Our special correspondent Ulyana Skoybeda talks about how the last Soviet governor, Aman Tuleyev, resigned [video]

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“And take a bow,” he said and leaned his old forehead almost to the table, trimmed with mahogany and green leather. “May the Lord protect each of you...”

The unspeakable echoed in the bureaucratic office: “And Kuzbass”...

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Aman Tuleyev resigned. On Sunday, April 1, the governor of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, officially submitted his resignation. He has been in his post since 1997. Tuleyev resigns after a fire occurred in the Winter Cherry shopping center in Kemerovo, in which 64 people died. In his special video message, the head of the Kemerovo region explained the reasons for leaving

The permanent governor of the Kemerovo region, who ruled for more than 20 years, resigned, eaten up by fakes about 400 corpses and 40 children, locked by the controller and burned alive. We, the media, and law enforcement agencies exposed this untruth, provided relatives with access to the morgues and distributed videos in which the cinema door was wide open - but the online mongrels again swooped in and bit the governor:

“Only one person stayed away from the tragedy - this is Aman Tuleyev!”

“Dozens of people burned just a couple of kilometers from his office, and he didn’t even come that terrible night to somehow support their relatives.”

“Didn’t go to the rally!”

“I transferred one-day earnings of 5,724 rubles to the dead.”

“I didn’t apologize to the dead and Kuzbass residents, but I apologized to Putin!!!”

“The tragedy showed the true face of a man whom many respected! Why did you eat our children, corpse eater?.. Fuck you... after that! Not even the lowest scumbag does this. Not like the governor!” - Kemerovo media magnate Mikhail Shkuropatsky wrote on his online page on Friday, having recently personally received the medal “For Service to Kuzbass” from the hands of Aman Tuleyev, and now having collected all the dirt of unfair accusations and posted a photograph of Tuleyev’s huge blurry face with cheeks as an illustration to the post lying on the shoulders.

(And it is useless to prove that these photos are old, a year ago, when the Siberian Kazakh was almost overcome by diabetes, and now Tuleyev is dry and gray-haired.)

Who did not immediately come to the scene of the tragedy, because that’s what the Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov asked at that moment: not to distract people when the minutes were counting.

Who personally received victims in his office and did not sleep for three days.

And he transferred not one day’s earnings, but organized 5 million rubles to each family for each deceased: 1 million from the regional administration, 1 million from the government, 3 million from local entrepreneurs with whom “there was substantive work,” as Tuleyev vaguely put it in a video message to fellow countrymen in the middle of the week (social responsibility of business detected).

A family that has lost two will receive ten million, a family that has lost three will receive fifteen.

This is without taking into account the help of the oligarch Shtengelov, whom Tuleyev personally asked Putin to get from Australia, so that not only the watchman, security guard and usherette, but also the owner of the building would be responsible for the fire, and without taking into account the money that residents of other regions of Russia, the mayor of Riga and others transfer compassionate citizens. Five million is from Kuzbass alone.

I’m not saying that money will replace children for people, but lying about 5,724 rubles against the background of this amount is low: as low as posting old photographs of a person in illness.

“Aman was eaten up by public opinion,” online political scientists write bluntly.

Which they, political scientists, are excellent at managing.

Although, to be honest, for the entire twenty years that Tuleyev led Kuzbass, the population of the region was unequivocally for him. Public opinion? Oh well...

So who and for what actually brought down the mighty Khan Aman?

And are the residents of Kuzbass happy about this?

But, to tell the truth, Tuleyev is a courageous man and politician. Few people remember that during the first presidential elections of the RSFSR in 1991, the then unknown former head of the Kemerovo Railway, Aman Tuleyev, opposed Boris Yeltsin, who had reached the peak of his popularity, and ultimately gained more than 6 percent of the votes. And that he continued to openly oppose Yeltsin more than once, openly accusing the latter of betraying the interests of Russia in favor of American interests. He even refused to accept the Order of Honor. That, however, did not prevent both politicians from getting along quite peacefully.

And for some reason no one will remember that the same Tuleyev more than once negotiated with terrorists, offering himself instead of hostages. But such is the nature of human memory that good things are not remembered for long.

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Tuleyev: 200 people are causing trouble at the rally. How Governor Aman Tuleyev reported to Putin at a meeting on eliminating the consequences of the fire in Kemerovo

SOCIAL STATE

On the square, where a few days ago there was a small but loud rally about “The authorities are hiding corpses,” there is a bench with the inscription: “The park sofa was made and installed as a gift to the townspeople from the family of Aman Gumirovich Tuleyev with wishes for a pleasant stay.” This image represents the entire power of Kemerovo.

