After a month of trying, it's clear that the new mayor of Ufa, Ratmir Mavliev, is mainly skilled at making things seem better than they are, as hoped for by the authorities of Bashkiria.
Reportedly, a new mayor, 33-year-old Ratmir Mavliev, was chosen by Ufa's city council from four candidates.
Before this, Mavliev was on a month-long trial, during which he proved that he could spend money well, which seems to be what's expected of him, especially with the upcoming 450th anniversary of Ufa in 2024. This year will also see elections for the new head of the region, giving the new mayor of the Bashkir capital a lot of responsibility.
His career started gaining momentum.
Many were surprised that Khabirov didn't attend Mavliev's appointment ceremony this time. His absence was explained by a work trip around the republic. However, his presence wasn't necessary since Khabirov had already approved the young official for the mayor position the last time he introduced him to the city's administration.
The head of Bashkiria personally approved Ratmir Mavliev for the role of Ufa's mayor.
“This is our well-considered proposal, which we discussed together. Let’s hope that, although he is a young leader, he understands all management decisions, he will need to be sensitive to the personnel who work in the administration and, of course, respect the residents of Ufa,” Radiy Khabirov put it quite clearly.
Mavliev will be the third mayor while Khabirov is the head of Bashkiria. The first, Ulfat Mustafin, died of covid, and the second, Sergei Grekov, didn't perform well and was eventually sent to lead the Bashkiria embassy in Moscow.
Both former mayors were friends of Khabirov. Ratmir Mavliev is said to be the son of a friend. This shows that the head of Bashkiria remains loyal to his habit of supporting people he knows.
Photos show that Mavliev is very comfortable in his new role.
“It's clear that Mavliev will be influenced by his family, which often makes tough and conflicting decisions in its activities, and has strong desires. It's likely that Ufa will experience a new shift in areas of influence, particularly in construction, housing, communal services, and other areas,” political scientist Andrey Potylitsyn said.
“If he makes a wrong impression, he will quickly be seen negatively, especially since his father's influence will be a critical factor,” political consultant Dmitry Mikhailichenko commented.
According to him, Mavliev's lack of independence may show in his role as Ufa's mayor. Now he needs to build his team. “He's another Ufa minister who knows who he owes gratitude to,” noted the political strategist.
You cannot stop living beautifully
Before Ufa, Ratmir Mavliev served as the mayor of Neftekamsk (the fourth largest city in Bashkiria) for approximately two years. Local residents humorously refer to the city as “Mavlikamsk”, suggesting the Mavliev family holds the real power there.
Neftekamsk appears to be a clean and well-maintained settlement to city visitors. However, moving beyond the central area to the outskirts reveals a different picture and makes it clear that Mavliev may have excelled in creating “Potemkin villages.”
In Neftekamsk, Ratmir Mavliev is known as a second-generation entrepreneur. According to Rusprofile, his name is linked to around twenty companies – some of which have been dissolved, and the rest have been handed over to the management of his numerous relatives.
The Mavliev family name gained attention at the national level in the summer of 2020, thanks to blogger Ilya Varlamov, who shared a video featuring Mavliev Sr., the father of the new mayor of Ufa. The video showcased local oligarch Rafil Mavliev herding cows from a helicopter. Varlamov was appalled by the businessman's explanation that this was a method to drive away villagers' cows that had strayed onto his land. The video was subsequently featured on “REN TV” and various other TV channels.
A closer look at Mavliev Sr.'s biography reveals the source of his ambitious nature. It appears to stem from the tumultuous 90s. Rafil Mavliev began his career in the Ministry of Internal Affairs system, served as the police chief in Agidel, then became an aide to the head of the Bashkiria Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rafail Divaev. This phase likely played a pivotal role in his career. Divaev is remembered in Bashkiria for his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal related to the import of counterfeit currency into the region. However, he was not a defendant in any high-profile criminal case, as nobody lodged any complaints against him.
