Andrey Vorobyov was fired. Vorobyov conceived a change in the leadership of the Odintsovo district administration

For three and a half years, Andrei Vorobyov has been at the head of the Moscow region. And for at least two and a half years he has been actively trying to build municipal power for himself. This is done simply - through the abolition of the main democratic institutions - direct elections of heads of districts and cities. At the same time, Mr. Vorobyov forms a support matrix of financial and business structures - they become monopoly partners of the regional administration in key areas. The redistribution of the political and business field took place not without the participation of Sergei Shoigu, who in 2012 hastily transferred the region “inherited” to the son of his deputy. However, neither Vorobyov’s city managers nor the large financial and industrial groups that have entered the region are capable of systematically solving the problems of the Moscow region. Instead, they constantly generate discontent not only among local residents, but also among local elites.

Old people - get out! Honor to the young!

The thesis that Andrei Vorobyov voiced at every corner when embarking on personnel changes in municipalities near Moscow was the following: it is necessary to create a non-corrupt management system of people who think in a new way and are capable of developing the region. Those who do not understand this, we will break through the knee - it was read in his speeches.

Indeed, by 2012, the Moscow region resembled a reserve of appanage princelings who not only sat out the collapse of the country in the early 90s, but created their own business empires and provided for their descendants for as much as a hundred years to come. And, of course, they had a well-established system for taking into account the interests of all their friends and enemies. Judge for yourself: Leonid Kovalevsky (Domodedovo district) ruled the district for 23 years, Alexander Taskin (Serebryano-Prudsky district) - 21 years, Nikolay Moskalev (Podolsky district) - 21, Pavel Chelpan (Stupinsky district) - 21, Vladimir Laptev (Noginsky district) - 21, Alexey Filippov (Orekhovo-Zuevsky district) - 21, Alexander Gladyshev (Odintsovo district) - 21, Valery Prokh (Dubna) - 21, Valery Shuvalov (Kolomna) - 21, Valery Gavrilov (Dmitrovsky district) - 21, Alexander Postrigan (Klinsky district) - 20, Boris Rasskazov (Krasnogorsky district) - 16, Mikhail Lavrov (Egoryevsky district) - 16, Vladimir Demin (Ramensky district) - 16, Alexander Khodyrev (Reutov) - 16, Anna Shcherba (Istrinsky district) - 15 years. It is clear that with such baggage there could be no talk of any reforms. Personnel required replacement.

It was obvious that Vorobyov would put his own people in line - the banal logic of the “team”. The question is how he did it. Here, his very appointment played a cruel joke on the governor. Being a member of the so-called “Shoigu clan,” at first, when making personnel appointments, he was forced to take into account several factors at once. First of all, of course, the “wishes” from federal structures when choosing their closest circle. Thus, the son of the Prosecutor General of Russia, Igor Chaika, joined Vorobyov’s team, and the son-in-law of the Minister of Defense, Alexey Zakharov, became the regional prosecutor.

However, as the media have repeatedly written, the newly appointed governor made appointments in the government and, a little later, in municipalities not only based on family and friendly ties. It is very likely that the criminal business also had an influence on his personnel policy. So, they say that the former Minister of Ecology of the region Anzor Shomakhov was added to the office by Gavriil Yushvaev (known as Garik “Makhachkala”), a former co-owner of the Wimm-Bill-Dann company, and now one of the co-owners of the former flour mill No. 4 in Moscow, on the territory which is about to begin construction of 500,000 sq m of housing. His protégé is Dmitry Golubkov (Mosoblgaz), the mayor of Losino-Petrovsky - previously convicted Asfan Vikhraev (known to townspeople as Andrey Vikharev), the head of the Odintsovo district Andrey Ivanov (husband of Garik’s niece).

And formally, the governor’s “pure” appointees were not actually such. Take, for example, Alena Sokolskaya, the wife of ex-Deputy Moscow Prosecutor Alexander Kozlov. She overnight became the head of the Klinsky district. And she made the notorious Eduard Kaplun her deputy, the same one who was on the federal wanted list and was hiding in Israel from investigators because of the famous “gambling case” about underground casinos in the Moscow region. Mr. Kozlov also appeared in this matter...

Statements about the fight against corruption and new and untainted personnel clearly did not add faith in the new governor.