Even in the opposition press, Tuleyev was called the father of the people; he is a real people’s governor, local journalists tell me. - All these countless distributions of goats, chickens, and rams to large rural families were from the administration: they simply brought a ram and a lamb in the trunk of a car and brought it into the barn. For pensioners - food packages, potatoes in the fall, for children - free bicycles: a thousand, then five thousand. Aman Gumirovich says that as a child he lived poorly and did not have a bicycle, so let the children ride. And all this is not window dressing, it is systemic, real! On Miner's Day, if a child is born - 10 thousand for each mother. Same thing on March 8th. A young family gets married on holiday - 50 thousand from the administration and an interest-free loan for the purchase of housing, in the summer travel for pensioners to their dachas is free, university students with good grades receive compensation from the administration for renting housing. For orphans, children of dead miners, maintenance from the region is free, but what! In the 2000s they were sent to Greece! Now - in Sochi. And how many scholarship holders did Tuleyev personally have: undergraduates, graduate students...

Just a relict reserve of socialism, a paternalistic state in a single area. And it rested on the figure of the governor.

By the way, when Tuleyev spoke about measures to support the families of those killed in “Winter Cherry,” he said this:

“It’s not like they buried it, 40 days and forgot - no. Now I will personally deal with each family: maybe there are still living children, parents. If there are children, they must be kept until they are 18 years old, as is customary in Kuzbass. We will provide complete assistance. Next are the banks. People took out loans, other situations. These banks take full responsibility for write-offs.”

Now think about it: do banks like it?

At whose expense is the entire banquet in a depressed region, you can guess?

The practice of agreements between the regional authorities and business on socio-economic cooperation, or simply the milking of business for social needs, has never been hidden here: “ Kuzbassrazrezugol“and other enterprises reported how many hundreds of millions of rubles they would give to orphans and old women. Business preferred to negotiate because there were precedents: those who did not agree with Aman could not work in the region and even live in Russia.

“On Miner’s Day, all the coal miners of Mezhdurechensk gather: you reconstruct the sports palace, you build a new bridge, you must change the asphalt in the city. Every year he chooses a new city: that’s it, for the holiday it turns into a picture! - says the former deputy. “We had a joke that we should also organize a regional Metallurgist’s Day: attract EVRAZ and RUSAL!”

Will the new broom, which sweeps in a new, liberal way, leave all these relics of socialism behind, a rhetorical question.

Well, what service did the Kemerovo doctor Andrei Volna provide, including to the families of those killed in the “Winter Cherry”, who pompously refused the title “Laureate of the Kuzbass Prize” and spat at Aman Tuleyev: “You chickened out, you didn’t apologize, you didn’t resign.” "?

SOUGHT MINERS' SALARIES AND GOT ​​BURNED

In 2011, I came to Kuzbass to write about a local gang of police officers; employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation helped collect material.

Suddenly, the press secretary of the local Investigative Committee, a sweet girl, fell into a stupor: “How can this be? We cannot give interviews on this topic! What will Aman Gumirovich say?”

They explained to me: Tuleyev imposed a ban on any negative information from the region, even if it was a criminal case that went through the court. Local journalists who try to write about the miners' hunger strike due to non-payment of wages are threatened with dismissal.

Aman made decisions contrary to the federal center: he banned debt collectors and introduced a curfew for children, Aman cleared out all the bright politicians who could become his competitors (as soon as someone was talked about as a successor, he was immediately exiled, at best, to the regional center), and ... Aman personally extorted money from careless owners who did not pay wages to the miners. That's where I got burned.

We had a headquarters under the governor,” say locals. - They called the owners there and worked with them in all imaginable and inconceivable ways: they threatened them with OBEP, deprivation of their license, and criminal proceedings. Tuleyev could have prohibited concluding contracts with those who had committed fines, he announced: “I’ve already had enough of the miners on the rails in my time.” The businessman was told: “If you don’t know how to work, we will manage instead of you,” and the shares of the enterprises went to a certain holding company, which is headed by a friend of Tuleyev. It was created in 2002 from scratch and grew to unimaginable sizes (enterprises “bought” by the holding are listed, including a well-known Moscow radio station. - Author)…

Until recently, this holding was a sponsor of all events in Kemerovo. People surprisingly didn’t like him: “They’re grabbers, they’re rowing everything for themselves,” just as they loved Tuleyev.

But in 2016, the system broke down: in July, the administration of the Kemerovo region began to “work” with the owner of the Inskoy open-pit mine, whose two shifts of miners refused to go underground because they had not been paid wages since April. Tuleyev personally called the foreman... And in November, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Siberian Federal District opened a criminal case, but not against the owner for non-payment, but against that same headquarters for extorting a billion rubles from the owner of shares.

Suspects, attention: the head of the Kemerovo Investigative Committee Sergei Kalinkin and two deputy governors Alexey Ivanov and Alexander Danilchenko.

The latter, shortly before his arrest, directly told the press that the Kuzbass authorities “made it clear” to the owner of Inskoy that he was not fulfilling his duties and should transfer the company to a new owner.

The governor was left without force support, say people close to the administration. - They changed the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and sent him from another region. The holding began to urgently sell off its assets, now we don’t even know what they have left. Anarchy has set in. The feeling that everything is falling apart.

In Kemerovo, grocery stores began to close: the local Chibis chain left, the Holiday store closed, their owners left the region, journalists share. - People's wages began to fall. Compared to the 2000s, when everything was growing, depression set in.

Everything was superimposed on the fall in coal prices and the crisis of 2009: it was then that the miners’ working week began to shorten and earnings fell.

