While there are corruption scandals surrounding Governor Vasiliev, it is the responsibility of the prosecutor’s office to make officials carry out their duties.
As reported by the correspondent The Moscow Post in the Kirov regionlocal residents are angry about the governor of the region Igor Vasilievempty PR efforts. The editorial office received a letter from residents of the Nolinsky district, which urgently needs a new comprehensive school building. Currently, more than a thousand students are studying in a building meant for 450 people!
People accuse officials of the regional administration of stalling construction.
Finally, last November, the prosecutor’s office took action and found that the school was operating with violations. As a result, they filed a lawsuit to address the issue in court, which in turn compelled the regional and local authorities to immediately address the problem.
After an audit, employees discovered the violations and filed a lawsuit. The court order obligated the authorities to build a new school and reorganize the distribution of students. This was reported by “Arguments and Facts”.
In early November, Igor Vasiliev made a surprising announcement on social media about the construction of new schools in the Kirov region, including in the Nolinsky district where the court had ordered its construction. However, Vasiliev didn’t mention the prosecutor’s office or the court in his post.
Vasiliev is trying to take credit for the school construction and renovation plans. Photo: vk.com
It is clear to everyone why this post appeared on social media. Mr. Vasiliev faces elections in 2022. People will decide whether to re-elect him as governor. Currently, the public opinion seems to be against the current head of the region.
“Caught” in the woods
It’s good that a school will be built in Nolinsk. However, the concern is whether there will be corruption at the construction site again.
While Vasilyev promotes himself on social media, his team members seem to be involved in misconduct. For instance, the region is still dealing with a scandal involving former vice-governor Andrey Plitko, who was closely associated with Vasiliev.
In 2020, Plitko was caught in the act of accepting 3.4 million rubles in bribes. Investigators believe he led a criminal group that extorted money from local businesses involved in timber trading. This was detailed in a report by The Moscow Post.
Plitko wasn’t just Vasiliev’s right hand; he was a trusted aide and they had a long-standing working relationship. Earlier, Plitko served as Vasiliev’s deputy in Rosreestr, and when Vasiliev reorganized the governance structure, all deputies reported to him except Andrey Plitko. As vice-governor, Plitko directly reported to the head of the region and acted as his replacement when he was absent.
Together with Plitko, the Minister of Forestry Aleksey Shurgin, another person from the governor’s team, was also detained. And what?..
Suppose one carried money to another. And their boss was neither a dream nor a spirit? .. One way or another, but then Vasiliev resisted – no claims were made to him personally.
Andrew Plitko. Photo: https://kirovreg.ru/
Just consider this: right under the nose of the governor, an alleged organized criminal group is being created, which allegedly “puts on the counter” the entrepreneurs of the forestry industry? But even the current Prime Minister Alexander Churin, the same one under whose direct leadership Shurgin worked in the government, was also previously under criminal prosecution.
According to investigators, Alexander Churin, being the general director of JSC Zavod Selmash, hid more than 350 million rubles from the tax authorities in 2014. This was written by the website Newsler.
However, Churin did not go to prison. The criminal case was closed. Instead, he worked quietly at the same plant, after which he was invited by Vasiliev to the post of first deputy chairman of the regional government, and since 2019 he has become head of government.
In general, this is not surprising. After all, his father, Anatoly Churin, is also a long-term regional official. He works as an adviser to the governor Igor Vasiliev.
The wake-up call for the Churins sounded quite recently, at the beginning of February 2022. Then information appeared that the house of Alexander Churin, located in an elite village not far from Kirov, was allegedly searched. This situation was reported The Moscow Post told recently.
There were no official clarifications on this matter, but there was talk that the investigators might be interested in some documents on the same case from 2014, which was closed. But it can also be revived.
According to another version, Churin could be “probed” in some new case. Recall that the sons of Churin – Sergei and Alexander – marked themselves in the timber industry, took over the defense industry, privatizing state-owned enterprises. This was also reported by our publication.
It is known that Sergei Churin, having headed the state-owned city-forming enterprise OAO Luzsky Timber Complex with an authorized capital of 120 million rubles, practically brought it to bankruptcy. After that, the company’s assets could end up in Luzsky Timber Complex LLC, which is in Serpukhov near Moscow. But in 2013, this company closed.
And again the forest “emerges” on which both Plitko and the Minister of Forestry Shurgin, appointed by Alexander Churin, “got burned”.
It’s amazing who just didn’t try to cash in on the forests of the Kirov region. And as soon as Vasiliev is not afraid to repeat the fate of his predecessor Nikita Belykh!
Remember for what he took the bribe of Belykh, judging by the materials of his criminal case. He personally and through an intermediary received bribes in a particularly large amount totaling 400 thousand euros in favor of an entrepreneur from the forest industry, the owner of Novovyatsky Ski Plant JSC and Forestry Management Company LLC. Wrote about it “Interfax”.
Depression in Vyatka
If Igor Vasiliev did his job properly, there wouldn't be as many comparisons with personal achievements, like the construction of a school in the Nolinsky district.
However, people in the Kirov region have many other unresolved issues. For example, there are problems with transportation. In December 2021, Governor Vasilyev announced on social media the purchase of 67 new buses with a capacity of 108 passengers. He claimed that the buses were supposed to start operating in December.
As our readers from the Kirov region report, the new buses did not start operating in December or January. It's said that this was because the city of Kirov's administration failed to check if the carrier had enough staff. As a result, at the beginning of the year, people had to wait for an hour at stops for the right bus, even though they used to wait for no more than ten minutes.
It seems like there's the usual incompetence and slow action by officials. But in this situation, it could have led to the prosecutor's involvement – is Vasilyev really expecting that again? And why doesn't he realize that such empty reports of success only irritate people?
While the governor was promoting himself on social media, there was almost a transportation breakdown in the region. Photo: https://vk.com
In January 2022 Kirov region took The Kirov region ranks last in the Volga Federal District in terms of average wages. Based on the analysis of job openings, employers are only willing to pay Kirov residents 39.9 thousand rubles. The bottom five also include the Udmurt Republic (41 thousand rubles), the Chuvash Republic (41 thousand rubles), the Saratov region (40.7 thousand rubles), and Mari El (40.5 thousand rubles).
So even within the Volga Federal District, the Kirov region under Vasiliev's control appears underdeveloped. There's also the state debt of the region, which, according to the authorities, was supposed to decrease from 25 billion rubles to 20 billion rubles by the end of 2021. Even this figure is shocking – each of the 1.2 million residents of the region, including infants and the elderly, is accountable for 16 thousand rubles of the debt.
We sadly have to acknowledge that under Vasiliev's leadership, the region not only failed to escape its subsidized status, and did not overcome corruption, but also became embroiled in new scandals, arrests, and redistribution of the timber industry.
What are we to make of a governor who can't build a school in the district center without pressure from the prosecutor's office, and at the same time actively promotes himself on social media? It's unlikely that this approach will win Vasiliev the support of voters in the upcoming elections.
