Deputy of the Samara Duma: Merkushkin's resignation is connected with the failure of his policy. "Suitcase moods": because of what the Samara governor will resign Family contract in power

The media again started talking about a wave of resignations of governors: the head of the Samara region Nikolai Merkushkin and the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region Valery Shantsev are once again named as the main candidates. Why exactly they and when the Kremlin can start cleaning up the governors, Aleksey Sokolov figured it out.

Rumors about the resignation of both Merkushkin and Shantsev have been around for quite some time, but both worked, despite active discussions in the media and social networks. A new surge of political insiders came in September: on the 7th, on the eve of the elections, the Kommersant newspaper wrote about the likely resignation of Valery Shantsev due to a conflict with regional elites, which is getting worse every year. On September 20, after the meeting of the head of the region with the leadership of the presidential administration, the newspaper clarified that the decision had already allegedly been made. But the governor himself spoke in the spirit of Mark Twain, saying that the rumors about his resignation were somewhat exaggerated: “When I get together, then I will tell. I work until 22:00. Everything is scheduled."

According to media reports, Samara Governor Nikolai Merkushkin is also at risk of losing his place. Before working in the region, he led Mordovia, where he distinguished himself in 2011: then, in the elections, United Russia won a record number of votes - over 90% percent; by the way, the turnout was the same. But Merkushkin will go down in history as one of the most eloquent heads of regions: “If we don’t do one, two, three, I will remember your glasses and your face and I will justify myself that I didn’t do it for the people, you did it yourself so that we do nothing for the people.”

The possible resignation of Merkushkin was reported by the RBC newspaper, citing three sources close to the Kremlin at once - the change of the head of the region may be announced next week, one of the interlocutors of the publication noted. Dmitry Loboiko, a Samara sociologist and head of the Center for Regional Studies, told Kommersant FM that the rumors about Merkushkin's resignation definitely pleased many local politicians: “A huge number of representatives of the political class in Samara, if not rejoicing, then rubbing their hands in anticipation of Merkushkin's resignation. The fact is that the last two governors of the Samara region have greatly changed the political and economic landscape, there are practically no one left from the large financial and industrial groups in the region.”

The head of the region has several major shortcomings at once - for example, a conflict with Rostec: Merkushkin allegedly dragged his people into the local Duma instead of those proposed by the corporation's general director Sergei Chemezov. In addition, construction of a new stadium for the matches of the World Cup is underway in an area far behind schedule.

But the main reason to replace both Merkushkin and Shantsev is the results of young governors in the autumn elections, Dmitry Abzalov, president of the Center for Strategic Communications, believes: “After the gubernatorial elections, the young segment showed very serious results, so the issue of such changes was discussed. Merkushkin has a conflict with the regional elite, including the security forces, he began to bring his own companies, still Mordovian ones, to the region. Shantsev's administrative positions at the federal level have seriously weakened, and the economy has recently raised a number of questions. Plus, as you know, Merkushkin is 66 years old, Shantsev is 70.”

Experts say that the main reason that still prevents the Kremlin from replacing troubled governors is the lack of new worthy personnel who could cope with the accumulated problems. Also, in their opinion, the resignation should take place before the start of the presidential campaign, so as not to divert attention from it.

10:38 — REGNUM A study by political consultant Valentin Bianchi (Bianchi and Partners) predicts that the heads of Primorye, the Samara Region and St. Petersburg may change before the end of the year, Kommersant writes.

Political consultant predicts the most likely resignations before the end of the year: Vladimir Miklushevsky, Primorye (conflicts with regional elites, corruption in the environment, difficult relations with the plenipotentiary); Nikolai Merkushkin, Samara region (conflict, scandalously held elections, age, protest of the population); Georgy Poltavchenko, St. Petersburg (regular rallies, elite conflicts, relatively low rating, "low electoral" victory in personal elections, etc.).