And then, in the spring of 2017, Tuleyev fell ill. He disappeared for a long time. Then they announced that he had undergone spinal surgery in Germany.

He returned as a gray-haired grandfather.

He was accused of not going out to the people at the rally, but he almost doesn’t go: he is led arm in arm. There are rumors that the leg has been amputated. The press service denies.

Amangeldy himself said that Roosevelt led from a wheelchair, so nothing...

But I didn’t sit still.

WHO WILL COME NOW

Three people are named as beneficiaries of Tuleyev’s resignation: the new vice-governor Sergei Tsivilev, who had a conversation with the president a month ago before his appointment (it was Tsivilev who was appointed acting governor), that same media tycoon Mikhail Shkuropatsky, who ate from Tuleyev’s hand exactly until the moment he fell ill, and the only Kemerovo oppositionist Maxim Uchvatov, who denigrates the authorities on his own website, is such a local Navalny.

Only Tsivilev is called a serious contender; Shkuropatsky, by all accounts, has his sights set on becoming a deputy.

Confused Aman Tuleyev told on TV how the region is being rocked these days: mines are being “mined” with telephone calls, so that the miners, going wild, go down and rise to the surface five times... they make targeted calls to the relatives of the victims: “This is the regional court, we invite you to preliminary hearing,” people come, but the trial is neither in sleep nor in spirit. People are crying...

We should remember these technologies: when we have grief, a large-scale tragedy, there are forces that know how to open the wound, play on the most sensitive: alive. Children. Four hundred...

I’ll go put a carnation on that bench as a sign of the end of the era of Amangeldy Tuleyev.

HOW TULEEV WALKED UP WITH THE BANDITS

- They say, Aman Gumirovich, you allegedly went alone against armed bandits and saved people?

What is it? It was June seventh, ninety-one. I left the Rossiya Hotel, I walked, I didn’t bother anyone. Guys from some services come up, they don’t know me, but they explain the situation to me: on Vasilievsky Spusk, on a bus, a bandit took a seven-year-old girl hostage and demands money. And since the bandit, they say, is of a similar nationality to you, so you give him the money. As you give, it will fall here, he will bend over, you will go to the side, and we will get down to business. Understood! I got on the bus, and he was holding a knife right at the girl’s throat. What kind of money is there to transfer? At such moments, maybe something from above comes to my aid, I don’t know, the power of suggestion, so to speak. I told him in some inner voice: “Boy, you are not a murderer, don’t kill a child, the money is not worth it.” He dropped the knife and surrendered. Now this girl Masha has already grown up. I’m friends with her family, we correspond.

- But I heard that you went after bandits more than once.

Yeah, I'm lucky in this matter. Two years ago, here in Kemerovo, again a bus, again hostages, a terrorist hung with real explosives. I’m walking and thinking: “I’m going to die now, they’ll forget in a week and not a single one will help my family! How petty everything has become in this life. Some starve, others, robbing the former, build palaces. I always say to these palace builders: “Okay, you have no conscience, so fear God. After all, you have to pay for everything, for everything in this life. If God does not take it from you in full, then your children and grandchildren will pay for you - the thief! If you don’t believe in God, fear the wrath of the people. The time will come - they will burn everything, motherfucker, they will burn you together!” They seem to understand, but animal greed prevails over human reason. I myself have a salary of 2,300,000 ( amount in rubles before the 1998 currency reform, approximately 380 US dollars at the 1997 exchange rate - approx. Ed.), I also want to live richly. I want to have my own house. But to be rich - together with everyone. And so you look at all this poverty, and the fatty piece won’t fit into your throat!

- What about a terrorist?

Oh, yes, I talked to him, and the guy gave in very well.

…- What is your nationality?

My father is Kazakh, my mother is Tatar, and I was raised by a Russian stepfather, Innokenty Ivanovich Vlasov, who truly became my second father.

HAVE AN OPINION

Tuleyev will answer for the tragedy: what will it change?

Dmitry SMIRNOV

Aman Tuleyev held Kuzbass in his hands for a long time and firmly. He led him through both the stormy 90s and the calm 2000s. Once upon a time, after the next re-election, I asked him how he was able to get a fantastic 97% of the votes? - and he simply did not understand the question. "Because I'm working," he said

How Ulyana Skoybeda searched for a gypsy arsonist in Kemerovo

Special report from the city, where the investigation into the fire continues

In Kemerovo, no one believes that 400 people died in the fire anymore

Our correspondent Ulyana Skoybeda about the mood in Kemerovo: everything is calming down, the psychosis has stopped

MEANWHILE

“No one will be fenced off or hidden”: Acting Governor of Kuzbass Sergei Tsivilev promised to punish all those responsible for the fire in Winter Cherry

Acting Governor of the Kemerovo Region Sergei Tsivilev addressed the Kuzbass residents after his appointment. He promised that all those responsible for the fire in the Kemerovo shopping center "Winter Cherry" will be punished

Resignation of Aman Tuleyev: the governor of the Kemerovo region addressed the president with a statement

Governor Aman Tuleyev turned to Vladimir Putin with his resignation after the fire in the Winter Cherry shopping center. The address of the head of the Kemerovo region appeared on the Internet (

What awaits Kuzbass after the resignation of Aman Tuleyev

On Sunday, April 1, the governor of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, submitted his resignation to the president. He noted that this is the only right decision after the tragedy that occurred in the Kemerovo Winter Cherry shopping center. Vladimir Putin accepted the resignation of Tuleyev, who led the region for the last 20 years. We talked with Kuzbass political scientist, Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexander Konovalov about what will happen to Kuzbass after Tuleyev

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What do you remember about the galaxy of leaders of Yeltsin’s conscription?