Georgadze's unlearned lesson

The appearance of the “Krasnogorsk shooter”, who shot two local administration officials, became a litmus test for the work of new political realities. We will not go into details of what prompted Amiran Georgadze to commit lynching and suicide. After this story, one of the last heavyweight heads, Boris Rasskazov, resigned. Previously, he was re-elected to the position of head of the district at the same time as Andrei Vorobyov, in the fall of 2013 and, apparently, was agreed upon with the new administration. At that time, decisions on such cases were made by the head of the political department, Andrei Ilnitsky. He has a couple more “problem” nominees on his account – the head of the Solnechnogorsk region Alexander Yakunin and the head of the city of Khimki Oleg Shakhov. Didn’t Vorobyov know about what was going on in Krasnogorsk? Hardly. But he agreed with the appointment. And after Georgadze’s action, when it became clear to everyone to what extent corruption had reached in the nearest suburb, the governor did not retire Rasskazov and, moreover, did not initiate any proceedings with sanctions. He simply took him on as an adviser. Agree, this is more than indicative.

The continuity of personnel policy in the Moscow region administration was preserved even after the departure of Andrei Ilnitsky in October 2014. Which was logical, since Ilnitsky was from Shoigu’s circle. The leaders of the political bloc who replaced him continued to support the creatures he nominated. Thus, deputy chairmen of the regional government Mikhail Kuznetsov and Elmira Khaimurzina continue to supervise the previously appointed heads. Before the resignation of the mayor of Khimki, Oleg Shakhov, against whom a criminal case was opened for fraud, he received large-scale support from the regional authorities. The head of the Solnechnogorsk district, Alexander Yakunin, and his first deputy, Roman Kalinkin, received even greater support from regional officials. The case with Yakunin was special - with his appointment Vorobiev resolved the conflict in neighboring Klin. For Solnechnogorsk residents, he was at best a neighbor, and the political aspirations of the owner of the Borodino chain of stores were alien to them. For several years before his appointment as head of the Solnechnogorsk region, Yakunin himself waged an irreconcilable struggle with the head of the Klin region, Postrigan. He created the “Consent and Truth” movement, published a newspaper, and ran for municipal elections from the “Patriots of Russia” and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Yakunin became the head of the Solnechnogorsk district with a zero rating - but if the process was controlled, as they say, by Vorobyov’s deputy Mikhail Kuznetsov, then one could not expect a different result from the pseudo-elections.

It can be assumed that under the guise of administrative reform and efficient spending of budget funds, Vorobyov began to unite cities under his own and the “necessary” people, for which purpose the popularly elected heads are everywhere replaced by manual “city managers”. Thus, Balashikha and Zheleznodorozhny were “soldered” under the large businessman Evgeny Zhirkov, who was built into the vertical. The result is a fat cow - a city larger in population than, for example, Kaluga or the entire Kamchatka Territory. The experience, apparently, turned out to be positive, and the Podolsk people wanted to have their share in the region. They are already “spudging up” their hometown, stationed their people in Chekhov (Ilya Ponochevny and Sergei Yudin), and now, apparently, they have “bought out” the Podolsky district and Klimovsk, which “by unanimous decision of the local Councils of Deputies” merged into a single Bolshoi Podolsk .

However, such experiments are fraught with the creation of pockets of discontent in which the interests of the ordinary population and local elites may coincide. And then Andrei Vorobyov’s plans encounter insurmountable obstacles.

Those who disobeyed the Varangians

And such examples are not isolated. Thus, in the science city of Korolev, residents publicly express distrust of the new head Alexander Khodyrev, the administration and the council of deputies. The claims include falsification of legislation, changing the appearance of the city, demolition of monuments, imposition of services in the housing and communal services sector, etc. Science city Zhukovsky, where back in March 2014 a campaign began for the resignation of mayor Andrei Voytyuk (former member of Sergei Shoigu’s team), elected with the personal participation of Andrei Vorobyov back in 2013. He was accused of uncontrolled construction, “strange” distribution of budget funds, inattention to housing and communal services, etc. With great difficulty, it was possible to level out the scandal after the election of a new head of Balashikha, where the elections were held, to put it mildly, in the “atmosphere of the 90s.”

In July 2015, the city of Zvenigorod held a rally for the resignation of the head of the district, Alexander Smirnov, who was appointed to the post in April 2014. The rally, as the participants themselves noted, took place in a symbolic place - near an abandoned, dried-up fountain, opened with great fanfare under the former mayor Leonid Stavitsky. The city's housing and communal services were in the same condition as this fountain, debts for gas exceeded 48 million rubles, city boiler houses were turned off, the former Spartak stadium was given over for development. Even the holy of holies - the judo academy, which Vladimir Putin personally opened in 2012 - is inactive and collapsing. For all three years, no training or competitions were held there. The facility, in the construction of which about 1 billion rubles were invested, is deteriorating due to lack of heat supply. In the Chekhov district, the public ensured that the head, Ilya Ponochevny, was dismissed due to unsatisfactory work results for the first six months. In Protvino, the council of deputies in May 2015 removed Vorobyov’s protege Dmitry Vityaglovsky from the post of head of the administration of the science city. He was appointed acting city manager in November 2014, at a visiting council in Krasnogorsk. In the Shchelkovsky district, the public is dissatisfied with the appointment of Alexey Valov, the former deputy head of the city of Khimki, to the post of head of the district. In the Volokolamsk region, many are dissatisfied with the elected head Evgeny Gavrilov.