Bianchi's report analyzes the reasons behind recent gubernatorial resignations, in particular comparing the average age of old and new heads. This year, the difference was 21 years (the average age of outgoing governors was 64, incoming governors was 43, there were six replacements in total). The average tenure of ex-governors was eight years. Those who come to replace them are not only young, but with a high probability they are not members of United Russia. "The logic of 'renewal of the elites' is present in the 2017 resignations and, apparently, will continue to be present," the study notes.

As reported IA REGNUM, February 27 First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko held a meeting with the Governor of the Samara region Nikolai Merkushkin. According to official information, issues related to the socio-economic development of the region were discussed. In particular, the course of preparation of the region for the World Cup in Russia in 2018 and the improvement of the system of local self-government in the region were considered.

Nikolai Merkushkin was born on February 5, 1951 in the village of Novye Verkhissy in the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In September 1995, he was elected head of Mordovia, in 2010 he was approved in this post for a fifth term.

On May 10, 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted Nikolai Merkushkin's resignation from the post of head of the Republic of Mordovia and appointed him acting governor of the Samara Region, and on May 12, 2012, he submitted Merkushkin's candidacy to the Samara Provincial Duma to empower him with the powers of the region's governor. The Samara Provincial Duma on the same day approved Nikolai Merkushkin for the post of governor.

On June 6, 2014, three months before the single day of voting, Nikolai Merkushkin resigned of his own free will and was appointed interim governor of the Samara region, nominating his candidate in the election of the governor of the Samara region, as a result of which he won, receiving 91.35 % of votes.

As Kommersant wrote on September 25, a series of resignations of the heads of regions began. Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the resignation of Samara Governor Nikolai Merkushkin. Dmitry Azarov, a member of the Federation Council (SF) from the Samara region, who was the mayor of Samara in 2010-2014, has been appointed interim head of the region. Mr. Merkushkin, who has been appointed the president's special envoy for interaction with the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples, noted that he is not the only retiree in the governor's corps and "decisions will follow on other governors, I believe, according to a certain list." On Monday, four heads of regions, who were named among the potential retirees, were in Moscow.

According to the presidential decree on the early termination of the powers of Nikolai Merkushkin, he resigned "of his own free will." Dmitry Azarov was appointed to the post of acting governor by the same decree, as Kommersant expected. Vladimir Putin had a working meeting with him. By another decree, the president appointed Nikolai Merkushkin as his special representative for interaction with the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples.

Nikolai Merkushkin has headed the Samara region since 2012, first as a presidential appointee, and since 2014 as a winner in the elections, where he received 91.35% of the vote. He became the first governor to work in two regions - before being appointed to Samara, he headed Mordovia for 17 years.

“Nikolai Merkushkin left a significant mark on the history of the region. Another thing is that some features of his self-presentation and a constant emphasis on the Mordovian experience led to a certain allergy that the governor caused in the regional elite,” says political strategist Lev Pavlyuchkov. One of the main claims of businessmen and politicians to Nikolai Merkushkin was the patronage of Mordovian business.

“Retail chains were supposed to purchase the products of Mordovian enterprises, the same applied to construction,” says a Kommersant source in the Samara Regional Duma.

Experts blamed Mr. Merkushkin for scandals in the elections, although their results turned out to be much better than under his predecessor, Governor Vladimir Artyakov. Thus, in 2015, the Presidium of the General Council of United Russia had to annul the decision of the local branch of the party, when a number of winners of the party primaries, which, according to Nikolai Merkushkin, were associated with "oligarchic groups", were deleted from the lists for elections to the district councils of Samara. Experts admit that Mr. Merkushkin has developed difficult relations with local elites, but at the same time they do not deny that the now former governor "did a lot for the development" of the Samara region.

Nikolai Merkushkin himself explained his resignation as “a trend in the country for rejuvenation,” and “in the Samara region, they adhere to the main trends.”

According to Kommersant's sources, the forthcoming presidential election in March 2018 became the decisive factor for the early resignation. Political analyst Rostislav Turovsky told Kommersant that Nikolai Merkushkin could have ensured “a sky-high turnout and the result of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections”: “But this does not fit into the Kremlin’s concept, as a result, questions about the honesty and purity of elections in a single region would not arise to Merkushkin, but to the center.