Arthur CHILINGAROV, Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Russia, famous polar explorer:

The fact that they always knew how to leave their posts on time. Yeltsin himself did this in December 1999, and now Tuleyev. It's hard to lead with such a load. I wish Aman good health.

Ilya SHAKALOV, Director of the Krasnodar Territory Development Fund:

From Yeltsin's times, there are still leaders - as a rule, these are governors - who turn bronze, live in some kind of their own world, disconnected from reality, not noticing obvious things. And this puts ordinary citizens in a dangerous situation, even leading to tragic events.

Irina POLEZHAEVA, mother of many children (6 of her own children, 19 adopted), Moscow:

I wouldn’t say that the leaders in the Yeltsin era were that bad. For example, I remember Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov as a rather approachable and sentimental person. He treated orphans with sympathy and helped our family-type orphanage.

Nikolai SVANIDZE, historian, publicist:

Yeltsin’s conscription included people so different that they can hardly be called a galaxy. This is Gaidar, and Tuleyev... And there were very strong leaders, and very weak, and very controversial.

Vladimir SHEVCHENKO, former chief of protocol of President Boris Yeltsin:

Leaders of the Yeltsin era, such as Tuleyev, were not afraid to go down into the mine, go to the workers, talk to them directly. I think Tuleyev did everything he could, and maybe even more. He did a lot of things well, but some things didn’t, like the rest of us. He was a good governor, he worked for a long time.

Sergey MALINKOVICH, Member of the Central Committee of the Communists of Russia:

I remember this galaxy for its incompetence, contempt for people and the desire to grab more in order to provide for themselves and their immediate environment. As for Tuleyev, I have long said that he needs to be removed. Sorry it's a little late...

Evgeny ROIZMAN, Mayor of Yekaterinburg:

They preserved their regions and set a serious message for the future. But you can’t stay in power that long. We have to leave on time. Tuleyev's example is one of the most striking.

Sergey DARKIN, ex-governor of Primorsky Krai:

These are strong businessmen. Largely. But another peculiarity is that as soon as they retire, they immediately have fewer friends. I know this from myself.

Ivan, listener of Radio “Komsomolskaya Pravda” (97.2 FM):

All of them, starting with Yeltsin himself, caved in to America - and nothing good came of it anyway...

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Aman Tuleyev: from fire to resignation. After the fire in Kemerovo, Governor Aman Tuleyev asked to be relieved of his post. We have compiled a chronicle of events

On April 1, a video message from Governor Aman Tuleyev was posted on the website of the regional administration, in which he announced that he had asked the president of the country for his resignation.
The video is three minutes long. In it, the governor thanks the Kuzbass residents “for always being there” and bows while sitting at the table.

“Dear fellow countrymen! We are all experiencing the terrible tragedy that occurred in Kemerovo on March 25. We lost 64 people, most of them children. Each of us has already passed through all this through our hearts, the pain of this catastrophe. Well, all of Russia and the whole world mourns with us.
Dear Kuzbass residents, I did everything I could. Met with the families of the victims and tried to resolve issues regarding assistance. Once again I offer my deepest condolences. Well, you have to live, keep living. Live to cherish the memories of those we have lost.
The cause of the fire is being investigated by law enforcement agencies.
Dear fellow countrymen, you and I have come a very long way in life. From Kuzbass striking, sitting on the rails, knocking helmets, hunger strikes, strikes, to Kuzbass creating and supporting our state. And you did it all. You and I are immensely grateful to you.
Quite honestly, as before an icon, I can tell you that in my work I am always guided by the interests of our country, Russia, and our region. Thanks again to everyone for always being there, in sorrow and joy. And take a bow.
Today, now, I want to tell you: I submitted my resignation to the President of the Russian Federation. Considering it to be the right, conscious, and only correct decision, because it is impossible to work as a governor with such a heavy burden. Morally it is impossible.
Peace and goodness to you and your families. May God protect you and our native Kuznetsk land».

The message that Tuleyev plans to resign appeared in leading federal media the day before.
One can only hope that this statement is not an April Fool's joke.

He asked the president to accept his early resignation after the fire in the Winter Cherry shopping center, in which, according to official data, 64 people died. The “People's Governor of Kuzbass,” who led the region for 21 years, did not intend to leave his post before the end of his term in 2020. He did not want to let go of power even when he was no longer able to stand up on his own. But the reason for leaving was not the physical illness of the elderly person. After the terrible tragedy, Tuleyev spoke in such a way that it would have been better to remain mournfully silent. tells how the head of Kuzbass has come a long way in power and why he himself is the real troublemaker.

