PITS - Sergey Furgal?
07/15/2020
About the process around the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory
On July 9, 2020, the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Sergey Furgal was detained and sent to Moscow. The Basmanny court determined for him a preventive measure in the form of arrest, having determined the location of the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. Furgal was charged with involvement in the organization of contract killings in 2004-2005. On July 11, tens of thousands of Khabarovsk residents (according to various estimates of 5-7 - 30 thousand people) went to unauthorized rallies, which were joined by residents of other cities, towns, and even large villages. Protests continued on July 12, 13 and 14.
The slogans of the protest rallies are “Ya Sergey Furgal!”, “Freedom to Sergey Furgal!”, “Bring back our governor!”. Many protesters assess Furgal’s arrest as revenge on the federal center and United Russia for his election as governor in 2018 and pursuing a policy in the interests of the region’s residents. However, the situation is much more complicated.
The arrest of the governor is, of course, a political step taken by law enforcement agencies with the sanction of the presidential administration. And the charge of organizing contract killings is a reason to eliminate Furgal from the post of governor. Is he involved in them or not? This should be decided by the investigation, based on facts, and not just the testimonies of individuals. The regional and federal press repeatedly wrote about the connections of Furgal with the criminal world in the 2000-2010s. Anyone familiar with the history of the restoration of capitalism in the 1990s is well aware of the role that criminal structures played in this. When Sergei Furgal was a deputy of the State Duma, his assistant was the leader of a large gangster group, Mikhail Timofeev . On the account of his gang - extortion, murder, explosions, racketeering, kidnapping, "protection" of the business.
According to the investigation, all major and high-profile crimes in Khabarovsk are associated with this particular bandit group, which included up to 300 “fighters”. In 2013, Timofeev received 8 years in a maximum security colony; many criminal cases with his participation are still being investigated .
But another thing is interesting. It is hard to imagine that the power structures “overlooked” the big politician, who was a deputy of the Khabarovsk Territory Duma, was elected as a deputy of the State Duma for the whole 3 convocations, headed a profile health committee there, repeatedly participated in the election of the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory ... Most likely, many dubious episodes of a prominent biography they were familiar with the LDPR activist, as well as similar episodes of thousands of other politicians from other parties (primarily United Russia), who make up the current political elite and shape the face of the current political system. It’s another matter that “from above” an order was issued to use compromising evidence, which happened. But why did this happen? There are several opinions, consider them.
Opinion 1: “Sergey Furgal is an implacable oppositionist and the United Russia leadership from the capital decided to get rid of him.”
Accused of crimes Sergey Furgal to the right of the head of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky
The arrested governor has never been an implacable opposition - neither before being elected governor, nor after. The very nature of the LDPR party, with which Furgal’s entire political biography is associated, precludes any serious opposition to Furgal. Throughout his tenure as a deputy of the State Duma, Furgal and the entire faction provided the main function - at the right time to shoulder the president and United Russia in exchange for funding from the state budget, the possibility of lobbying the interests of individual business strata, and the right to periodically criticize quite loudly “United Russia” in order to earn political points from voters and create the appearance of democracy in Russia. Let's look at the facts.
For all 5 years of being in the State Duma of the VI convocation (2011-2016), Sergei Furgal did not vote for 48.1% of the bills under consideration. Approval of the deputy received 51% of bills under consideration. “Against” Furgal voted only in relation to 0.9% of the laws discussed by the State Duma. The numbers speak for themselves.
The election of Furgal as a State Duma deputy in 2016 was made possible thanks to United Russia, which, by agreement with the Liberal Democratic Party, did not nominate a candidate in the 70 (Komsomolsky) single-member constituency, and United Russia party P. Simigin and G. Maltsev were offered high positions in exchange for refusal to participate in the election. The day after the State Duma elections, the LDPR thanked the regional election commission for the good work, and the regional governor United Russia, V. Shport, noted that United Russia and the LDPR are ready to join forces and consolidate.
Being the Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Healthcare in 2015-2018, Furgal bears part of the responsibility for “optimizing” (and actually continuing the collapse) of Russian medicine and transferring it to commercial tracks. Together with the entire faction, Furgal repeatedly voted for the approval of Dmitry Medvedev as chairman of the government. Furgal’s activity in the State Duma was marked by an honorary diploma of the Chairman of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov (2008, “for a significant contribution to the development of legislation and parliamentarism in the Russian Federation”) and gratitude of the Government of the Russian Federation (2017, “for merits in lawmaking and many years of hard work ").