Already on Tuesday, the presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District (VFD) Mikhail Babich will introduce Dmitry Azarov as acting head. Kommersant's sources linked his appointment to the fact that "he is the most recognizable figure in the region, and this is an important point that was taken into account on the eve of the presidential elections." According to Mr. Turovsky, Dmitry Azarov can organize a presidential campaign: "Of course, there will be no Merkushkin result, but the result will be normal." At the same time, the political scientist stressed that the appointment of Mr. Azarov is out of line with last year's appointments of Varangian governors: "He is a local and knows the situation in the region well."

Dmitry Azarov became a member of the Federation Council in 2014, leaving the post of mayor of Samara a year before the end of his term. The reason for this was partly the decision of the Samara Regional Duma to cancel the direct election of the head of the city. In the Federation Council, Dmitry Azarov headed the committee on federal structure, regional policy, and local self-government. Acting head of the committee, Stepan Kirichuk, called him "a mature specialist" who "passed through the school of election of the mayor of Samara, worked as a minister in the government of the Samara region - he will succeed."

“Many in Samara took the appointment of Dmitry Azarov as acting governor positively, because such a region deserves “its own”, local governor. He will be perceived for a long time, on the one hand, as a nominee of Volgopromgaz, on the other hand, as a candidate of the state corporation Rostec, and on the third hand, as a man of the State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin,” said Lev Pavlyuchkov. In turn, political strategist Vladimir Perevozchikov, who worked in the elections to the City Duma of Samara in 2015, believes that "Azarov will take into account the interests of many local influential groups."

"Dmitry Azarov is a worthy successor to Nikolai Merkushkin, because he can intensively and quickly take up the initiative and continue the work of Nikolai Ivanovich," Gennady Kotelnikov, head of the education and science committee of the provincial duma, believes. According to Nikolai Merkushkin, "the transfer of cases will take two to three days." He is sure that it will be easier for Dmitry Azarov to work in a new place, since he knows Samara well. At the same time, one of the political technologists who worked in the region, including during the election of the mayor of Samara, explained to Kommersant that Dmitry Azarov cannot be called a public politician: “He is an official who worked in bureaucratic positions before the elections. He won the election of the mayor of Samara in 2010 thanks to the agreements of all influential local groups. As a result, the current mayor Viktor Tarkhov was left without money during the campaign.”

Nikolai Merkushkin said that he was offered to take the post of special presidential envoy for interaction with the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples "for five to six years." A Kommersant source in Congress believes that it will not be easy for him to work with this organization. “In Mordovia, he clashed with our representatives, called them henchmen of the world behind the scenes and the State Department (USA.- "b"),” he said.

Mr. Merkushkin emphasized that he is not the only retiree in the governor's corps and "decisions will follow on other governors, I believe, according to a certain list." As Kommersant wrote, among the subjects of the Russian Federation that may fall under personnel changes, sources of Kommersant, in addition to the Samara region, name Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Murmansk, Novosibirsk, Omsk regions, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO), Krasnoyarsk and Altai Territories, possibly , one or two subjects in the North Caucasus. According to official reports, Krasnoyarsk head Viktor Tolokonsky, Murmansk - Marina Kovtun, Nizhny Novgorod - Valery Shantsev were in Moscow on "working visits". In the evening, the head of the NAO, Igor Koshin, arrived in Moscow. As his press secretary Tatyana Baeva told Kommersant, on September 26 he is participating in a meeting of the government commission on regional development, the invitation to which came a week ago. Among other questions, the commissions will consider how the conditions of the regions of the Far North lead to increased budget expenditures and how, in this case, to determine the estimated volume of spending obligations. “For the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, with our lack of roads and subsidizing the entire system of life - from housing and communal services to food and transport, the topic is more than relevant. Two-thirds of the budget is social spending, more than 10% is spent on various subsidies,” Ms. Baeva explained.