Bowed and left

Aman Tuleyev spoke about the reasons for his resignation in a video message and called his decision “correct, conscious, the only correct one”: “Because with such a heavy burden as governor - well, it’s impossible, morally impossible.” And he wanted to join all the residents of Kuzbass: “Each of us has already passed through all this through our hearts, all this horror, the pain of this catastrophe... The whole of Russia, the whole world, mourns with us.” According to the outgoing governor, he did everything he could: “I met with the families of the victims, tried to resolve issues with the provision of assistance. Once again I offer my deepest condolences. But we have to live, continue to live,” Tuleyev added for some reason.

The permanent head of Kuzbass seems to have only now found something to say. Last week he spoke in such a way that it would be better if he remained silent. He did not come to the scene of the fire - apparently, he simply physically could not walk even a few meters. In his administration, everything was attributed to safety: they say that the motorcade will not be able to travel to the scene of the emergency and will interfere with fire brigades. “Yes, he should be crawling, not driving up in a motorcade!” - people were indignant. On Tuesday, March 27, when the president appeared in Kemerovo and began a meeting on liquidation of the consequences, Tuleyev could neither get up nor sit down without outside help - he was held by the hand by the presidential envoy to the Siberian Federal District.

But Tuleyev could speak... and he began to apologize to the president. At these moments, residents of Kuzbass at a spontaneous rally demanded the resignation of the governor and refused to believe the official data on the number of deaths. Shouts of “Murderers!” were heard in the square, and Tuleyev continued to say strange things: about the opposition, which profits “from human grief,” about the fact that it was not the relatives of the victims who took to the streets, and he chose the word for them - troublemakers. The broad gesture also looked completely ridiculous: the head of the Kemerovo region and his deputies transferred one day’s earnings to help the families of those killed in the fire.

Photo: Alexander Kryazhev / RIA Novosti

And finally he found the right words and the right gestures - he left his post and bowed. In parting, Tuleyev recalled: “We have come a long way in life from Kuzbass on strike, sitting on the rails, to Kuzbass creating, the support of our state.” And indeed, during the two decades of his uninterrupted rule in the region, a considerable distance has been covered. 73-year-old Tuleyev still has Soviet hardware experience behind him.

From communists to United Russia

The head of the Kemerovo railway in the late 80s, he was nominated as a candidate in the first presidential elections. He supported the State Emergency Committee, which he did not forgive, and subsequently appointed another person as head of Kuzbass. He received this post only in 1997, amid unrest among miners. And he won an absolute victory - 94.5 percent of the votes. And it is worth noting that 18 years later the situation has not changed: in 2015, he was again elected governor with the support of more than 96 percent of voters.

In general, failures in Tuleyev’s political career were rare. Residents of the Kemerovo region supported him regardless of what post he was aiming for. He ran for the presidency of Russia three times. In the 1996 elections, he withdrew his candidacy on the eve of the first round and called on voters to vote in support. In 1999, he refused to accept the Order of Honor from Yeltsin. He explained his demarche by the general impoverishment of the people: “I simply cannot, on principle, accept rewards from the government, which has plunged the country into poverty.”

Photo: Anatoly Kuzyarin / Dmitry Sokolov / TASS

At that moment, he was already preparing to create his own movement and run his candidates in the parliamentary elections. And the noisy story with the award supported the image of an unbending fighter against the regime, who cannot be bought with handouts. However, in September 2000, Tuleyev accepted this award already from. From the ranks of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation he migrated to the lists of United Russia. Zyuganov was subsequently sued, and he declared: “Tuleev organized a plowing operation in the Kemerovo region!”

Father of Kuzbass

The ability to get along with miners played such a role in the history of the Kemerovo region and Russia as a whole that the federal center was ready to follow Tuleyev’s lead. In the summer of 1998, miners from Kuzbass and Vorkuta, finding themselves in dire straits due to months of delays in wages, blocked the railways for several weeks. Tuleyev introduced an emergency regime, but did not use force against the miners; moreover, he told the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for unblocking the tracks that the strikers’ demands were legal and fair. As a result, part of the debts was repaid, the tracks were cleared, and Tuleyev ended the so-called rail war.

The politician managed to pacify the miners in subsequent years. He dampened worker protests following mining accidents in the late 2000s that killed hundreds. Tuleyev consistently defended the rights of miners and did not hide the fact that he was aware of the danger posed by them, sometimes resorting to unflattering comparisons. In 2015, for example, he banned any work in the Kuzbass mines during the New Year holidays: “A drunk person in a mine, during mining work, is the same as a terrorist.” And in 2016, he defended the interests of workers who were threatened with mass layoffs. “It turns out that they are simply planning to throw workers out onto the street with mortgages, loans, all payments, reporting with the beautiful phrase “optimization of non-core structures,” the head of the Kemerovo region was indignant.