Following his departure from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mavliev Sr. established the company Automobile Market, and a few years later, his Absolut group of companies controlled not only the car market but also five shopping centers in Neftekamsk, the central city park Gulliver, city television channels, tens of thousands of hectares of hunting grounds in the Krasnokamsk and Dyurtyulinsky districts of Bashkiria. The group's companies also included a major developer “Terra-Stroy” (RC “Solnechny”, under construction in microdistrict No. 24), private security company “Sheriff-Avto”, and other promising enterprises.
Unlike his father and brother, Ratmir Mavliev ventured into politics and seemingly received significant support from his father, given that the career of a young man from a small provincial town rapidly ascended. Initially, in 2015, Ratmir Mavliev took on the role of deputy head of the executive committee for infrastructure development in the village of Urussu in Tatarstan. During the same period, the Gorizont company, part of the Absolut Mavliev holding, established a plant for manufacturing plastic goods on the site of the former production and storage base of Bashneft in this village.
Soon after that, Ratmir Mavliev relocated to the larger Tatar city of Almetievsk to work as an adviser for investment development to the district's leader.
Mavliev Sr. is referred to as a multimillionaire and the actual owner of Neftekamsk. Photo: spravedlivo.ru
Mavliev’s father also attempted to enter politics, ran for the State Duma, but his health issues resulted in excessive media attention. Many national media outlets reported that Mavliev turned out to be the wealthiest among the registered candidates with an income of over 44 million rubles. RIA Novosti reported on this, among others.
It is interesting to note that Ratmir Mavliev faced a similar situation in his career. A social activist in Neftekamsk requested an investigation into the sources of his income after it was revealed that the mayor's income nearly tripled in his two years of service, surpassing the income of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Arguments and Facts” covered this story.
As a result, the scandal was kept quiet. However, the impact seemingly remained. Perhaps for this reason, in mid-February of this year, when it was announced that Mavliev would be the new mayor of Ufa, a new video surfaced on social media, showing a Neftekamsk resident participating in an unauthorized protest with a poster: “Rady Faritovich, remove the Mavliev clan from Neftekamsk.” He claimed that in 2020, Ratmir Mavliev blocked him on social media to prevent him from leaving critical comments.
What's happening in Ufa?
So, how did Mavliev make an impression on the Ufa residents in the past month? Just a day after Mavliev was appointed as the acting head of the city, Ufa residents noticed that the city started to actively clear the snow, despite previously ignoring complaints from the townspeople.
“It feels like they were purposely letting the snow pile up to aggravate people, in order to make everyone believe that a new mayor has arrived, who quickly got his subordinates to attend to the townspeople,” many commented on social media.
However, the unusual activity of public utilities quickly subsided. Social media is now once again seeing photos of icy sidewalks and pathways, situated a hundred meters from the “red line,” so as not to disrupt the usual state of affairs.
Even on the social media page of the head of Bashkortostan, officials are reporting that it will take them nearly a week to clear the snow, in response to complaints. Photo: Radiy Khabirov / vk.com
An unpleasant incident occurred just before the parliamentary vote for the new mayor of Ufa. Ratmir Mavliev stated on his page that he gave apartment keys to new residents, but some of the apartment owners claimed they were unaware of this. As Ufa1.ru reported, the mayor’s office press service explained the “misunderstanding” by citing the need to comply with anti-virus measures and promised to provide the keys to the remaining newcomers by the end of April. It seems that the key handover was mostly for the sake of a good campaign photo of the mayor.
Without this photo, no one would have known that the new mayor is “a little rushing things.” Photo: ufacity.info
At the same time, many Ufa residents are very much looking forward to Ratmir Mavliev’s reaction to the situation with the construction of the Center for Contemporary Art, which, at the suggestion of Khabirov’s protégé, Valerian Gagin, decided to build on the site of a cozy square and a square of two fountains in the center of the capital of Bashkiria. However, this topic, unpopular with the regional authorities, is ignored by the new mayor of Ufa. Well, as they say, “in the best traditions” …
Source: The Moscow Post