After being elected governor, Sergei Furgal suspended his membership in the Liberal Democratic Party, pursued the policy of the federal center in the region and did not question its priorities. There are no known cases when he publicly criticized the president, the government of the Russian Federation, doubted the effectiveness of the federal center’s policy regarding the Far East, and opposed himself to Moscow. The governor actively called for voting for constitutional amendments, unconditionally supporting the Moscow line. But ... 44% came to the vote, “for” - 62.2%, “against” - 34.64%. One of the lowest results in the country . The protest potential of the region did not coincide with the position of the governor.
Thus, we have no reason to suspect Furgal of implacable opposition. Sergey Furgal is a systemic politician who made a career in one of the bourgeois parties and entered the executive branch on the wave of a protest vote in 2018.
Opinion 2: “Moscow takes revenge on the arrest of Sergei Furgal for the Khabarovsk Territory for the willfulness of the residents of the region who elected him in 2018, and not the current governor of Sport.”

Rallies in Khabarovsk in support of Sergei Furgal
Indeed, after Furgal was elected governor, the capital of the Far East was moved to Vladivostok, where after the scandal with the abolition of the election results, the federal governor still managed to push through his protege Oleg Kozhemyako. However, what is the role of Furgal?
The election of the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory in 2018 did not portend anything extraordinary and promised to proceed according to the following scenario: the election commission registers the current governor of Sport and several technical candidates to create the appearance of an election race, and then Sport, which has significantly lost its political weight, becomes 51-55% the governor at a low turnout due to the driving of state employees and security officials to polling stations. One of the candidates called to create the illusion of democracy was Sergey Furgal, who participated in the election of the governor in 2013 and then gained 19.1% of the vote. However, the situation did not go according to the scenario of the Kremlin technologists: Shport not only did not get more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round, but also tooksecond place (35.62%) after Sergei Furgal (35.81%). And in the second round, 69.57% of voters cast their votes for Furgal . Why is this possible? There are several factors:
1. The complete discredit of the so-called “Sport team” and “United Russia” for the following reasons:
multi-billion debts to private banks, the servicing of which took up a fair amount of the regional budget;
the collapse of the manufacturing sector, the bankruptcy of regional industrial and agricultural enterprises, the deterioration of transport accessibility, and price increases.
corruption scandals and arrests of regional ministers for misconduct;
the abolition of regional travel privileges for pensioners, disabled people and children from large families in 2016, which caused massive protests in Khabarovsk;
inflating the bureaucratic apparatus, creating new regional ministries with an extensive staff and growing costs for its maintenance (the Ministry for the Far Eastern Hectare, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and others);
growing budget expenditures for the maintenance of senior officials (salaries, bonuses after retirement, gigantic pensions and other preferences), including luxury goods: expensive premium foreign cars, expensive interiors of office rooms, maintenance of a yacht for the rest of regional managers;
the unbridled public relations of Governor Shport in all regional mass media, which began to cause the opposite effect;
a decline in the quality of life and, as a consequence, an outflow of the population from the region.
2. The policy of the federal center and the United Russia party determining its content, to which Shport and his “team” belonged.
The dissatisfaction of the region’s residents with the regional authorities was reinforced by the fact that in 2018 the pension reform was extended at the federal level, which increased the retirement age. The increase in VAT rates, the increase in excise taxes on fuel led to higher prices. The reaction of the residents of the region to the realities of the regional policy, aggravated by the federal agenda, created a protest background for the vote. "Anyone, if only not for Shport and not" United Russia ". But if not Short, then who?
3. Of all the governor candidates, with the exception of the current Governor of Sport, Furgal was the strongest rival. He had a fairly high start-up fame, experience in participating in previous gubernatorial elections, a solid electoral budget (Sports budget amounted to about 31 million rubles, Furgal had 10 million, everyone else had less than half a million each), he had a rather populist and simple program, he positioned himself ready for dialogue with all citizens and political forces. In the public mind, an image of a competent and successful politician was created, who is ready to use the experience of parliamentary activity and his weight in federal structures for the benefit of the inhabitants of the region, having solved key problems for the region. That is why many protest-minded voters voted for Furgal, regardless of his party affiliation: “If only not Shport, but this one would definitely not be worse, or even better!”
