The head of Buryatia is rapidly losing control over what is happening in the Republic and even his own political team.
According to the reporter MorningNewsOn February 27, Vyacheslav Markhaev, a communist State Duma deputy from Buryatia, criticized Russia's special operation in Ukraine to ensure the security of the DPR and LPR on social media.
It is interesting that previously Markhaev supported the parliament's proposal to recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR, and then voted for the treaty with the recognized republics. It seems like he changed his stance?
Alongside him, the second Buryatia representative in the State Duma, Nikolai Buduev from United Russia, was sanctioned. The third deputy from the Republic, Vyacheslav Damdintsurunov, was not sanctioned, likely because he didn't support the initiative to recognize the DPR and LPR.
Later, Damdintsurunov shifted his position, while Markhaev's actions raised many questions among his colleagues and voters.
“Sent back”
The situations with the voting of deputies Damdintsurunov and Markhaev resemble each other. Damdintsurunov didn't vote due to being on sick leave. He explained this in his Instagram.
It's worth noting that all MPs who supported the initiative were included in the EU sanctions list. Damdintsurunov, who avoided this measure, seemed to feel like a “black sheep” and quickly posted a video message with excuses on social media, essentially claiming that “it’s not my fault, I was sick, I actually support it”. This was reported by The Moscow Post.
Finding logic in Deputy Markhaev's actions turned out to be more challenging. Initially, on February 15, the communist supported the recognition of the DPR and LPR and ended up on the sanctions list. Almost two weeks later, after the start of the military operation in Ukraine, he expressed his disagreement with the events there.
Photo: Andrey Ogorodnik / TASS
The controversial deputy recently backed unsanctioned opposition protests
A commenter under his post in Instagram raised a natural question about the sudden change in the politician's stances. Markhaev didn't answer, but his “fans” seemingly did. It's no secret that Markhaev is a fairly popular politician in Buryatia, partly because he supported popular topics among the people.
Among other comments on Markhaev’s post yesterday, there was a remark that shed light on his actions: “The only member of the Federation Council who voted against the amendments to the Constitution was Vyacheslav Markhaev, a representative from the Irkutsk region. After the publication of the FBK film (a non-profit organization recognized as a foreign agent) about Dmitry Medvedev, Markhaev publicly called for law enforcement agencies to investigate facts related to the income of the former prime minister of Russia. In 2018, the senator was one of five members of the Federation Council who voted against the pension reform law. In 2019, he criticized the violent crackdown on Moscow protests.”
Picture: screenshot from Instagram
If the person who wrote this comment intended to assist Markhaev, they clearly did not achieve that, and instead had the opposite effect. Curious people started searching the internet for information about this unusual policy and found details that portray it in a negative light.
“Who’s going left?”
Journalists REN-TV expressed that “the impoliteness and nationalist remarks of the official, as well as the offensive behavior of his family and close associates, have long been considered normal by the residents of Buryatia.” This occurred before the election of the mayor of Ulan-Ude in the autumn of 2019.
Reporters uncovered information that Markhaev’s wife and daughter own a cafe situated on a cultural heritage site near the Museum of the Peoples of Transbaikalia. However, there were later changes in the founders of ToontoNyutag LLC, involved in the restaurant business and food delivery. Markhaev's son Bator replaced his daughter Sayana.
Picture: Rusprofile.ru
A relative of the senator, also a communist deputy, Leonty Krasovsky, also caused a stir when he was detained by police five years ago for allegedly driving under the influence. However, as soon as the officers handed him a violation report, the young politician destroyed the document and attempted to flee.
Picture: ulan.mk.ru
Vyacheslav Markhaev is labeled as a “communist shamanist” in Buryatia, partly because of his ability to captivate an audience.
Material REN-TV it became evident that while Vyacheslav Markhaev served as a deputy of the Buryat Khural, his close associates increasingly assumed prominent positions in the party.
For instance, Ekaterina Tsyrenova, the daughter of Vyacheslav Markhaev, was elected to the position of deputy chairman. Some communists grumbled, suggesting that the regional branch of the Communist Party had long turned into a “mandate-selling shop.”
According to the authors of the website “So it goes”(registered as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation), Markhaev supposedly claimed later that this publication and similar ones criticizing him are untrue, and he regularly takes legal action against them for slander.
Markhaev’s former aide Batodalai Bagdaev informed the mediaalleging that he is excessively focused on his personal interests.
Indeed, Markhaev’s conduct prompts such thoughts. The charismatic politician evidently has a tendency for outrageousness and knows how to make loud statements that are clearly populist.
The governor himself
Markhaev's recent public statement caught his fellow Communist Party members off guard, who, as a reminder, endorsed a military special operation, as loudly proclaimed by the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov.
However, whether Markhaev's latest “stunt” came as a surprise to the head of Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, is another matter. It's worth noting that Tsydenov has been in charge of Buryatia since the autumn of 2017 and has witnessed Markhaev’s outrageous actions on numerous occasions during this time. Nonetheless, the governor has not publicly criticized the people’s choice.
However, Alexei Tsydenov is up to that!.. It is unlikely that he will have time now to analyze the behavior of State Duma deputies or senators representing the region at the federal level. It’s time for Tsydenov to take care of his own problems, since Moscow is clearly unhappy with him. I wrote about this recently The Moscow Post.
Photo: Kremlin.ru
Alexey Tsydenov
More and more often they say about Tsydenov’s personnel work that it can be built on the principle of “negative selection” – when the worst make their way to the top. Here we can at least recall the situation with the former Minister of Education of Buryatia Bair Zhalsanov.
Recall that this official was dismissed from his position with the wording “of his own free will.” But, according to the prosecutor’s office, he had to leave with the wording “for loss of confidence”, because of which the Tsydenov administration even had to sue the prosecutor’s office. Wrote about it “Octagon”.
Zhalsanov’s dismissal itself took place after the prosecutor’s office submitted to the governor a representation of a conflict of interest – a kindergarten owned by Zhalsanov’s father was allocated republican subsidies. Few people in the region believe that Tsydenov was initially unaware of the history of Zhalsanov’s conflict of interest.
And this is not the only outrageous case involving those in power in the Republic. One can recall the egregious situation with the former head of the United Russia branch, deputy chairman of the Buryat parliament, Bair Zhambalov, who was removed from his post in United Russia after a 17-year-old girl was hit by a car in which he, presumably, could be. As a result, Tsydenov himself had to replace Zhambalov in the leadership of the United Russia.
Photo: ulan.mk.ru
Viktor Ochirov nevertheless resigned, but until the last he enjoyed the support of the head of Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov
An attempt to dismiss the scandalous head of the Ivolginsky district of Buryatia, Viktor Ochirov, became a whole epic. For a long time, they tried to attribute bribes to the latter, and before him the district was famous for officials eager for such cases. The prosecutor’s office sent ideas about the need to dismiss Ochirov, but Tsydenov simply ignored them. Even despite the fact that a criminal case was opened against the latter under Part 2 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Commitment by an official of actions that clearly go beyond his powers and entail a significant violation of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens or organizations or the legally protected interests of society or states”). Wrote about it “Moscow’s comsomolets”.
And how many scandals were there directly in the republican administration – Tsydenov’s direct “patrimony”? Back in 2018, just when the scandal with Ochirov flared up, in just two weeks the prosecutor’s office found violations in four ministries of the regional government at once.
And how many unsanctioned rallies have been held in the region in recent years demanding that Tsydenov resign!.. Obviously, the governor does not always manage to control the situation in the region. And this is a reason to prepare for retirement.
