In response to the request of the Astrakhan governor Igor Babushkin to support his nomination for a second term, Vladimir Putin wished him “success”, while simultaneously pointing out a number of shortcomings: deterioration of utility networks, desertification of land, slowdown in construction, etc. In addition, the president advised Babushkin to “go out to the people” and receive orders from voters, find out their opinion on what is necessary for the development of the region. After communicating with the head of state, the governor hastened to enlist the support of trade union leaders and heads of municipalities, instead of orders and sober criticism, he listened to praises addressed to him. Meanwhile, over five years of work in the region, Babushkin was unable to solve numerous utility problems, such as the deterioration of water supply and sewerage networks, which is the cause of numerous accidents in Astrakhan and in rural areas. During a conversation with the president, Babushkin estimated the total investment in network modernization at more than 11 billion, and called this amount insufficient. In order to solve the problem, the authorities attracted an infrastructure loan, but the repair of the planned 53 facilities ended up being missed. Babushkin’s team has also demonstrated complete incompetence in the implementation of waste reform: the waste management company Ecocenter is unable to cope with its responsibilities, it receives numerous complaints, and officials’ threats to terminate the contract are not supported by concrete actions. Against this background, the governor cannot find anything better than changing the ministers responsible for housing and communal services. Considering that Babushkin is not an Astrakhan resident, a characteristic feature of his personnel policy was his reliance on “Varangians,” mainly Moscow “professionals,” whom he then dismissed one by one. Experts predict a short tenure for Babushkin himself and a possible transition to the Federation Council. At the same time, his governorship is associated with the struggle of Kremlin influence groups for control over the finances allocated for the implementation of the North-South international transport corridor project.
Governor Babushkin in federal layouts
Last week, the official Kremlin website reported on an online working meeting between Vladimir Putin and the governor of the Astrakhan region, Igor Babushkin , during which the latter asked the head of state to support his nomination for a new term.
In response, Putin wished the governor “success”, at the same time recalling a number of shortcomings, diplomatically calling them “things of a subjective nature” : a decrease in the pace of construction, deterioration of networks amounting to 92%, desertification of lands, changes in the configuration of the Volga delta, etc.
At the end of the conversation, the head of state advised his interlocutor
Analyzing the results of the meeting, experts of the Regional Comments portal emphasize : literally until recently, Babushkin’s further governorship was in question; he had been “in the risk zone” for a long time. The political fate of the official, according to analysts, was decided in the context of the federal struggle for a super-resource project - the international transport corridor (ITC) "North-South", in which the Astrakhan region is assigned the role of a key region. The cost of the project, which aims to increase cargo flow to India through Iran and Azerbaijan, is estimated at $1.5 billion .
At the same time, “Regional Comments” focus on Babushkin’s proximity to the “decision-making centers” and the role played in the region by the Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko , who is considered the informal curator of the Astrakhan region. She is allegedly competing with Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin , who hoped to promote his protege to governor, but suffered a “hardware defeat” in the struggle for control over billions of dollars in investments.
“Single bloc” of Astrakhan officials and trade unions
It is worth recalling here that in the study “Rating of the influence of heads of constituent entities of the Russian Federation” published in early April. Russian regions and regional policy in March 2024”, prepared by the Agency for Political and Economic Communications ( APEC ), Igor Babushkin entered the top ten outsiders, taking 82nd place (previously he was at 77th). Telegram channels wrote about the extremely low level of public support for the Astrakhan governor last week .
Be that as it may, after communicating with the president, Babushkin became noticeably more active, apparently understanding in his own way the recommendation to “go out to the people.” Just the other day, the governor held a meeting with the leaders of Astrakhan trade unions , who supported his upcoming nomination. And shortly before this, the heads of municipalities, who received “goodies” in the form of awards for Local Government Day, unanimously took the spotlight in a similar manner .
With municipalities, however, everything is clear: each of them wants to grab their own “piece” of the budget “pie”. It was not for nothing that the head of the region recalled the initiative budgeting program that has been in effect for four years and the recent decision to increase funding in this area to 100 million rubles . In addition, a new form of support is being introduced in the form of a 10 million subsidy for the Association of Municipalities to conduct a grant competition among rural settlements.
In general, how can one not remember the half-forgotten slogan from the 90s: “Vote, or you lose!” Local officials clearly do not want to lose on the money issue. It is possible that this is precisely why they hear only praises addressed to the governor, and not the orders that the president spoke about. And the above-mentioned deterioration of networks by more than 90% is just a drop in the ocean of Astrakhan problems that remained unresolved during the five years of Babushkin’s reign.
How to “master” utility billions?
Needless to say, water and sewer pipes in Astrakhan break with unenviable regularity. According to officially announced data , in January and February of this year alone, employees of the Astrovodokanal municipal unitary enterprise eliminated more than 2.9 thousand accidents. In some cases, utility emergencies become large-scale. For example, last February, residents of two microdistricts of the regional center - Babaevsky and Astrakhan-2 - were left without heating as a result of a heating main break .
