Governors of direct action – Newspaper Kommersant No. 37 (7482) dated 03.03.

On Thursday, the Expert Institute for Social Research (EISI) held the second round table on the President’s recent address to the Federal Assembly. If the first of them was announced as “comprehension”, which was mainly dealt with by political scientists, then the second, called “From reflection to action”, invited several governors. They willingly talked about how to engage in patriotic education, organize a fund to help participants in a special operation, and raise the economy in the face of the “stranglehold” of sanctions. In the end, one of the journalists suggested returning military training to school so that the children could smell the “male sweat”, but political scientist Alexei Chesnakov interrupted the discussion on this topic, advising that such initiatives should be “thinked over” first.

Opening the round table, its moderator, EISI representative Daria Kislitsyna, explained that after the previous discussion, its organizers came to the conclusion that another, more “practically oriented” one was needed, since “there are a lot of accents that the president laid down in his message.” Accordingly, the protagonists of the second event were the governors, who spoke via video link.

The need for their participation in the round table was substantiated by the scientific director of the Center for Political Conjuncture (CPC) Aleksey Chesnakov. According to him, the president’s message is the main strategic document of the country, and in this sense it is addressed not only to deputies and senators, but also “to the nation.” The message prescribes a number of specific actions, many of which will have to be implemented by the heads of regions, the expert emphasized. In this regard, Mr. Chesnakov and his colleagues at the CPC even tried to analyze “if not the actions, since quite a bit of time has passed,” then at least the governors’ Telegram posts dedicated to the message in order to understand what they singled out from this document in the first place . “Family, support, development, special military operation, region and so on,” the political scientist listed the main topics.

In addition, from the full version of the study, you can find out with what words the heads of regions supplemented their reaction to the President’s speech. For example, in the messages of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the most frequent word was “technopark”, the head of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov – “family”, and the governor of the Arkhangelsk region Alexander Tsybulsky – “truth”. “The heads of the regions demonstrated a comprehensive approach, quickly responded to the president’s tasks, balanced topics related to the regions, and effectively broadcast signals,” Alexey Chesnakov summed up.

Finally, the word was given to the governors themselves. The head of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev, who spoke first, decided to talk about patriotic education. “Today we are reaping the bitter fruits of the fact that for thirty years we have not seriously dealt with this issue. There was a time when patriotism in schools was forced out to the periphery. The huge problems that we see now, they come from the 90s, ”he began emotionally, without explaining, however, which problems he had in mind. But he immediately reorganized in a solemn manner and proclaimed that now, “thank God, the patriotic position is not perceived as extraordinary.” However, the content for young people should be modern, the governor emphasized, citing as an example the plans to create a film about a special military operation (SVO) by the Yakut cinema (which has really become famous lately for interesting works).

In addition, Mr. Nikolaev wished that the education system would change “faster”, and even boldly criticized the implementation of the project to introduce in schools the institute of advisers to education directors, supervised by the presidential administration. According to the head of Yakutia, in fact, advisers become just leaders of circles. “They come there, I will not somehow belittle, but … 25-year-old girls, for example, work as advisers to school directors on education. But today is not the time for us to afford it, ”Aisen Nikolaev was indignant and offered to appoint NVO veterans to these positions. So far, he lamented, the leaders of the education sector refuse such requests: “As soon as we start promoting such people, papers come: people have no education. They didn’t work in schools, they can’t be taken.”

Novgorod Governor Andrey Nikitin, who heads the State Council’s commission on social policy, took a more peaceful note and said that one of the main priorities of state policy should be to increase demographics. In his opinion, all tools of information policy should be used to promote the idea of ​​having many children. “And now you’re watching a social video – and there is mom, dad and one child,” the governor complained. He also touched in detail on the creation of the Foundation for Assistance to the Families of the Fallen Soldiers and Veterans of the Northern Military District, which was announced by the president in his message. “What is clear for sure is that it should be a one-stop-shop principle. There should be no bureaucratic circles,” Mr. Nikitin said, adding that the authorities should know their veterans well and draw up their “portrait” in order to help them as successfully as possible.

The head of the Altai Territory, Viktor Tomenko, in turn, said that the tasks of developing infrastructure, increasing the income of the population and creating jobs are especially relevant for his region. At first, his speech seemed somewhat dry, as it was devoted to economic aspects such as the need for highly qualified personnel and investments. But he got the opportunity to speak more emotionally thanks to the question of the editor-in-chief of Gazeta 2020, Sergey Alekseev, who at first felt sorry for the governors for the “wave of tasks” that fell on them, and then asked to clarify what risks they still see in the current situation. “We don’t need to sympathize, we don’t need to feel sorry for us. We were chosen by the people, we went through the elections, sometimes in a tough struggle and a difficult situation,” Mr. Tomenko broke up in response, assuring all those present that the heads of the regions are ready to serve the people and the country. The risks, according to him, are all “on the table”, and first of all, this is a system of sanctions restrictions, which continues to be tightened like a “stranglehold” on the Russian economy. Nevertheless, Viktor Tomenko has no doubt that he and other governors will cope with this: “We have our resources, competitive advantages on which we rely – our country, our people, our history, our traditions.”

Glavred Alekseev, however, did not stop there and decided to add a little more oil to the fire of the discussion by proposing to return military training to schools so that schoolchildren could smell the “male sweat”. “Thanks a lot. I think that just due to the fact that we have such a composition of participants – intersectoral, inter-expert – we will pass this proposal to all instances, ”Daria Kislitsyna promised optimistically. However, the experienced Aleksey Chesnakov immediately stopped her, saying that he had served in the army and had his own opinion on such issues. “This needs to be considered before entering. So that it doesn’t turn out that they will teach to shoot not only those who will defend the Motherland, but also those who will engage in crime, ”the political scientist explained the reason for his skepticism.

Andrey Vinokurov