For Furgal himself, success in the first round was a surprise, moreover, the very presence of the second round automatically made him the winner: an increase in turnout, a vote of protest-minded citizens for rival Sport. In the two weeks that passed between the first and second rounds, Furgal was subjected to pressure attempts to voluntarily refuse to participate in the election race and at some point he even wrote down an appeal in which he said about the possibility of working in the same team with Sport if he won, but ... Refusing the second round meant losing face and political death. Moreover, the victory in the first round was inspired by the business community of the region, not focused on the capital and hoping for a more successful defense of their interests by Furgal, whose family has large property in the region. This, as well as support for the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party,
The election of Furgal as governor is not so much the merit of Furgal himself, as the response of the population of the region to the policy of "United Russia" and dissatisfaction with the "Sport team". But the governor’s post has been won, the elections have been won, it’s time to get to work ... What's next?
Opinion 3. “Sergey Furgal - People’s Governor! He defended the interests of ordinary residents of the region and for this he was arrested. "
By its place in the system of public relations, Sergey Furgal is far from an ordinary person, but a representative of the political and business elite, a capitalist quite large by regional standards, the owner (through his family members) of a number of enterprises. In 2011, after the first term in the State Duma, Sergey Furgal owned 50% of Alkuma LLC, 50% of Khabarovskmetalltorg LLC, 50% of Mif-DV LLC, 50% of Dalpromsnab LLC. What did these firms do? Trade in timber, metal, natural resources of the Far East. In January 2017, the Torex-Khabarovsk Furgal family company acquired control of the Amurmetall plant.
Here is information about the income and property of one Furgal, not counting the members of his family, in 2015, even during his deputy, taken from official sources :

Information on the income and property of Sergey Furgal, not counting members of his family, in 2015
Therefore, the interests of Sergey Furgal are, first of all, the interests of his business and, more broadly, the regional business, which in his person received a defender of his interests. On top of that, the balance of power within the regional political elite, which is closely connected with the business community of the Far East and the capital, has changed. The situation was aggravated by the 2019 elections, when United Russia lost the majority in the regional parliament and the majority of deputies were members of the LDPR, who went to the polls as the “Furgal team”. In other words, the capital’s business and political circles began to fear for weakening control over financial flows, redistribution of income, and the loss of the usual mechanisms for managing the territory through completely “their” structures.
The election of Furgal as the governor and the subsequent events became a factor that did not fit into the usual pattern of relations - the mosaic developed in such a way that elements from another mosaic appeared in it and the overall picture did not take on the form that was expected.
A significant reason also seems to be the spread of the interests of the Rothenberg oligarchic family in the Far East, including to the Amurstal owned by Furgal. Opposition to this caused dissatisfaction of the oligarchy and, quite possibly, influenced the arrest of Furgal, since the proximity of Arkady Rotenberg to President Putin is well known. Thus, the main reason for the arrest of Furgal seems to be a conflict in business circles, which was resolved in a political way. The actual political reasons for the arrest are undeniable, but they are closely intertwined with the conflict between different factions of the ruling class.
What is the difference between the policy of Furgal in comparison with his predecessor? Externally and in particular, it is very different. Furgal, elected in the wake of the protest vote, for all two years of his tenure as governor showed himself to be quite open and attractive to residents of Khabarovsky. Live broadcasts, consistent coverage of his work through a popular (more than 200,000 subscribers) instagram page, public “flogging” of delinquent officials, filmed on videos and appearing on the network ... Furgal reduced the cost of maintaining the regional government by eliminating the ministries created by Sport, set the task sales of luxury goods listed on the balance sheet of the regional government, lowered his salary. In other words, he abolished the obvious, causing general dissatisfaction with the innovations of his predecessor, United Russia. Progress in solving problems with defrauded equity holders and a decrease in the cost of air tickets for residents of the northern regions can also be credited to the governor along with other private changes. But does this mean that his governor is popular and he keeps officials in check? I will give one example.