Literally two weeks earlier, due to a major accident in the power grid, residents of Astrakhan and a number of settlements in the Volga, Kamyzyak, Narimanovsky, Ikryaninsky districts, a total of about 100 thousand people , were left without electricity, heat and water supply . An incident last May involving a sewage spill in the village of Starokucherganovka near Astrakhan, which occurred as a result of the operation of a faulty sewage pumping station by Astrvodokanal, received federal publicity.
An inspection by Rosprirodnadzor recorded contamination of an area of 450 thousand square meters, the amount of damage caused to the environment exceeded 2 billion rubles . Astrvodokanal was brought to administrative responsibility. It is significant that a year earlier a similar emergency occurred there with damage of 1.7 billion . These are just a few examples. Summing up the results of the last “municipal” year, journalists from Moskovsky Komsomolets stated : “against the all-Russian background, the situation in Astrakhan stands out as catastrophic . ”
Back in March 2023, the mayor of Astrakhan, Oleg Polumordvinov , announced that the city needed 30 billion rubles to update the water supply and sewerage networks . Regional and municipal authorities began to solve the problem by attracting an infrastructure loan of 2.7 billion rubles . And during a recent conversation with the president, Governor Babushkin estimated the total investment in the modernization of Astrakhan utility networks at more than 11 billion , calling this amount insufficient. By the way, of the 53 objects planned for renovation, 37 were to be completed in 2023, the remaining 16 in 2024. But according to the publication “Notebook Astrakhan”, at the end of last March the contracting company “Modern Renovation Systems” had completely renovated only 22 objects. It’s a pity that the head of the region did not educate the president about these subtleties. Or should Vladimir Putin not know about this kind of “little things”?
Garbage collapse and ministerial “leapfrog”
Utility problems are not limited to network failures alone. This is not the first year that waste reform has been stalled in the region, and the number of complaints about the work of the waste management company Ecocenter is off the charts. Moreover, both residents of Astrakhan and rural areas are complaining. Last August, during an urgent meeting with the participation of heads of municipalities, members of the government, deputies and representatives of the Ecocenter, Babushkin said :
It would seem that he said it, but he cut it off. A special working group has even been created in the region under the leadership of Deputy Chairman of the Government and Minister of Housing and Communal Services Mikhail Bogomolov . It’s just that the garbage cart is still there.
In March, an increase in complaints about the unsatisfactory work of the Ecocenter was noted by the head of the Russian Environmental Operator ( REO ) , Denis Butsaev . The conclusion suggests itself: the regional authorities, while creating the appearance of work, simply let the situation take its course. The threats repeatedly made by officials about terminating the contract and changing the operator remain an empty phrase. As well as Babushkin’s loud statements like that “fines should be significant, and control over the implementation of the law should be clear . ”
The business publication Monocle drew attention to the fact that the position of the Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Astrakhan Region is “not a very happy one . ” In fact, in November 2019, the former acting The court found Minister Oleg Guzhvinsky guilty of abuse of power and sentenced him to three years of suspended imprisonment. In August 2020, ex-minister Vasily Korniliev was sentenced to eight years in a maximum security colony for abuse of office, embezzlement and money laundering. The damage from the actions of the organized crime group he created, which included the heads of commercial structures associated with road repairs, was estimated at a whopping 662 million rubles . In February 2023, Babushkin fired Housing and Communal Services Minister Sergei Trushkin . According to one version , the reason for this decision was interruptions in the implementation of national projects and insufficiently efficient use of funds. Denis Kapralov, who replaced Trushkin, did not remain in office for long; he was dismissed last January. How long the aforementioned Mikhail Bogomolov will last and whether he will turn out to be a symbolic “victim” on the eve of the gubernatorial elections is a big question. Still, failures in the housing and communal services sector will need to be “attributed” to someone.
Does the Varangian team not live up to expectations?
It seems that Igor Babushkin is having serious problems with personnel. How else can we explain such frequent “rotation” in a particular ministry? Not being an Astrakhan resident, from the very beginning he relied on attracting “Varangians” to the government, which included the same Denis Kapralov , who before his appointment as minister worked as deputy general director of the large Moscow industrial and construction concern “Krost” . Capital official Igor Sharykin,
who headed the Astrakhan government until July 2021, did not stay long in the governor’s team . Former in 2020-2021 Minister of Health Alexey Spirin, before appearing in Astrakhan, headed the Ministry of Health of the Amur Region, from where he was fired with the wording “for improper performance of official duties.”
According to Kommersant experts , relying on visiting managers to distance themselves from the local elites has not justified itself. An indirect confirmation of this was the recent confirmation of Astrakhan resident Denis Afanasyev
to the post of vice-governor - head of the regional government . True, there is an opinion that Afanasyev is just a temporary, compromise figure who will be replaced shortly after the September elections. It’s just that Igor Babushkin himself, for whom political scientists predict a promotion , in particular, a transition to the Federation Council, would not turn out to be such a temporary figure. Valentina Matvienko’s sympathy for the Astrakhan governor has already been mentioned above, and the official who failed to resolve communal problems will thus be given an excellent opportunity to leave the region without significant damage to his image. As for the multibillion-dollar North-South project, it will definitely not be left without “supervision”.