He established himself in the region as a defender of the rights of the dispossessed, of miners, and even as a defender against terrorists. Tuleyev repeatedly took part in negotiations with attackers. In 1991, as a people's deputy of the RSFSR, he helped free Masha Ponomarenko, who was taken hostage near Red Square, from a bus, offering himself in exchange for the girl. Ten years later, he took part in neutralizing a terrorist who had taken a taxi driver hostage at Kemerovo airport. In 2007, after telephone conversations between Tuleyev and police warrant officer Shatalov, who threatened to blow up a residential building and barricaded himself in his apartment, Novokuznetsk security forces managed to neutralize the terrorist and take him alive.

For a long time, Tuleyev was loved, perceived in Kuzbass as a father, grandfather, and did not want to let go. He took advantage of it. However, not everyone in the region was favorable to him: local businesses had many complaints. Large holdings were made clear that they need to share money with the region and allocate it to the social sphere. The authoritarian governor always conducted a tough dialogue with undesirable entrepreneurs. Tuleyev generally openly entered into conflicts, but positioned himself as a guarantor of stability in the region.

You have to leave on time

Forecasts about the resignation of Aman Tuleyev have been made for several years. They started thinking about a possible successor to the oldest Russian governor, partly because of corruption scandals in his administration. At the same time, Tuleyev himself remained inviolable.

Only health could have brought down such a colossus. And it has been bothering me for a long time. Tuleyev underwent his first spinal surgery back in 2011. Six years later, German doctors performed a second operation. Afterwards, a complication appeared - pneumonia. Due to his long absence from public view and prolonged vacation, rumors began to spread about his imminent resignation from his position. But in 2017, Russia’s oldest governor made it clear: he has no intention of leaving his seat, either now or even in the next couple of years. He intended to retain his post until the end of his term, that is, until 2020.

The possible resignation of the head of the Kemerovo region has been discussed for a long time, and it followed the tragedy in “Winter Cherry”

Ex-governor of the Kemerovo region Aman Tuleyev

Moscow. April 2. website - The resignation of 73-year-old Aman Tuleyev from the post of governor of the Kemerovo region, which evil tongues had unsuccessfully prophesied over the past years, nevertheless took place last Sunday and turned out to be not an April Fool's joke.

The announcement of his early resignation was Tuleyev’s reaction to the Winter Cherry shopping and entertainment center in Kemerovo, which claimed the lives of 64 people, most of them children.

“I consider (resignation) for myself the right, conscious, only right decision, because with such a heavy burden as governor, well, it’s impossible, morally impossible,” Tuleyev said in a video message.

Resignation in Telegram channel

The message that the governor submitted his resignation to Russian President Vladimir Putin first appeared on the Telegram channel of the Kemerovo regional administration. A video message from Tuleyev was also published there.

Confirmation that this time everything is for real came from the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Siberian Federal District, Sergei Menyailo.

“Aman Gumirovich (Tuleev - IF) made a resignation letter; this is not an April Fool’s joke. The decision was made by the governor - it is his right,” the plenipotentiary told Interfax on Sunday afternoon.

Vive le Roi

Later it became known that Putin announced the resignation of Tuleyev, and the deputy head of the region, Sergei Tsivilev, was appointed acting governor.

Tsivilev came to the post of vice-governor in early March; before that he headed the Kolmar company, which mines coal in the south of Yakutia. At the same time, he explained to reporters that in recent years he had increasingly received offers to change jobs, but he asked everyone to wait until the moment when his enterprise began to develop independently.

“At that time, Tuleyev called me and invited me to his place. I arrived, and he told me: “Sooner or later you will go to the civil service, you have no other option, and since this is how the situation is unfolding, come to me.” I’m glad that I work in his team,” Tsivilev said.

According to him, Tuleyev’s proposal “was the last straw,” after which he decided to leave business and become an official.

At the same time, in early March, informed sources assumed that soon after the presidential elections Tsivilev “would be appointed acting governor.”

In the end, this happened, although in completely different circumstances connected with the tragedy in “Winter Cherry”.

“I am taking over the region at a very difficult moment, when dozens of people and, above all, our children died in a terrible fire. I want to tell you, the residents of Kemerovo and the entire region, that I will do everything to ensure that those responsible for this terrible tragedy suffer the strictest punishment. All information will be provided to punish the perpetrators,” Tsivilev said in a video message.

“No one will be fenced off or hidden. This terrible tragedy has united not only Kemerovo, but the entire country in grief and compassion. We will not leave the victims and relatives of the victims alone with the misfortune. We will and will do everything to support them in these difficult days, provide them with all possible help and support,” he stressed.

Continuity

In the same video message, Tsivilev promised to preserve all initiatives for the development of the Kemerovo region adopted by the previous administration.

“I want to assure all of you, every resident of the region, that I am implementing all initiatives and decisions for the development of the region... I am convinced that only through dialogue with people will we be able to strengthen the well-being of the region’s residents, ensure their safety, and lay the foundation for the development of new generations of Kemerovo residents.” , - said the acting governor.

What is Tuleyev remembered for?

