The icy sidewalks and garbage-covered courtyards of St. Petersburg have already become a meme in social networks. The scandal even reached the federal level, and a number of Russian political scientists saw in the situation an information campaign against the St. Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov. Who is playing against the current governor, and could a major scandal really cost him the job?
Petersburgers flooded the emergency rooms
“Seeing the complete indifference of Mr. Ponidelko (Chairman of the St. Petersburg Improvement Committee Vasily Ponidelko. – Ed.) and the beautification committee, I couldn’t help but go to Smolny,” Yaroslav Kostrov explains his performance at the government building of St. Petersburg. He is the leader of the initiative group “Central District – for a comfortable living environment.” cities on skates with a crutch and a bandaged arm and head – as if broken.
The ice on the sidewalks has indeed become the reason that the load on the emergency rooms of the city has increased dramatically. On January 13, Tatyana Malyagina, People’s Artist of Russia, was unable to play her role in the performance at the Theater on Vasilyevsky. On the way there, she slipped and was knocked unconscious by a blow to her head. She was later diagnosed with a broken shoulder. On January 16, Oleg Gitarkin, a member of the Knife for Frau Müller group, was hospitalized with a broken leg.
St. Petersburg, January 19, 2022
This year, one more problem has been added to the traditionally poor snow removal in St. Petersburg. Throughout the New Year holidays, garbage was not taken out of many courtyards of the city. For this reason, the sites around the waste containers there have turned into smaller copies of landfills. The authorities explained this by the appearance in St. Petersburg of a new waste operator – the allegedly departed waste disposal company did not transfer the list of addresses to its successor. And the new operator added that housing and communal services workers also “wanted to rest” on New Year’s holidays.
The work of utilities was criticized by the stars of show business
The snow-garbage collapse in his video, published on January 15, was sung by musician and media manager Sergey Shnurov. Against the backdrop of a garbage dump in the yard, he sings “Well, you need to pollute the city like that, don’t get through so no x * ra!” Many users in the comments thanked Shnurov for publicizing the city’s problems. At the same time, part of the audience, including Navalny’s associate Dmitry Nizovtsev, accused him of working for the so-called “Putin’s chef” businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. Nizovtsev substantiated this version by the fact that Shnurov’s soundtracks sound in films shot, according to the Insider portal, with the participation of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s company.
Some publications that are part of the Patriot media group (Prigozhin is the head of the group’s board of trustees) have been sharply criticizing the work of the government of Governor Alexander Beglov for several months. At the same time, before the elections to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg in September 2020, the same publications were loyal to the head of the city.
Alexander Beglov
At the same time, Sergei Shnurov is not the only star Petersburger who has publicly criticized the work of city services. Back in December, 91-year-old actor Ivan Krasko complained to the President of the Russian Federation that he could not go outside because of snow and ice. At the same time, People’s Artist of Russia Alexander Rosenbaum criticized the cleaning of roads from snow on his Instagram. On his video, two cars got stuck in the snow on lines 6-7 of Vasilyevsky Island.
Can Beglov’s criticism in the media and Shnurov’s songs be an order?
“We are talking about the distribution of spheres of influence and interests in certain sectors of urban business,” political scientist Dmitry Gavra explains Prigozhin’s possible influence on the information campaign against Beglov. to provide political cover for their business interests, but this did not work out because Smolny campaigned without looking back at relevant wishes.”
Garbage and snow are just a pretext for attacking Alexander Beglov, says political strategist Valentin Bianchi. “The fact that Beglov managed to get full power over the parliament could not but cause a desire to attack him in some other directions,” says Bianchi. “I think that a fairly large number of people are involved in the promotion of a public attack (on Beglov. – Ed.)”, – the expert continues. According to him, those representatives of the Russian elite who, due to the strengthening of Beglov’s positions, do not want to lose their own influence in the symbolically important city, may be interested in this “promotion” in order to weaken the current head of the city.
“The more Beglovs are approved – in the Legislative Assembly, the city election commission and at the municipal level – the more this is a reason for attacks in other planes,” the political consultant believes. Alexander Beglov himself takes a similar position. At a meeting with heads of theaters and concert organizations, he said that his government’s reforms are causing discontent among some “rich people, influential people who can pay for certain things in cash,” Fontanka quotes him.
“The governor has the steady confidence of the president”
In addition, Beglov, at a closed meeting with the leaders of local media, explained the attacks of some publications by the unwillingness of the city to implement the projects of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. This was reported by the telegram channel “Rotonda”, which is run by St. Petersburg journalists Ksenia Klochkova and Maria Karpenko. However, both Beglov and Prigogine deny the existence of a conflict between them. As Prigozhin stated in his comment on Telegram, “I am not interested in the St. Petersburg agenda at all,” and “I have nothing to do with most of the St. Petersburg media.” In the same place, he announced a “competition of a positive song about St. Petersburg among young St. Petersburg performers.” In addition, the entrepreneur’s lawyers filed a lawsuit against the Ural publication Znak, which in its publication linked the wave of criticism against the governor of St. Petersburg with his confrontation with Prigozhin.
Like Valentin Bianchi, Dmitry Gavra is confident that Beglov’s harsh criticism in the local media and show business stars will not lead to his resignation. “If this is an attempt to provoke a reaction from the Kremlin or Moscow towards Beglov, then it is doomed to failure,” Gavra said. “The governor has direct and stable confidence from the president and the presidential administration.” At the same time, Gavra emphasizes that the St. Petersburg authorities should realize their mistakes in their approach to cleaning up the city and communicating with the citizens.
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