"Evil rules the Moscow region"

The biggest bone in the governor’s throat is, perhaps, the head of the Serpukhov region, Alexander Shestun. The figure is quite unpredictable and calculating, extremely contradictory in dating and relationships. On the one hand, he rubbed shoulders with Ramzan Kadyrov and his entourage, was seen in the company of “Surgeon” and Konstantin Malofeev, and was close to the security forces. On the other hand, he communicates with human rights activists Lyudmila Alekseeva, Lev Ponamarev, Elena Panfilova, and crossed paths with Irina Khakamada. High-ranking members of the presidential administration also appeared at public events in his area.

Mr. Shestun is known for the fact that at one time he was a complainant in the sensational “gambling case”, because of which the regional prosecutor Mokhov lost his posts, and his more notorious deputy Ignatenko and members of his group - Urumov, Bazylyan, Nishchemenko, Glebov , Drok and others ended up behind bars. A high-ranking employee of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Abrosimov, who holds a general’s position, also went there with Shestun’s light hand.

With his anti-governor rhetoric, the head of the Serpukhov region gained the broadest support among the population. He does not hesitate to criticize Vorobyov’s policies in many areas - from personnel appointments to failures in housing and communal services, lobbying the interests of large financial and industrial groups, etc. Among the latest high-profile statements, it is worth noting what was said about the regional government’s refusal to build a school in the Kalinovsky settlement and the intention to open a solid waste landfill near residential buildings in the village of Bolshevik. “The governments of the Moscow region have no principles,” he said live on “Police Wave.” “Or they are some other kind, mafia, or some other secret society.”

Vorobyov’s team especially got it for the solid waste landfill. “Do you know what the government of the Moscow region is doing? He brazenly posts everything that they want to post,” Shestun commented on the situation with undisguised irritation. - Deputy Governor Alexander Chuprakov openly threatens me. They demand thirty hectares for a landfill free of charge, without paying taxes. This is just some kind of chaos. I don’t know where the governor recruited these ministers, who cannot be criticized either in terms of moral and business qualities or mental abilities.”

The radicalism of the district head’s statements has crossed any limits allowed by officials - however, the reaction of any normal person to what is being done to the Moscow region today cannot be otherwise. “You shouldn’t think that there is a good governor and evil ministers,” Shestun continued. - This, of course, is a fairy tale that old grandmothers and small children do not believe in. Naturally, everyone there (apparently a hint at Andrei Vorobyov - P.) knows. I alone cannot save people. We need complete consolidation of society, we need everyone to be together. We all need to unite to fight this evil, which is headed by the government of the Moscow region.”

The authoritarian policy of Andrei Vorobyov, who placed exclusively “the right people” at the helm of the Moscow region, is already bearing fruit. And all of them are far from sweet. But the apparatus of the regional government is now swollen to incredible proportions. The region is now governed by 12,000 officials. For comparison: under Governor Anatoly Tyazhlov, the entire staff of the regional government was only 500 people. The quality of the Vorobyov team is also “matching”. For example, since June last year, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Moscow Region has been a certain Ekaterina Semenova. A native of the town of Urai in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, whose business is said to have been personally helped by Sergei Semenovich Sobyanin, she has made a good career from the head of a stationery trading company to a State Duma deputy and a regional government official. At the same time, Semenova has neither specialized education nor the necessary work experience. They say that in a narrow circle she calls her subordinates “Tajiks”; she tries to reduce the work of the commissioner’s representatives in municipalities to campaigning work in elections, saying: “we’ve had enough of receiving grandparents – let’s get busy with the elections...”. From time to time, she calls certain subordinates for interviews, forcing them to resign “at their own request” using profanity and intimidation.

As a result, more than a dozen qualified specialists quit within a few months. Instead, unqualified people who lack basic experience and knowledge are hired. Thus, the accounting department hired an employee as a consultant who does not know the 1C Accounting program and has no accounting experience. A woman who has a law degree, but does not have basic legal and managerial knowledge and experience, has been hired to the position of chief of staff. All attempts to contact Governor Vorobyov and the deputies of the Moscow Regional Duma did not receive an adequate response. Only unsubscribes are received.