Ethnic Kazakh Tuleyev was born in 1944 in the city of Krasnovodsk, Turkmen SSR. Graduated from the Novosibirsk Institute of Railway Transport Engineers (1973) and the Academy of Social Sciences under the CPSU Central Committee (1989). Ph.D. In 1990, he was elected as a deputy of the Kemerovo Regional Council of People's Deputies and served as its chairman. In 1993-1996 - Deputy of the Federation Council from Kuzbass, head of the Legislative Assembly of the Kemerovo Region.

Three times Tuleyev applied for the post of president of the RSFSR and the Russian Federation: in 1991, 1996 and 2000. In 1996-1997 he was a member of the Russian government, the Russian Minister for Cooperation with the CIS countries. In July 1997, he was appointed head of the administration of the Kemerovo region, and in October of the same year he won the election as head of the region.

Tuleyev’s “baptism of fire” was the 1998 miners’ strike, when workers blocked traffic along the Trans-Siberian Railway, seeking payment of wage arrears.

Tuleyev also won gubernatorial elections in 2001 and 2015; in 2005, President Putin extended his powers, and in 2010, the decision to approve him as governor was made by the Council of People's Deputies of the Kemerovo Region on the proposal of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

In public politics, Tuleyev spoke out against the radical economic reforms carried out by Boris Yeltsin, Yegor Gaidar and their supporters. In the 2016 film, which tells the biography of Tuleyev in the context of world history, special attention was paid to the confrontation between the Tuleyev family and the Gaidar family. As it turned out, the roots of their conflict go back to the Civil War. The film claimed that Gaidar's grandfather, children's writer Arkady Gaidar, participated in the execution of the grandfather of the Kemerovo governor, the White Guard Kaldybai Tuleyev.

In 2016, Tuleyev’s health condition deteriorated - it was increasingly difficult for him to move without help, and after surgery in 2017, the governor was rarely seen on video cameras.

“Together you and I have come a long, very long journey in life - from Kuzbass on strike, sitting on the rails, banging helmets, to Kuzbass, creating and supporting our state. And all this was done by you, you. And I am immensely grateful. Quite honestly, how in front of the icon, I can tell you that in my work I have always been guided by the interests of our country, Russia and our region,” Tuleyev said in a video message to residents of the region on Sunday.

He can rightly be called the main political heavyweight of the governor's corps. He sat in the chair of the head of the Kemerovo region even when President Boris Yeltsin was at the helm of the country, and in the 90s he became famous for the fact that it was thanks to his efforts that it was possible to pacify the unrest of miners and prevent a social explosion. But are the positions of Governor Aman Tuleyev so strong today? What could the increasingly louder rumors about the possible resignation of the “irreplaceable” ultimately lead to?

It is worth noting that the Kemerovo region should hardly have been included in the series of articles in “Our Version” about governors sitting in shaky chairs. Aman Tuleyev, a regular at the top of all gubernatorial ratings, can hardly be called a candidate for relegation - there are no more problems in the Kemerovo region than in other regions of the country. Among them, they usually highlight only the high crime rate, for which the region occupies a leading position in the Northern Federal District, the poor investment attractiveness of cities, and the decline in production, which has been characteristic of the entire Russian industry in recent years. Frankly speaking, this is hardly recruiting a possible retiree.

Meanwhile, it was this summer that rumors spread in the media about the possible imminent resignation of Aman Tuleyev. The reason is the governor’s health condition. Indeed, this year Tuleyev underwent complex surgery on his spine. A few months later he returned to work. However, Tuleyev's absence was not in vain. For the first time in many years, the seemingly unshakable rating of the oldest Russian governor began to slowly deflate. Thus, in April of this year, in the “Kremlin rating” of the Center for the Development of Regional Policy, Aman Tuleyev’s region seems to have fallen into the problematic “orange zone”. Alarm bell.

A reliable ally of the Kremlin

It is not for nothing that in July rumors began to spread intensively about who could become Aman Tuleyev’s successor in the region. Among the main candidates were the mayor of Nizhny Tagil, Sergei Nosov, and the State Duma deputy from Kuzbass, Dmitry Islamov. According to Kommersant, Nosov even began to get acquainted with the situation in Kuzbass in the summer.

“Until Aman Tuleyev was sick, he held the region with a firm hand, and therefore the federal government did not remove him. But when he fell ill, the question arose: could he rule the region? – argues political scientist, head of the “Political Expert Group” Konstantin Kalachev. – Rumors about the illness of the governor of the Kemerovo region have been circulating for a long time, but they have been repeatedly refuted by people from his circle. One thing is obvious - he can only leave his post himself.”

And it’s true - Aman Tuleyev’s political positions in the region are very strong. Let us remember that in 2015 he won the elections, receiving the support of 96.7% of voters. And the following year, 2016, Tuleyev conducted an excellent Duma election campaign. The turnout for the State Duma elections in the Kemerovo region was then 86.8%, and United Russia, the regional group of which was headed by the governor himself, received 77.33% of the votes. It is interesting to note that the remaining parties in the region did not even overcome the 10 percent barrier. There is no opposition in the Kemerovo region in principle. Even in the form of a pocket-sized and controllable one, similar to the same Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

In this regard, Aman Tuleyev is obviously beneficial to the federal center in the governor’s chair. The heavyweight governor will be able to ensure the conduct of the 2018 presidential campaign in the best possible way. Fortunately, there is already a positive example. In 2012, Vladimir Putin received the support of 77.2% of voters in the Kemerovo region. Compare: the national average then was only 63.6%.

