How Senezh helps to build and live – Newspaper Kommersant No. 18 (7463) dated 02/01/2023

Last weekend, a seminar for the leadership of new regions was held in the workshop of the Senezh department near Moscow with the participation of vice-premiers of the Russian Federation and heads of departments of the internal political bloc of the presidential administration (AP). According to Kommersant’s information, at the event, Russian laws and taxation were explained to representatives of the new entities, and they also talked a lot about “real things” – first of all, about the construction and restoration of roads, housing, and infrastructure.

The political scientist Pavel Danilin, who participated in the seminar, reported about the seminar held in Senezh in his Telegram channel. “There was talk about the economic development of new subjects. Those present at the seminar were immersed in the Russian regulatory system. And together with them we determined the priorities and parameters of regional development programs,” wrote Mr. Danilin. According to him, the “key parameters” are those that most concern the residents of these regions, that is, “related to water supply, roads, housing restoration, restoration of industrial enterprises, and stimulation of employment of residents.”

According to Kommersant’s information, the seminar was attended by heads of departments of the internal political bloc of the Presidential Administration and representatives of the federal government up to deputy ministers, ministers and vice-premiers. Among them, in particular, was Deputy Prime Minister for Construction and curator of the Southern Federal District Marat Khusnullin. As a participant in the event told Kommersant, the main message was that there is no time for politics in the new territories, so the emphasis should be placed on the infrastructural and social development of the regions. “We are rebuilding from demagogy to real deeds. First of all, we need not reasoning, but real help to residents, solving their problems: build roads, housing, restore and develop infrastructure, ”the Kommersant interlocutor explained.

The fact of the seminar and its main message was confirmed by a Kommersant source in the Presidential Administration. “That’s pretty much how it was. We talked, for example, about the social sphere. Well, they “float” a little in our laws, many things need to be explained to them. For example, they receive a presentation from the prosecutor’s office, but do not even understand what it is about. They also had the laws of Ukraine, then there were simplified republican ones. There was no Russian taxation,” the interlocutor said. Also, according to him, they talked in detail about the construction, since there is a lot “needs to be restored”.

However, another well-informed Kommersant source, who was also present at the seminar, clarifies that there was no direct “opposition of politics and economics”, they simply brought the “socio-economic development” of new territories to the fore. “In fact, this is a general goal-setting for the future in specific industries. They explained the general priorities so that there was a common understanding along the entire vertical, necessary for their implementation, ”says the interlocutor of Kommersant.

Recall that martial law has been in effect in all four new constituent entities of the Russian Federation since October 20, 2022, during which elections are not held. However, as Kommersant previously reported, the Central Election Commission has already begun preparations for the September 2023 legislative elections in these regions. All new subjects have already adopted normative acts on the formation of regional election commissions, and parliamentary parties have begun the selection of candidates for members of the commissions.

Political scientist Alexei Makarkin is sure that politics is not the main thing that people living in the new regions of the Russian Federation need now: “They just need solutions in the social sphere, and politics there is not in demand by the absolute majority.” If you “get involved in politics”, then you can find yourself in a conflict situation, the expert says: “For example, with the renaming of streets after “decommunization”. On the one hand, this is of little interest to the majority, and on the other hand, the question of compliance with state policy also arises: is such a “red revenge” needed? Therefore, it is better to leave politics out of the brackets, the political scientist concludes.

The issues of renaming streets have indeed already become a cause for controversy. On January 30, the head of the administration of Melitopol, Galina Danilchenko, wrote on her Telegram channel that 55 streets, 30 lanes and one square in the city would return the Soviet names that existed before “decommunization”. According to her, the decree on renaming was signed by the Acting Governor of the Zaporozhye region Yevhen Balitsky. However, there is no mention of such a decree on the official website of the regional administration. And on other information resources of Melitopol, critical comments have already appeared that along with the streets named after Ukrainian nationalists, it was proposed to rename, for example, the streets of Academician Korolyov (in Kuibyshev street) and Yaroslav the Wise (in Roza Luxembourg street).

Political analysis director of INSOMAR, sociologist Viktor Poturemsky notes that the inhabitants of the new territories have a request to build a system of power and integrate it with the federal one in order to become full-fledged subjects of the Russian Federation. “If we talk about whether political processes are needed now in these regions, then the answer is yes, they are needed, because, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the people are the source of power. Therefore, there is a request for the election of heads and deputies,” the expert explains. At the same time, according to him, the political processes in these subjects will have their own specifics: a minimum of reasoning and a maximum of deeds, and political forces there will compete precisely in real deeds. “The request for pragmatism and efficiency of power is not only in the new subjects of the Russian Federation, today it is relevant for all regions of the country,” sums up Mr. Poturemsky.

Elena Rozhkova, Andrey Vinokurov