Without your business - nowhere

The redistribution of the Moscow region, which began with the arrival of Vorobyov, affected not only politics and local government, but also the spheres of economic influence of the largest financial and industrial groups and business structures.

This is especially noticeable in the activities of construction corporations, whose activity in no way corresponds to those “promises for the people” that Vorobyov is so rich in. Among them is the Morton Group of Companies, whose scandalous projects have been repeatedly reported by the media. Formally, the structure is associated with Sergei Shoigu, but the company began the dramatic development of projects near Moscow precisely under Vorobyov.

Another favorite was the Granel Group, which is said to be close to the governor himself. It was she who was recently given permission to build 500 thousand square meters of new housing in Balashikha, despite the moratorium on construction, which Vorobyov himself spoke about at the beginning of the year. There, in Balashikha, the group of Andrei Ryabinsky’s MIC is also doing well, and will begin to build what is essentially a new city.

Among the major players with political weight, it is worth highlighting Sergei Chemezov (CEO of the Rostec corporation), who plans to build 15 waste incineration plants in the region, for which the state can allocate about 320 billion rubles. Arkady Rotenberg could not do without his interest in road projects - at least within the framework of the M11 Moscow-St. Petersburg highway, fares for which will remain prohibitively high. The owners of Strategy Bank, brothers Yakov and Alexander Urinson, are still developing their business in Khimki.

Of course, all these figures leave a certain imprint on the political landscape of the Moscow region, but their influence is situational in nature - they use political levers at the federal level exclusively to solve local, albeit large-scale, business problems. They do not provide political support to Vorobyov in his fight against the municipalities - this is not their scale and interest.

In the meantime, it becomes obvious that the growth of organized actions against the lawlessness of Vorobyov’s team can be channeled into the “hottest” areas of the region’s internal politics. Especially if there is a strong position on the part of the deputies, as in the Serpukhov region. The intention of the Moscow region authorities to abolish direct elections of Soviets, as well as heads of cities and districts, was called by local deputies “a restoration of dictatorship” and “a bad example for the rest of Russia.” The bill, which, in essence, destroys local government with its institutions of democracy and creates an authoritarian form of government in the region, tied to the governor, did not receive support in many municipalities, including in the south of the Moscow region, in particular in the Serpukhov, Chekhov, and Stupinsky districts . It is obvious that not all residents of the Moscow region want to turn the region into a kind of dwarf totalitarian powers. “The exclusion of the population from participation in local government elections, excessive concentration of financial resources and administrative functions, nepotism and nepotism, wild growth of the administrative apparatus and the costs of its maintenance, ignoring the vital interests of the indigenous population in matters of local importance lead to the rapid degradation of state authorities and local self-government in the Moscow region,” says Nikolai Dizhur, deputy of the Serpukhov Council of Deputies. If the healthy forces of the Moscow region unite, then Vorobyov’s political blitzkrieg will not work. All that remains is to unite...

Since March, various media outlets, bloggers, and journalists, when discussing insiders from the Presidential Administration, have also pointed to the Governor of the Moscow Region, Andrei Vorobyov, as a replacement for Governors. Almost all commentators agree that Andrei Vorobyov overdid it with the reform of local self-government, drove municipal districts into urban districts, abolished direct elections of heads of municipalities, redistributed powers for construction and land use, creating an ephemeral Urban Planning Council, quarreled with both locals and federal elites.

The most amazing thing is that Andrei Yuryevich was awarded “temporary” status in the very first weeks; they thought he wouldn’t survive. It turned out that the godson of the Minister of Defense not only served 4 years, but also broke the entire management system in the Moscow region. So new rumors can also serve as a simple game under the carpet in order to solve personal business interests.

Rumors intensified immediately after Vladimir Putin’s direct line, where the Balashikha landfill was closed almost live. Immediately after this, the media began writing mocking headlines: “The governor of the Moscow region went to the dump after a direct line with the president.” Telegram channels also started talking about a possible resignation:

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The possible resignation of Andrei Vorobyov was actively discussed at the end of May, 3 months before the September elections; apparently, something went wrong and the resignation was cancelled. And we can assume with almost complete confidence that this is due to the fact that instability in the Moscow region on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s elections will definitely not play into his hands. The next elections will be held in a year in 2018, at which time Andrei Vorobyov’s term of office ends - 5 years. And the Kremlin’s policy regarding the timing of resignations of Governors is well known and is not a secret: the change is 3-10 months before the elections, so that the new Governor gets used to it, gets promoted and people get used to him. In short, if he does not leave before the election of the President and remains after the inauguration of the GDP, then Andrei Yuryevich will have a second term.