On this topic

According to media reports, at the end of July the identification of those killed in the crash of the Saratov Airlines An-148 plane will be completed, and relatives of the victims of the tragedy will be able to collect their bodies. The corresponding statement was made by Orenburg Governor Yuri Berg.

The problem is that Kuzbass has historically been a rather problematic region for the country. Suffice it to remember the 90s with miners banging their helmets near the White House. By the way, it was the same Tuleyev who managed to improve the situation in the region. “Kuzbass is not a region where you can send just anyone. And everyone understands this. No one has forgotten how this region was shaken in the 1990s,” says political scientist Viktor Ivanov.

Corruption scandals have reached Kuzbass

The first alarm bell rang from the Kemerovo region at the end of last year. A corruption scandal then broke out in the region. As many as two vice-governors were involved in it. “Now in almost every region there is a case against the vice-governor or minister. Administrations are in limbo. The Kemerovo region has been outside the trend for a long time, now its time could come,” notes political scientist Alexander Kynev.

REFERENCE

The head of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, is the oldest Russian governor. The first time he sat in the governor's chair was back in 1997. Then in the elections he received 94% of the votes.

Let us remember that at one time Tuleyev also had presidential ambitions: he participated in the presidential campaigns of 1991, 1996 and 2000. It is noteworthy that back in 1999, Aman Tuleyev was a member of the Communist Party, and in 2000 he joined the Unity party. In 2003, he headed the regional list of United Russia, although the governor formally joined the party in power only in 2005.

It is noteworthy that a corruption scandal erupted in a key industry for the region – coal. The main defendants in the case were the head of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee, Major General of Justice Sergei Kalinkin, and two of his subordinates. And also acting First Deputy Governor of the region Alexander Danilchenko and Vice Governor Alexey Ivanov, who oversees relations with law enforcement agencies. According to investigators, the suspects tried to “squeeze” from local businessman Anton Tsygankov his 51% stake in Razrez Inskoy JSC. The Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation estimated the value of the company’s shares, which the attackers tried to take over, at 1 billion rubles.

It must be said that JSC Razrez Inskoy really had some problems. At the beginning of 2016, when Anton Tsygankov became the owner of a controlling stake in the company, the company’s debts were estimated at 12 billion rubles. Moreover, some of the creditors had already begun to lose patience and demanded bankruptcy of the enterprise. The miners, who had been without wages for months, had already begun to organize strikes and protests.

According to investigators, the company's difficult situation was allegedly taken advantage of by those wishing to take possession of the company's shares. At the instigation of local authorities, Tsygankov was even arrested in an attempt to force him into a deal, according to investigators. As a result, the enterprise seemed to have to go to another Novokuznetsk entrepreneur, Alexander Shchukin, to whom, we note in parentheses, law enforcement agencies also seem to have complaints. As Governor Aman Tuleyev himself stated at the end of last year, three criminal cases have been opened against Shchukin.

The governor was called as a witness

Another corruption scandal in the region happened in March of this year. The former head of the regional department of transport and communications, Pyotr Shikalev, is accused of large-scale fraud. According to investigators, last fall an official, on behalf of a commercial company, organized fake payment orders to pay for services for the delivery of tons of profile pipes. Moreover, in reality, no supply agreements were planned to be concluded, and the proceeds were supposed to go into Mr. Shikalev’s pocket.

Of course, against the backdrop of the upcoming presidential campaign, given the political weight of Aman Tuleyev, such scandals look petty.

By the way, the fact that Tuleyev himself is confident in his political future is confirmed by his statements regarding the scandal with the Inskaya open-pit mine. As the governor said, the officials were simply “cleverly set up,” while, in his opinion, “no one has needed them for a hundred years and most likely the governor needs them.” By the way, in August the investigation planned to interrogate Tuleyev as a witness in this case.

And although serious personnel changes in the Kemerovo region may not be planned yet, it seems that Tuleyev is beginning to lose his “untouchable” status. “The best option would be to hold out until the presidential elections in the spring of 2018, because Tuleyev will ensure the result, and then you can retire,” says political scientist Evgeniy Minchenko.

In our area of ​​attention

The newspaper “Our Version” has been monitoring resignations in the gubernatorial corps since the beginning of September, and also makes its own forecasts.

In our articles we talk about particularly problematic regions where the resignation of governors is most likely.

Let us recall that last week (No. 39 of October 9, 2017) we predicted the resignation of the governor of the Omsk region. The head of the region left his post last Monday, exactly on the day “Our Version” was released.

In addition, we have previously been able to predict the resignation of the governors of the Samara region, Primorsky and Krasnoyarsk territories.

In total, we note that 11 governors left their posts.

In addition to the already mentioned, the leaders of the Pskov and Ivanovo regions, the head of Dagestan, the Nizhny Novgorod region, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Oryol and Novosibirsk regions also lost their positions.