At least 47 Russian governors visited the regions of Donbass

More than half of the subjects of Russia have joined the system of patronage over the regions of Donbass, Daria Kislitsyna, director of the department of regional programs of the institute, said at the round table of the Expert Institute for Social Research (EISI). This system includes a variety of aspects – from the restoration of infrastructure to the regions to the provision of social assistance, the educational process and inclusion in the common communicative space, the political scientist notes. In her opinion, the patronage program is an example of the work of a horizontal power: the regions are working on one problem as a whole.

The first region to conclude an official patronage agreement with the city of Snezhnoye in the DPR was the Samara region. The Governor of the region, Dmitry Azarov, told at the EISI round table that together with the authorities of the DPR they were forming applications for the restoration work of infrastructure facilities: 250 people from the Samara region are now involved in the work, they are assisted by 150 local specialists. The head of Chuvashia, Oleg Nikolaev, noted that no specific territory was assigned to the republic, but electrotechnical plants in Donetsk and Torez were taken under patronage. The Tambov region, which oversees the Novoaydarsky district of the LPR, will repair the school, sent several modular boiler houses, etc., said the acting governor of the subject Maxim Yegorov.

Patronage was taken over by the regions that can afford it financially, political analyst Ilya Grashchenkov notes. “This is regulated solely by how much money from the budget can be directed there – Moscow, St. Petersburg, oil regions can afford more than subsidized ones,” the expert notes. “The patronage assistance system is a case that resembles the practice of Soviet all-Union construction projects, such as BAM,” said Vasily Zorin, head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Chelyabinsk State University. “This technology makes the task of restoring Donbass a nationwide construction project,” he said. In his opinion, such a system “will inevitably launch a new personnel lift” and participation in the project will be necessary for all people “who will apply for some kind of career growth in Russia in the near future.”

Now there is a system of attracting specialists to these territories, including health and life insurance. Russian officials have been recruited to work in the administrations of the DPR, LPR and other territories affected by the military special operation. At the same time, at least 47 out of 85 heads of Russian regions visited the Donbass, including those who spoke at the EISI round table. The governors depend on the approval of the federal government, and such trips increase their importance in her eyes, says political analyst Alexei Makarkin. According to him, the nuclear electorate also supports such actions.