But let's imagine for now that Andrei Yuryevich left. Politics in the Moscow region will not change, there is too much money circulating here, so the only question is about personalities: who will replace Vorobyov? Various “sofa” and not so analysts name several successors to Andrei Vorobyov:

Alexander Beglov– Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President in the Central Federal District, a person extremely close to Vladimir Putin from his work in St. Petersburg.

Mikhail Men– Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services. Mikhail Men is a long-time friend of the State Duma deputy from Korolev, Pushkino, Krasnoarmeysk Sergei Pakhomov.

Sergei Neverov - Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, son-in-law of his mother-in-law, who has a dacha on Istra

Radiy Khabirov– Head of the Krasnogorsk urban district. It was his federals (and not Vorobyov) who appointed to govern Krasnogorsk after the incident with the Krasnogorsk shooter

In addition to these candidates, the media names Andrei Vorobyov as possible successors: Georgy Poltavchenko- Head of St. Petersburg, Igor Albin, Ruslan Khadzhismelovich Tsalikov- Deputy Minister of Defense, Evgeny Moskvichev and even Anastasia Rakova- Deputy Mayor of Moscow.

And the Head of the city district, Korolev, is considered one of Andrei Vorobyov’s successors. Alexandra Khodyreva. True, one of the requirements for candidates for the post of Governor is age. Alexander Nikolaevich celebrated his 60th birthday last year.

How will this affect Korolev? It depends who comes. But it’s too early to talk about this yet.

So now live with this.

I now publish all the latest in

Recently, “voluntary” resignations of governors have taken place en masse. “It’s unbearable when it’s forced. But voluntarily is more unbearable.”

Much has already been written and said about this “voluntary fall of the government”, so there is no point in repeating it. Once again, the authorities have demonstrated that they don’t care about voters’ opinions. In principle, the majority of voters don’t care about their opinions. They believe exclusively in the “good and superior king”, who alone knows who should rule the local electorate.

It is in this context that we can say why Putin dismissed one and not the other. We don’t know the guarantor’s plans, but in principle, any regional leader can become a “volunteer,” otherwise... You yourself know that those who don’t want to become a volunteer have very little choice. Everyone has their own “skeletons in the closet”. True, there is information that planned resignations have ended. Only if there is force majeure.

In this regard, a significant part of law-abiding residents of the Moscow region are asking a perplexed question: “Why is there no governor on the list of “volunteers” Andrey VOROBYOV.

It seemed that after the “direct line” with Putin, which talked about the garbage dump in Balashikha, the governor’s days in his post were numbered. The names of successors have already been named, but in the end everyone remained with their own.

Indeed, why don’t they resign? It must be understood that Vorobyov’s arrival to the governorship was generally perceived positively in the Moscow region. Firstly, he made campaign promises that were very attractive to the electorate. Prohibit multi-storey and infill development. To restore order in the sphere of housing and communal services, medicine, education. Secondly, he replaced as governor Sergei SHOIGU, who, during his short period of leadership, managed to win the sympathy of the region’s residents. Given the close and close relations, they hoped that Vorobyov would become a worthy successor to the Minister of Defense. Maybe he would become a worthy successor. We don’t know what kind of governor Sergei Shoigu would have been had he stayed in the region longer.

Election promises in our country are rarely fulfilled. They are not fulfilled, and that’s already good. But even that “good” didn’t work out. Multi-storey development was not only not limited, but also received a new impetus - a shameless and senseless scale. Municipalities, having lost their powers in the field of construction, most often act as third-party observers or a lightning rod into which residents’ dissatisfaction is drained. In the housing and communal services sector, transformations have boiled down to the redistribution of the market and the redistribution of financial flows. This was clearly demonstrated in the history of management companies and the creation of MosOblEIRTS, which ultimately led to colossal debts to resource companies.

Local self-government has been practically completely destroyed. In most municipalities there was no direct election of heads and deputies, and the municipalities themselves actually turned into an appendage of the regional government. The main function of local authorities was reduced to one issue. What do you want? The regional government itself is a government of incompetent “blonds” with all the ensuing consequences. One could go on and on about the problems that Governor Vorobyov created or aggravated.

He deserved no less, and perhaps more, “voluntary” resignation than those governors who were dismissed. However, Vorobyov is still governor.

Why didn’t the president dismiss Governor Andrei Vorobyov?

