific and technological progress leads to a radical qualitative and structural renewal of the working class of the city and villages. Engineering and technical and scientific workers, workers in the service sector, for the most part today are also wage workers. As a result of this, a vanguard detachment, the core of the modern working class, is being formed. The communists see it as their main social support. "
That is, capitalism is a completely self-sufficient trend. And it was he who gave birth to the modern working class. And for some reason, it is the exploiter who, according to all the norms of communism, should be expropriated along with his entire state farm.
It seems that those who rejoice at the possibility of Grudinin's nomination to replace Vorobyov will cry after the elections. Because he will not build a separate USSR 2.0 in the Moscow region. And the money that he "sucks" from the State Farm and sends to accounts in elite offshore companies, he will begin to draw from other enterprises in the region. And the inhabitants of the Moscow region will have no choice, and the Communists will have no excuse.
More recently, Andrei Vorobyov told the media that he would decide whether to run for governor again after the presidential election. But then the demon beguiled the governor.
Andrei Vorobyov said on February 14 in an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper that he would stay at the helm of the Moscow region for another five years. The ambitious statement of the unpopular governor caused surprise among many: both ordinary residents and elites. Let's start with the fact that a month ago the politician claimed that he would not announce his decision before the presidential elections, and immediately went against his own words. Such behavior, in the opinion of the population, can be associated with only one thing: the president agreed on this candidacy for the next five-year period. Moreover, the current governor is perceived by the people as a protege of the president. However, Vorobyov's extremely low reputation among citizens is obviously hurting Vladimir Putin's rating in the capital region on the eve of the presidential elections.
Andrey Yuryevich should not have rushed with loud speeches and for one more reason. The main task set before the heads of the regions is to conduct the presidential election campaign without violations. Those who fail to comply with this installation are expected to be fired. And here the Moscow region has very big problems. The Moscow Region Electoral Committee has repeatedly found itself at the center of high-profile scandals during election campaigns, in which the head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, was forced to intervene.
Unfortunately, troubles have already occurred during the presidential campaign. Pamfilova threatened to disband the regional election commission for illegally holding school referendums in educational institutions on the day of the presidential election. It is clear that Vorobyov's low rating negatively affects the general turnout of the population for any election, however, such dubious technologies to attract people to the polls cause even more damage to the image of the entire government as a whole. Thus, in a short time, the Moscow region has already rendered the second disservice to Vladimir Putin.
There is also a third “but”: Andrey Vorobyov's bluster and statement, almost as a fait accompli, that he remains in the Moscow region for another five years, discredits the procedure for gubernatorial elections. After all, how can he know for sure what he will win? Today, many analysts say that Pavel Grudinin will obviously participate in the race. For Vorobyov, who has gained extremely notoriety in the Moscow region, to beat the director of the Lenin state farm in a fair race is something from the category of “mission impossible”. Is Andrei Yuryevich's self-confidence based only on the administrative resource and gray technologies of the election commission?
It is impossible to ignore a few theses. Once again, I was struck by the ease with which Vorobyov goes to outright deceit, starting with the first words: "The main achievement is a dialogue with residents." What dialogue? With what residents? It doesn't even look like a joke. Has Vorobyov ever discussed what people want? Has the government taken into account the results of public hearings at least once on any issue? In the suburbs, people are not asked, they are treated like serfs, completely ignoring their rights and vital needs. Was Andrei Yuryevich interested in the opinion of the people when the benefits for large families were canceled? Cancellation of free ride? Destruction of local self-government? Liquidation of municipal districts and ruin of the village? Expanding landfills? When imposing on the inhabitants of the predatory private company MosObleirts? In all these questions and many others, Vorobyov did not listen to people, and in a number of cases rudely gagged them.
To the question of a Vedomosti journalist about the governor's brother, Maxim, Andrey Yuryevich literally answered: "My brother does not have a business in the Moscow region." Excuse me, but what about the Samolet Development company, which is building up Lyubertsy, the Domodedovo district and other territories bordering Moscow? In the public domain on the Internet there are all documents confirming the most direct participation in this business of members of the Vorobyov family.
Back in 2013, as Vedomosti recalled, the governor announced that he would increase the region's budget to a trillion rubles. Naturally, the promise was not kept. But when answering a question about this, Vorobyov dodges as best he can, declaring that he has made a breakthrough: “We increased the budget from 454 billion to 605 billion rubles!” Let's do a simple analysis. In 2014, Western sanctions brought down the Russian ruble. The dollar has doubled against our currency. All goods have risen in price by exactly the same amount, and, as a result, the taxable base has increased. But at the same time, real incomes declined. It turns out that if in absolute terms the budget of the region doubled, this would mean that in difficult economic conditions Vorobyov kept the situation. But the budget grew only by 20%. And these 20% are not production growth, but inflation. So what is the achievement here when it comes to decline? The interview, probably conceived as an election campaign and paid for from a budget item for PR, clearly demonstrates that Vorobyov has nothing to brag about at the end of his five-year period ...
