Representatives of municipal authorities now have their own “Service” award

First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration (AP) Sergei Kiriyenko on Monday announced a new “Service” award, which will be awarded to representatives of local self-government (LSG). The results for ten nominations will be announced in January. According to Mr. Kiriyenko, one of the first to be nominated and awarded the prize should be municipalities operating in new or “old” territories that are under fire. The expert notes that in the Russian government system, representatives of local self-government are often in the most unenviable position, which is why the authorities want to encourage them. A Kommersant source close to the AP previously said that attention to this category of employees is increasing, including on the eve of the presidential campaign.

The congress of the All-Russian Association for the Development of Local Self-Government (VARMSU), where the new award was announced, was held in the workshop of the Senezh management near Moscow, VARMSU told Kommersant. The Service Award was established on behalf of President Vladimir Putin and will be awarded to representatives of local self-government – both teams and individuals. The organizer of the award is VARMSU itself with the support of the AP.

As the association told Kommersant, Sergei Kiriyenko, who spoke at the congress, explained that the prize was needed to show respect to people who dedicated their lives to “service,” and work at the municipal level fits this definition. “This is an expression of gratitude to those people who are performing feats on their front lines today. Moreover, many municipalities in the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions today actually work on the front line, sometimes with the same risks to their lives as the guys who are on the first line of defense. I want to thank all of them not only for their professionalism, but also for real human courage. I think that just such people will be able to become one of the first nominees and laureates of the award launched on behalf of the president,” the words of Mr. Kiriyenko are reported to VARMSU.

The award will have ten nominations: “My region is my pride”, “Small Motherland is the strength of Russia”, “Defending the Fatherland is a common cause”, “Municipality practices – solutions for the country”, “By joining forces – we multiply opportunities”, “Everyone’s initiative – general success”, “Direct conversation – trust in power”, “Mentor’s experience – success of young people”, “New technologies – new opportunities” and the special category “Human destiny – the pride of the Fatherland.” Participants in the competition will have to send their applications to the website premiumservice.rf, and the results are planned to be announced in January 2024. The chairman of the supervisory board of the competition was Sergei Kiriyenko himself, his deputies were the Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov and the co-chairman of VARMSU, State Duma deputy Irina Guseva.

VARMSU also told Kommersant the names of several people who could have been awarded if they had taken part in the competition. Among them is the head of Shebekino, Belgorod region, Vladimir Zhdanov, who organized the evacuation of residents during the shelling; head of the administration of Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Territory, Mikhail Minenkov, who distinguished himself during the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus in 1999, and then brought his city from the stage of bankruptcy to the level of one of the most actively developing in the North Caucasus Federal District; the head of the Tataro-Lakinsky rural settlement of the Vadinsky district of the Penza region, Nina Baurina, who adopted eight children, local residents followed her example, which helped revive the village. The association also talks about the head of the Afanasyevsky district of the Kirov region, mother of many children Elena Belyaeva, who herself handed the summons to her eldest son: in her district everyone has a “patriotic position” and residents actively help the participants of the SVO. The head of the Gryazinsky district of the Lipetsk region, Vladimir Roshchupkin, who has held this post since 1989 with a short break for parliament, is also worthy of the award, and he managed to ensure that the city of Gryazi received the title “The Most Comfortable City in Russia.” Finally, VARMSU cites the example of the head of the municipal formation “Tit-Arynsky nasleg” in Yakutia, Grigory Lukin, who saved a fellow villager from the icy water where she fell while crossing the bridge.

A Kommersant source close to the AP previously said that they began to pay attention to representatives of local self-government, including on the eve of the presidential campaign: their position is unenviable, there are few resources, and results are often asked from them.

Political scientist Alexander Nemtsev agrees with this logic. According to him, now municipal employees in the state government system are actually perceived as the most vulnerable category of officials, especially for low and middle positions. “Their salary level is low, there is no recognition in society. People often treat them as “the people’s servants” and channel all the negativity about a given situation onto them,” says the expert. Apparently, with this award, the federal center is once again trying to show the importance of this work, despite its complexity, argues Mr. Nemtsev: “The name of the award well describes the realities of this work. This is not so much a sinecure and manna from heaven, but rather painstaking and hard work.”

Andrey Vinokurov