The Kaliningrad governor received “lifting” – Newspaper Kommersant No. 194 (7395) of 10/19/2022

The Legislative Assembly of the Kaliningrad region on Tuesday adopted a law to increase the salary of Governor Anton Alikhanov, who was re-elected for a new term in September. According to the documents, the additional burden on the budget will amount to 1.3 million rubles, but the United Russia members who proposed the amendments assure that in reality the increase will be much less significant – no more than 20 thousand rubles. monthly. The governor will receive about 240 thousand rubles. per month. In the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, however, such an increase in the governor’s allowance “in the difficult conditions of a special operation and mobilization” was declared inappropriate.

The draft statutory law on changing the structure of the salary structure of the head of the region was introduced on October 11 by deputies from the United Russia, headed by the speaker of the legislative assembly and the leader of the regional branch of the party, Andrei Kropotkin, as well as the leader of the LDPR faction, Yevgeny Mishin, who joined them. They proposed doubling (from 200 to 400%) the size of the monthly bonus to the official salary for the complexity and intensity of the work of the governor, as well as changing the size of his monthly monetary incentive – from 30 to 75% of the official salary. At the same time, the deputies decided to remove the seniority bonus.

As follows from the explanatory note, Anton Alikhanov’s salary is changing in pursuance of the December presidential decree “On the Formation of the Pay Fund for Federal State Civil Servants”, which increased the share of the official salary in the salary structure of officials (they are made up of salary and various allowances). The governor was not among the persons affected by this document, but since his position is one of the public positions of the Kaliningrad region, “in order to establish a uniform approach to the formation of wage conditions,” the deputies decided to bring the head of the region’s salary in line with this decree.

The new salary of the governor is not specified in the draft law, but, according to the financial and economic justification, the additional need for budget allocations will amount to 1.3 million rubles. Judging by the latest declaration of Anton Alikhanov, in 2021 he earned 3.5 million rubles, but this amount includes “income from the use of real estate.”

On October 14, the document was considered by the committee on legislation and raised questions from its deputy chairman Maxim Bulanov (KPRF). The communist said that at first he considered the bill a fake, since “the country and the region are now in difficult conditions related to a special military operation and partial mobilization”: “It is inappropriate, and I don’t understand how we will look people in the eye when we have the governor will receive 26 minimum wages monthly.”

In response, the head of the committee and one of the co-authors of the project, Dmitry Kiselev (ER), said that bringing regional laws into line with the presidential decree in terms of gubernatorial content is now taking place “in all subjects.” His faction colleagues even tried to chastise Mr. Bulanov. “Of course, you did a good job of PR, but not to the point,” Speaker Kropotkin said, adding that the changes were justified, since “the area of ​​responsibility of the governor has grown not by 15%, but by 200%.” Plenipotentiary of the Governor Tatyana Sharova recalled that a month ago the salaries of the deputies themselves were increased in accordance with the presidential decree, “and this did not raise any questions then,” and the Minister of Finance of the region Viktor Porembsky urged not to confuse the growth of “individual components” with the total income.

“We have heard you,” Andrei Kropotkin snapped in response to the Communist’s request that the deputies be given the opportunity to introduce amendments. As a result, at the October 18 session, the law was adopted without discussion and in two readings at once. The Communist Party faction voted against, “A Just Russia – For Truth” abstained.

Yury Shitikov, the leader of the Kaliningrad Social Revolutionaries, explained to Kommersant that the party “has not yet figured out what is preferable: a good salary for the governor or budget savings.” The press service of the head of the region did not have time to comment on the change in the structure of his salary in essence, but assured Kommersant that “the real increase in wages is very small” – no more than 20 thousand rubles. per month. Andrei Kropotkin, in a conversation with Kommersant, repeated the thesis that such changes are now taking place “in all regions,” but he did not give examples. According to him, the 1.3 million rubles described in the documents is not a surcharge, since the governor had previously received this money, but in the form of a bonus part. As a result, his salary will remain almost unchanged and will amount to about 240 thousand rubles, the speaker concluded.

It should be noted that in a number of regions gubernatorial salaries are indeed growing, but at a very insignificant rate. For example, the official salary of the head of the Sverdlovsk region, Yevgeny Kuyvashev, has been indexed by 4% since August 1. Expenses for the maintenance of the governor in the budget of the Saratov region are planned with a similar increase – 4%, and in the Ulyanovsk region – 8%. On October 18, Petersburg deputies approved in the first reading an increase in the unit of account that makes up the salary of civil servants, including the head of the city. As a result, the salary of Alexander Beglov should increase from 91 thousand to 99 thousand rubles. (excluding allowances).

Andrey Prakh, corset “Kommersant”