The explanation for this situation seems to be on the surface. The governor has a powerful “roof.” “Godson” - Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, regional prosecutor - son-in-law of the Minister of Defense, son of the Prosecutor General Yuri CHAIKA for some time he was in power near Moscow. With such a “roof”, resignation, if possible, is only upon receipt of an equivalent position for Vorobyov. There are rumors that he could head the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Thank God it's just rumors.

Moreover, there is information that the planned resignations of governors have ended. Only if there is force majeure. It is clear that in the current situation in the region, the socio-economic situation will only worsen: an increase in crime, a decrease in living standards, deepening social stratification, etc.

Not only the population, but also the so-called “local elites” are dissatisfied with the governor’s policies. They are increasingly irritated by the need to fulfill the various “wants” of the governor.

Therefore, there is another more or less plausible version, when the president dismisses the governor. Closer to the new year, when the presidential campaign begins, in order to once again remind the electorate “who’s boss” before the elections. But in any case, with the current structure of power, nothing fundamentally will change. Vorobyov will be replaced by the conditional Drozdov or Sorokin. The electorate will obediently vote “yes”. And then once again he will wait for the president to remove the governor. “The master will come, the master will judge us”- the poet wrote about the psychology of serfs.

Andrey Yuryevich Vorobyov is leaving the post of governor for a promotion, having submitted his resignation and asking for forgiveness from the residents of the Moscow region for the situation with landfills?

After the poisoning of children in Volokolamsk and a whole series of revelations, quite a lot of people are very naively waiting for the resignation of Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov. In addition to the story with the landfills, which led to mass protests, quite a lot of other complaints have accumulated against him.

Among them:

• Monopoly of the Samolet-Development company in the construction market, which, according to some sources, belongs to Vorobyov’s brother Maxim;
• Huge amounts of money for servicing the governor at the expense of benefits for pensioners - about 3 billion rubles are spent on transport for Vorobyov’s office alone;
• Numerous problems of abandoned shareholders, long-term construction, licensing of construction and allocation of land;
• Transferring funds for utility bills through Rossiya Bank.

After Vorobyov’s plans for the Lipkinsky forest, in which they were going to cut down 40 hectares for another cottage village, were reported to the media, passions reached an incredible intensity. Everyone thought that Vorobyov would be removed immediately after Putin’s re-election, but it seems that no movement is even planned.

We don't touch our own

Vladimir Putin is very kind to the faithful sons of his own system. Tkachev, Rogozin, Medvedev, Tuleyev and other officials, on whom tons of incriminating evidence was published, were not even subjected to checks by law enforcement agencies. But a whole myriad of checks and cases of libel against oppositionists, journalists and bloggers flew in.

The resignation of Governor Vorobyov in 2018 is only possible in the upward direction. For example, he will be offered a good position in the supreme government, appointed prime minister or deputy chairman. Vorobyov is Putin’s protege, he was appointed by him. A loyal member of United Russia, and also a student of Shoigu. So there will be no sanctions against him even if a large-scale disaster occurs.

As for honor and dignity. If Tuleyev received almost nothing for the death of 60 people, and he resigned from the post of governor, more likely because of health problems than because of remorse... then does anyone really think that for a simple poisoning in Volokolamsk Vorobyov will leave his job title? He is young, 48 years old, and his career is just beginning to take off. Given the existing “stability,” Vorobyov will still be seen in a major post. After all, Putin and Shoigu will sooner or later look for successors.

It is very interesting that Natalya Poklonskaya wrote a letter to Prosecutor General Chaika with a request to conduct an audit of Vorobyov’s activities. When a member of United Russia publicly complains about his comrade-in-arms, this creates the appearance of openness and justice in the eyes of the public. Author.

Despite the fact that Andrei Yuryevich Vorobyov is a public person, the initial stage of his biography is, if not a mystery shrouded in darkness, then, in any case, raises many questions for a meticulous researcher.

Judge for yourself. It is known for sure that Andrei Vorobyov was born in the city of Krasnoyarsk, in the student family of Yuri Leonidovich and Lyudmila Ivanovna Vorobyov. It is known for sure that Andrei Vorobyov graduated from school in his native Krasnoyarsk in 1987 (his father by that time was the first secretary of the city committee of the small town of Sosnovoborsk, actually a suburb of Krasnoyarsk, where the Krasnoyarsk plant of automobile and tractor trailers was located). And then the ambiguities begin.

For example, in the official biography of Andrei Vorobyov it is indicated that in the period from 1988 to 1989 he served in the internal troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the Special Purpose Operational Division named after. F.D. Dzerzhinsky. It is clear why he served for a year; at that time, full-time university students, among others, were subject to conscription, and in 1989 they were all dismissed from the ranks of the Armed Forces, regardless of their length of service. But then the question arises: why is the university where Vorobiev studied before being drafted and where he returned after being transferred to the reserve not indicated?

