Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Oleg Krivoshapov
[REGNUM] The mayor of Russia's third largest city, Novosibirsk, Anatoly Lokot will resign early as mayor, Governor of the Novosibirsk Region Andrei Travnikov announced on December 28. The wording used by the head of the region was “ another vacation followed by dismissal.” The governor added that he supported Lokot’s decision.
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“Anatoly Evgenievich is moving on to work on carrying out national tasks,” the head of the region said without further clarification.
It is curious that a day earlier the mayor’s office officially denied reports of resignation that had already appeared in the press and Telegram channels. The information is not true, the mayor is at work, the press service of the city administration assured TASS.
According to the schedule, the elections for the mayor of Novosibirsk were scheduled for 2024 - Lokot’s powers would have expired in April. Deputies of the City Council would normally choose (or re-elect) the city mayor from the candidates selected by the competition commission.
Until 2023, Novosibirsk remained one of the last regional capitals where mayors were elected directly, but city deputies abolished this procedure in February.
A nominee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, a member of the presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Anatoly Lokot, served as mayor of the unofficial “capital of Siberia” for almost ten years.
Lokot’s “native” Communist Party confirmed the resignation of the mayor of Novosibirsk, but interpreted this as a purely technical action. “Yes, indeed, Anatoly Lokot is resigning, this is due to the approaching end of his five-year term of office,” Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Central Committee Alexander Yushchenko told Interfax.
By the way, the unscheduled appointment of a new mayor will take place almost as planned. Speaker of the City Council Dmitry Asantsev explained to TASS: it will take 60 days to make a decision on Lokot’s resignation, to form a commission and two stages of selection, i.e. by the end of February the issue should be resolved.
POSSIBLE IMMEDIATE CAUSE
Although the mayor's office denied the impending resignation until the very end, it was predictable and even expected, Novosibirsk City Council deputy Rostislav Antonov told IA Regnum.
According to Antonov, “issues with migrants and diasporas, including serious issues,” could have played an important role.
“We had a conflict when a police officer, while on duty, was forced to use his service weapon, as a result of which a young man died,” notes a city council member. Antonov is referring to an incident that occurred at the end of May 2021 in the village of Moshkovo near Novosibirsk.
Then traffic police inspector Alexander Gusev unintentionally shot and killed 19-year-old Azerbaijani Vekil Abdullayev when he reached for the policeman’s holster.
An entire delegation of Azerbaijanis came to the regional center where this happened, says Antonov. “A police officer who was performing his duties was detained and wanted to initiate a criminal case. And only the intervention of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, solved the problem,” the city deputy emphasizes.
According to Antonov, the active involvement of the federal Investigative Committee and local deputies made it possible to cause a resonance, as a result of which the policeman was released and the people involved in the conflict were detained. “ And there was an unauthorized rally of Azerbaijanis on Lenin Square in Novosibirsk, administrative cases were opened against them after these events,” says the official.
Which, according to Antonov, was not in vain for him: according to him, he received repeated calls at night with threats.
The unresolved problems that had accumulated in Novosibirsk over the years, according to the deputy, became the burden that Anatoly Lokot ultimately could not bear.
But it is unlikely that the interethnic problem played the main role, says political scientist Andrei Tikhonov. Yes, in the Novosibirsk region “the Armenian and Azerbaijani diasporas play a serious role,” notes the interlocutor of IA Regnum. “Moreover, they do not compete, but remain neutral, ” he explains. “This is a serious force, and the region’s politicians are forced to be friends with them. But I don’t think diasporas had an impact.”
According to experts, first of all, a critical mass of questions has accumulated regarding the quality of the mayor’s team.
HIGH-PROFILE CASES
Two consecutive heads of TSUGAET (municipal Center for Urban Electric Transport Management), Aram Suvaryan and his successor Alexander Rudenko, were convicted of bribery. The first in April 2017 for eight years in a maximum security colony, the second in May 2023 for three years on probation.
In 2019 and 2022, people who worked directly in the mayor’s office were already in the dock. First, the former deputy head of the Department of Energy and Housing and Public Utilities, Sergei Eliseev, was given a suspended sentence of four years for attempted fraud (more precisely, for the 5 million rubles that he asked for “help” in extracting budget subsidies).
Then, in April last year, the former head of the mayor’s committee on advertising and information, Dmitry Lobynya, went to a maximum security colony for almost 6 years on a bribery case. Six months later, the same Dzerzhinsky district court gave a “conditional” 4.5 years to the head of the mayor’s office for capital construction, Konstantin Golovin. The prosecution mentioned eight “bribery” episodes (including the official taking 130 thousand rubles in air tickets for accepting an unfinished kindergarten).
The head of the municipal enterprise Metro Mir, Alexander Mysik, was arrested right at the meeting and has been in custody for more than a year. In three cases of abuse of power, the official faces up to 10 years. The investigation claims: according to Mysik’s decision, during the construction of the road from Nautilus Beach to the new Ice Palace, low-quality sand was used, which was dug in the neighborhood - and this caused damage to the city of almost 360 million rubles.
Against this background, the case of slander against State Duma deputy Dmitry Savelyev, for which the “chief of politics” at the mayor’s office, Artyom Skatov, was fined 30 thousand rubles in July.
"QUITE AN HONEST MAN"
Rostislav Antonov is not inclined to suspect the mayor himself of dishonesty. “Anatoly Evgenievich is first and foremost a politician, ” explains the interlocutor. — He was a very good State Duma deputy - active, proactive. But he was not a business executive.”