Ekaterina Kosobokova, Georgy Portnov, Vyacheslav Sorokin, Samara; Andrey Pertsev, Ivan Synergiev

The governor of the Samara region, Nikolai Merkushkin, will resign as part of the upcoming rotation of the governor's corps, sources told RBC. There are many claims to the head of the region - from problems in the economy to intra-elite conflicts

Nikolay Merkushkin (Photo: Valery Sharifulin / TASS)

"Suitcase Moods"

Governor of the Samara region Nikolai Merkushkin leaves his post. RBC was told about this by three sources close to the Kremlin. The resignation of the head of the region may be announced next week, said one of RBC's interlocutors. Merkushkin will become one of the governors replaced as part of the autumn rotations in the governor's corps (after the elections on September 10, RBC sources resign up to ten heads of regions).

The replacement of all planned heads of regions will take place almost simultaneously, within a short period of time, the RBC source added. “The mood [in the local administration] is really suitcase. Merkushkin urgently flew to Moscow for a meeting at the presidential administration, obviously, his fate is being decided, ”a source close to the authorities of the Samara region told RBC.

The head of the press service of the Samara governor, Ilya Chernyshev, declined to comment on information about the possible resignation of Merkushkin. According to him, on the evening of September 21, the head of the region plans to attend an event in Togliatti, so he "must be in the region." When asked if the governor had traveled to Moscow, Chernyshev replied: “He may have unplanned trips that I don’t know about.” The work schedule of the governor is scheduled for several weeks ahead, TASS reported with reference to the press service of the head of the Samara region.

Nikolay Merkushkin (Photo: Andrey Kholmov / TASS)

Judging by the Kartoteka database, members of the governor's family - brother Alexander Merkushkin and nephew Sergey Merkushkin - until mid-2016 were on the list of owners of the Mordovcement enterprise, which received a monopoly order for the supply of cement for the construction of the Samara Arena stadium for the World Cup football 2018. The situation around this stadium is another reason for the claims of the federal center to Merkushkin, Minchenko said. They concerned both the pace of the construction of the stadium and the involvement of Mordovian contractors. Holding the 2018 World Cup “at a decent level” is the most important task associated with the presidential campaign, Molchanov believes. Therefore, failures in construction deadlines could not but affect the governor's relations with the Kremlin, he stated.

In the Samara region, poultry farms are being closed, instead of them poultry is imported from Mordovia, and in many cities and towns these were key enterprises, Molchanov noted. In particular, the Obsharovskaya, Rozhdestvenskaya and Togliatti poultry farms and several large pig farms were closed. AvtoVAZ's subsidiary, AvtoVAZagregat, also closed in Tolyatti; in Zhigulevsk, the only large local enterprise "Zhigulevskie stroymaterialy" stopped its activity.

The governor is “poorly managing the economy”, the Samara region is “mired in debts and loans”, and the federal authorities do not like this, the political scientist concluded. In February 2017, the state debt of the region amounted to 67.4 billion rubles, which is why the experts of the Higher School of Economics called the Samara Region one of the most indebted Russian regions. Merkushkin said at the end of 2016 that the authorities of the region "attracted and will continue to attract borrowed funds."

In line for a replacement

Earlier, RBC sources reported another potential replacement in the governor's corps caused by the rotation - the head of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Valery Shantsev, ahead of schedule. The main reason for Shantsev's resignation, RBC sources call his conflicts with regional elites, in particular, with Oleg Sorokin, the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod in 2010-2015. Even the federal authorities had to intervene in this conflict, RBC sources said. In particular, in 2016, Sorokin's supporters turned to the embassy of the Volga Federal District. They stated that Shantsev lobbied for the appointment of his protege Yevgeny Lebedev as the speaker of the regional parliament. After that, plenipotentiary Mikhail Babich said that the situation with intra-elite conflicts in the Nizhny Novgorod region "is not just not stopped, but is getting worse all the time."

Shantsev ended up on the list of rotated governors also because of his age, according to three RBC sources close to the Kremlin. In June 2017, he turned 70 years old. According to the interlocutors of RBC, the Nizhny Novgorod region is in the area of special attention of the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, who was the presidential envoy in the Volga Federal District in 2000-2005. Kiriyenko studied in Nizhny Novgorod at the Gorky Institute of Water Transport Engineers and then did business there before being appointed First Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy in 1997.