True, all official biographies of Andrei Vorobyov indicate that in 1995 he graduated from North Ossetian State University. K.L. Khetagurova, majoring in commerce. But this fact gives rise to many new questions. Vorobyov was called up after his first year, which means he had to study for another four years, why did he study for six years? How did he combine his studies at a Vladikavkaz university with business in Moscow and the Moscow region? Why did he choose North Ossetia, and not Moscow or, for example, his native Krasnoyarsk? Maybe someday Andrei Yuryevich Vorobiev will answer these questions, but for now we can only guess how everything really happened.

For example, it is quite possible that Andrei Vorobyov, having entered one of the universities of Krasnoyarsk (such as polytechnic or non-ferrous metals), did not excel in his studies there, and, having served his military service, did not return to the institute, but stayed in Moscow and took up business. Fortunately, at that time his father, being an inspector of the Krasnoyarsk City Committee, was in charge of the cooperatives and small enterprises that were emerging as part of the “reform of the socialist economy.”

Andrei Yuryevich Vorobyov became too busy a person to waste time on such trifles as studying at a university, so he most likely acquired a diploma of higher education by “solving the issue.” Although, it is quite possible that all this is not so and Vorobiev was indeed a diligent student, attending sessions between transactions. He himself has not yet bothered to clarify this matter.

Business of Andrey Vorobyov

Be that as it may, Andrei Vorobyov started a business that was very diverse and even included the supply of alcohol from North Ossetia. But Vorobyov’s business was especially successful when he began importing pollock and salmon from Norway.

In 1997, he acquired an abandoned vegetable warehouse in Noginsk near Moscow, building a fish processing plant at Bogorodskryba CJSC in its place. The company successfully survived the 1998 crisis and gradually increased its turnover. Soon the Russian Sea group of companies was created, which after some time became the largest supplier and distributor of chilled and fresh-frozen fish and seafood.

Politician Andrey Vorobyov

But Andrei Vorobyov was already cramped in the business world; he wanted to try himself in politics, fortunately such an opportunity presented itself in 2000. In January of this year, an old friend of his father, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, became Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government, without leaving the post of minister.

Andrei Vorobyov was appointed his assistant and remained in this position until May, when Shoigu remained in the new cabinet of Mikhail Kasyanov as a simple minister. Well, Andrei Vorobev, remembering his business background, was entrusted with a very important task: to be the custodian of the Unity party fund. His task was to attract money from donors for various party projects.

Every month it was possible to raise from 10 to 150 thousand rubles from each of the 42 regional branches of the party. Andrey Vorobyov also interacted with sponsors who made donations through unofficial channels.

The activities of Andrei Vorobyov in this post were appreciated. In 2002, he became a member of the Federation Council from the executive branch of the Republic of Adygea. Well, a year later he was elected to the State Duma from United Russia. In the Duma, he immediately took the post of deputy head of the faction (the chairman of the faction was then Boris Gryzlov), and in 2005 he was elected head of the party’s Central Executive Committee. This is how Andrei Vorobyov rose to the top of the party Olympus.

Offshore Vorobyov

Being a prominent United Russia member, Andrei Yuryevich Vorobyov could no longer engage in business. In 2002, he resigned from the post of general director of Russian Sea CJSC (the parent structure of the company group) and sold his 60 percent of shares to his brother Maxim. However, Vorobiev was in no hurry to retire completely. He is still, through an intricate network of offshore companies, one of the main beneficiaries of the Russian Sea Group of Companies. The other main beneficiaries, besides his brother, are the parents of Andrei Vorobyov.

In general, the Vorobyov family is known for the fact that, having insider information and the necessary connections, they almost openly trade in the “necessary” signatures. They even said that it was not a problem for the Vorobyovs to get an autograph from Putin himself. For example, they say that it was Andrei Yuryevich Vorobyov who contributed to the resignation of the governor of the Murmansk region, Yuri Evdokimov, who “did not have a good relationship” with him, to the more flexible Dmitry Dmitrienko, who turned out to be much more favorable to the “Russian Sea”.

It should be noted that even after selling his business, Vorobiev continued to root for his brainchild and made every effort for its prosperity. For example, he pulled off such a profitable business as purchasing the assets of the former governor of Primorye Sergei Darkin. Thus, in 2012, the Russian Sea Group of Companies acquired the Nakhodka Base of Active Marine Fisheries OJSC (NBAMR), the main shareholder of which was Darkin’s wife Larisa Belobrova.