Lokot brought many of his people whom he knew from his previous parliamentary activities,” notes political scientist Tikhonov. “Among them there were quite a few unprofessional people who were simply personally loyal to the mayor. Sometimes there were quite crazy appointments of people of unknown professional qualities,” the interlocutor states.
According to Lokot’s assessment, he is “a fairly honest person,” but this does not mean that the business executives he selected for his team were of the same quality.
A native of Novosibirsk, Lokot came to public politics in the mid-nineties, when he, at that time the second secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, was first elected as a deputy of the city council. In this post, he earned points by “fighting” against rent increases.
Lokot finally reached the federal level in 2003, when he was first elected to the State Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
In addition to the actual lawmaking in the fourth, fifth and sixth convocations, he was remembered for explaining how to correctly pronounce his last name - “Lokotya”. Speakers Boris Gryzlov and Sergei Naryshkin took note, Vladimir Zhirinovsky vigorously objected.
In April 2014, Lokot won the direct and early elections of the mayor, with a margin of just over 4% over his main competitor, United Russia deputy Vladimir Znatkov.
On a single voting day in September 2019, the mayor was convincingly re-elected, receiving 50.2% of the city's votes. “RIA Novosti” in this regard mentioned the agreement, which was announced by Lokot and the head of the Travnikov region themselves.
The communist mayor refused to participate in early elections for the head of the region, and United Russia governor Travnikov promised to maintain direct elections for the mayor of Novosibirsk and support Lokot in the mayor elections in 2019.
So, the frequent confrontation between the head of the region and the mayor of the regional capital (and even from different parties) in the regions was avoided.
DEMOLITIONS, ADDITIONS AND OMISSIONS
After his first victory in the mayoral elections in 2014, Lokot energetically got down to business. And, as local media admit, he was successful in resolving some issues.
In the same year (in compliance with federal requirements), the largest clothing market beyond the Urals, which served several regions, was closed - the Gusinobrod flea market, also known as the Siberian Cherkizon.
The authorities have been fighting Gusinka for a long time, which by the 2000s had gained a reputation as a breeding ground for crime. It is with this that the murder in 2001 of Deputy Mayor Igor Belyakov, who was responsible for the consumer market, is associated. In 2004, Belyakov’s successor, Igor Maryasov, died from a killer’s bullet .
But ten years later, Lokot managed to close down Gusinka, which was replaced by civilized shopping centers.
Local media also mention the reconstruction of a long-term construction project - the Tourist Hotel, which has been built since the late 1960s. The long-standing problem with the “bottleneck” on one of the main highways, Petukhova Street, which was more important for the townspeople, has also been resolved. Here, finally, there is a transport interchange.
Under Lokot, in 2014, the Bugrinsky automobile bridge across the Ob was put into operation, which was supposed to be commissioned back in 2009. The bridge with the longest arched span in the post-Soviet space connected two federal highways - the Irtysh (from Chelyabinsk to Novosibirsk) and the Chuysky Trakt (from Novosibirsk to the border with Mongolia and further to China).
In part, Novosibirsk practice resembled Moscow practice of the same years. The mayor's office demolished illegal unauthorized construction, including in Central Park, and fought against infill development.
On the other hand - and here is the difference from the capital - the Novosibirsk metro, consisting of only two lines, has practically not developed. Under Lokot, only one station was built - “Sportivnaya”, and it was decided to abandon plans to extend the Dzerzhinskaya (aka “green”) line. Let us note that the above-mentioned head of Metro World, Alexander Mysik, was responsible for the sluggishly developing metro.
CHARISMA IS NOT ENOUGH
| Of course. Charisma is never enough, though it can be lots of fun. |
Novosibirsk is a very complex, large city, and leading it is difficult, notes Antonov.
“When Lokot won the elections for the second time, he won again as a politician,” says the deputy.
But a business executive should still be elected to the position of mayor who would solve the problems of housing and communal services - so that the garbage is removed, the snow is cleared, so that there are no pipe breaks. “And that’s where we were wrong. The man simply went in the wrong direction, took on the wrong tasks,” the interlocutor believes.
According to political scientist Tikhonov, this was not only the personal fault of the ex-mayor, but also an objective problem: the powers of the mayor are limited in their own way. “ The entire budget process is tied to the governor; the mayor’s office did not have any special financial resources for the development of the city,” the expert emphasizes. — The city under Anatoly Evgenievich clearly suffered from underfunding. Maybe this situation will change now.”
FROM SIBERIA TO MINSK DIRECTION?
For many senior employees of the mayor's office, this resignation will mean a significant decrease in status, and for some, the end of their career is not excluded, Tikhonov believes.
But the interlocutors consider the statements that Lokot himself will now be promoted along the “national line” (and not go into political oblivion) to be unfounded.
Antonov mentioned reports that have not yet been confirmed that Lokot’s new work will be connected with Russian-Belarusian relations.
“He has a long-standing relationship with Belarus, ” noted the city council deputy. — Here, in Novosibirsk, he launched the assembly of trams based on Belarusian components. These connections will probably be in demand in the new place.”
Tikhonov, in turn, notes that appointment to structures related to the Union State, etc. It would be an unexpected personnel decision - given that Elbow is primarily a tribune, and not a business executive.
Wherever the ex-head of Novosibirsk continues his career, the new city authorities from Lokot’s team will undoubtedly get “a restless, difficult economy,” warns Deputy Antonov. “There are a lot of issues around the city that need to be addressed, ” he notes. — Let's see what candidates apply to us. Responsibility will also rest with the deputy corps and the mayor’s office.”
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