On September 25, Vladimir Putin accepted the resignation of the governor of the Samara Region, Nikolai Merkushkin. Earlier, RBC sources reported that he could leave his post due to a conflict between him and Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov.

Nikolay Merkushkin

Merkushkin is 66 years old. He was born in Mordovia and began his working career there as a machine operator on a collective farm. He studied at the Mordovian State University, where his uncle Grigory Yakovlevich Merkushkin was the rector. Received a diploma with honors.
He ran for the first time in the presidential elections in Mordovia in 1990, but did not go beyond the first round. He held economic positions in the government of the republic.
In 1993, Merkushkin turned down an offer to become the president's representative in the Republic of Mordovia. In November, he entered the Federation Council and only in 1995 was elected head of the region as a result of elections. He held this position for almost 17 years.
In 2012, Vladimir Putin appointed Merkushkin as Acting Governor of the Samara Region. According to the voting results in June 2014, Merkushkin scored 91.35% and took office in September.

Merkushkin has two sons. The appointment of the youngest, Alexei, to the positions of General Director of Lamzur S OJSC and Chairman of the Board of Directors of CB Mordovpromstroybank provoked criticism from the presidential administration, the Izvestia newspaper wrote in 2013. Novaya Gazeta and Radio Liberty, in their investigations, pointed to the affiliation of other relatives of Merkushkin with Mordovian companies.

According to the Kartoteka database, members of the governor's family - brother Alexander Merkushkin and nephew Sergey Merkushkin - until mid-2016 were on the list of owners of the Mordovcement enterprise, which received a monopoly order for the supply of cement for the construction of the Samara Arena stadium for the World Championships in football in 2018.

Merkushkin's last years as governor are remembered for a number of scandalous statements. In June 2015, he called for "praying for pensions" as "the country's reserves are running out." In August 2016, at a meeting with residents of the Komsomolsky district of the city of Togliatti, in response to a complaint from an employee of a subsidiary of AvtoVAZagregat about the systematic non-payment of salaries, the governor said that her debts would never be paid.

Nikolai Merkushkin and Vladimir Putin (Photo: official website of the government of the Samara region)

- Nikolai Ivanovich, I am a former employee of the long-suffering enterprise AvtoVAZagregat, its subsidiary Tailoring-AvtoVAZagregat. I would like to know when we will pay off our wage arrears? The second year has already begun, there were so many promises ...

- Well, what I want to say. If you talk like that, never! Never! Those who warm you up, ask them.

“Excuse me, but I think I speak normally. Because for the second year without a salary.

- I know. You listen! You listen to me now. That's when, including the American ambassador, he came to warm up just these people, and then for a month they were shown to the whole world. For the whole world!

A few days later, Merkushkin talked about why it was necessary to go to the polls, and emphasized that if it does not receive 97% of support, then the people themselves will be to blame for the fact that nothing is being done for them. The governor also reminded the audience that in 2012, almost all of Mordovia responded to his call to vote for Putin, so the flood victims in the republic were compensated for everything, “down to the rotten fence.”

In September 2016, the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation published a video. Fund employees found the estates of Merkushkin, as well as his son and business partners on Rublyovka, the cost of which was estimated at 866 million rubles. In response, Merkushkin accused Navalny of "fulfilling the Dulles plan" and called him "the second Saakashvili."

“Because this chaos that Dulles has is all mixed up, everything is mixed up in their heads, they really want to keep this chaos. This chaos is needed when the time comes to throw a match, this chaos will immediately start a fire.

They want to divide us into 32 states, so that the word "Russia" never sounds. As Dulles said, to put an end to this recalcitrant people once and for all, to end once and for all.

In January 2017, the FAS opened a case against Merkushkin and some government officials. They were accused of lobbying the interests of Gazprom in the regional market, which could force local gas companies out of the market. In May, FAS violated the law on protection of competition by Merkushkin.