The Russian Sea paid about $300 million for the NBAMR. Considering that NBAMBR is the second Russian fishing company in terms of quotas for the extraction of aquatic biological resources, has 17 of its own vessels and catches about 170 thousand tons of fish and seafood in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas, then the Vorobyov family has seriously increased its assets.

Vorobev's dissertation

As the head of the Central Election Commission of United Russia, Andrei Yuryevich Vorobyov became involved in a scandal related to his dissertation, which he defended in 2004. In his 165-page dissertation, 107 were plagiarized from other sources.

Of course, all this can be explained by the fact that Vorobyov himself did not write any dissertation, but simply gave instructions to “specially trained people.” But these people were too cool about their work. Why Andrei Yuryevich Vorobyov needed such profanity is unknown. After all, being an intelligent person, he perfectly understands that such work does not have any scientific value. Was all this really so that Vorobiev could show off his PhD in Economics?

In 2011, United Russia received much fewer votes than expected during the elections to the State Duma. Party leader Dmitry Medvedev demanded that organizational conclusions be made regarding those responsible for the failure of the election campaign.

As a result, Andrei Vorobyov became one of the “extreme” ones, who, according to Dmitry Anatolyevich, was too carried away by parliamentary activities to the detriment of party activities. Thus, Andrei Vorobyov was forced to leave his post as head of the Central Election Commission of United Russia. But in the parliament of the new convocation, he headed the party faction.

Vorobyov in Krasnogorsk

In 2012, the head of the military department, Anatoly Serdyukov, fell from his chair with a bang, soon retraining from a minister to a defendant in a criminal case. In his place was appointed governor of the Moscow region, Sergei Shoigu, who not only had been an all-Russian rescuer for a long time, but was also an old friend of Andrei Vorobyov’s father from the time they worked together in Krasnoyarsk.

Thus, the position of head of the administration of the Moscow region became vacant, and Yuri Leonidovich Vorobyov made it clear to his friend that his son had “stayed too long” in the Duma and really wanted to work independently. Sergei Kuzhugetovich, of course, did not refuse and soon Andrei Yuryevich Vorobyov was appointed acting governor.

Having transferred the reins of the faction into the hands of Vladimir Vasilyev, Vorobiev immediately began to settle down in Krasnogorsk and prepare for the elections, which were scheduled for September 2013. Andrei Vorobyov was not worried about his election. He did not advertise his business, and only politicized bloggers knew about the scandal with his PhD thesis. As for the remaining weaknesses, that is, participation in and the presence of property and accounts abroad, Vorobyov had nothing to “present” here either. He knew how to find a common language with voters, especially older ones, and besides, he had not only the full power of the propaganda machine behind him as a candidate from the party in power, but also Shoigu’s charisma.

Therefore, it is not surprising that during the voting Andrei Yuryevich received 79 percent of the votes (for comparison, Sergei Sobyanin on the same day in the Moscow mayoral elections with 51 percent of the votes barely managed to avoid the second round), while his closest pursuer, candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Konstantin Cheremisov did not receive even eight percent.

The regional elections were also a failure of the so-called. white-ribbon opposition. Her candidate, Gennady Gudkov, with four percent of the votes looked very pathetic, especially compared to the almost triumph of Alexei Navalny in Moscow with 27 percent of the votes. True, the turnout in the elections in the Moscow region was not much higher than in Moscow (38 percent versus 32 percent), but, unlike Moscow, the Moscow region “Protestants” were unable to mobilize their electorate, while Andrei Vorobyov succeeded in this.

Governor Andrey Vorobyov

Having successfully been elected to the governor's post, Andrei Yuryevich continued the line pursued by Shoigu. In particular, he continued to purge the “overstaying” heads of administrations and initiated a number of criminal cases against particularly “presumptuous” individuals. He began to seriously engage in forests near Moscow, to restore order in the land sector and the construction of the Moscow region, the situation in which during the time of the former governor Boris Gromov it was impossible to characterize anything other than “lawlessness.” The government of the Moscow region also began to work more openly.

However, continuing Shoigu’s line, Andrei Vorobyov was still not Shoigu. His political weight did not allow him to begin a full-scale purge of the Moscow region elite. He fired mainly second- and third-tier officials who “took inappropriately.” Andrei Yuryevich Vorobyov was afraid to touch serious people; in the worst case for them, he simply sent them into retirement, like the long-term head of the Odintsovo district administration, Alexander Gladyshev. Therefore, the “old cadres” that had been quiet began to raise their heads again.