At a meeting of Sergey Furgal with the leaders of political parties at the end of 2019, he was asked about when the promised reduction in salaries of top regional officials would be actually fulfilled, to which the following answer was received (everything is written down verbatim in the protocol, which is stored in the governor’s office, I convey the general meaning):
“Of course, I can reduce the salaries of ministers to 40-50 thousand, but then they will quit the government, and we will lose qualified specialists. Who will come in their place? People with less responsibility, less qualifications.
In 1917, there were already calls to transfer power to the cooks, and we all remember how it ended. I believe that if not everything, then almost everything depends on managers, and we can’t reduce salaries. ”
When the time came for the author of these lines, the following was said:
“In 1917, not a single political party in Russia set out to transfer power to the cooks. If you had in mind the Bolsheviks, then the main political slogan of the Bolsheviks was the slogan "All power to the Soviets!" and the Bolsheviks demanded that the official’s salary be determined by the level of wages of a skilled worker.
As for the quote by V.I. Lenin about cooks, it will not be useless for you to familiarize yourself with it in its original form, since Lenin opposed turning bureaucracy into a separate closed caste and talked about creating conditions for introducing the broad masses of working people to the task of running the state.
You said that the region needs qualified managers. But does he not need skilled workers, teachers, doctors, engineers, and many others?
Why should they work for 15-20 thousand rubles a month, and the average salary in the region is unacceptable for an official? These are double standards! ”

Rallies in Khabarovsk in support of Sergei Furgal
And yet, what has changed in essence since 2018? A broad political coalition involving various political forces in the region has not lined up - in the regional government we see only United Russia (members of the Sport team) and people from the LDPR. The elections to the regional parliament in 2019 were record-breaking in terms of the number of refusals to register candidates of various political parties, to which the governor's attention was drawn, but no last steps were taken. As of September 1, 2018, the state debt of the Khabarovsk Territory amounted to 51.6 billion rubles. Municipalities in the region received loans worth 3.7 billion rubles.
As of June 1, 2020, the state debt of the Khabarovsk Territory increased and amounted to 57.9 billion rubles. Municipalities over the years of Furgal's governorship also increased their loan portfolio - up to 3.97 billion rubles. Meanwhile, a decrease in the debt load on the territory is one of Furgal’s main campaign promises. In them, there was a decrease in housing and communal services tariffs, however, over these 2 years, tariffs in the region only increased. Another campaign promise is the creation of comfortable living conditions, which would reduce the outflow of the population. But let's look at the data of the regional statistics department, which are given on January 1 of each year:

The data of the regional department of statistics on population decline
The decline in the population, despite the powerful migration flow from the republics of Central Asia, continues quite noticeably. Regional industry and agriculture did not receive any serious impulses for development. Education, health workers, workers and engineers, in other words, the working classes did not feel more protected. Their incomes did not increase, and the disempowerment in the face of the employer remained the same as with Sport. In other words, no tangible changes have occurred; the nature of power has remained the same. However, it could hardly have been otherwise - the governor is rather rigidly inscribed in the implementation of federal state policy, and if his deviations from it exist, then in insignificant details, which does not change its focus and goals. Therefore, the thesis that
The protests that took place after the arrest of Sergei Furgal show the readiness of the residents of the Khabarovsk Territory for joint actions and this cannot but rejoice. People took to the streets, no matter what, and showed their will. Chanting “Freedom to Sergey Furgal” and “We are for Furgal!” even if they idealized the image of the governor, they protested against the policy of the federal center in relation to the Far East, defended their right to elect not “United Russia” and not look like white crows, they opposed amendments to the constitution, against impoverishment and worsening living standards, against official lies about general welfare. At the rallies, along with political ones, socio-economic demands were heard.
However, prior to the formulation of clear requirements of a socio-economic and political nature, spontaneous protest did not rise and could hardly rise. And until this happens, until the struggle moves from the channel “Return to us the official chosen by us, even if not ideal and charged with committing criminal offenses,” to the channel “We demand the observance and expansion of our political and economic rights,” the situation will be repeated.
When it is not the arrest of the governor, but bureaucratic arbitrariness against ordinary people, the dismissal of workers from the enterprise or protest against exploitation in the workplace that will cause the same mass protests, then there will be hope for a change in the situation. Not a change of individuals, but a change of the entire existing system, a change in existing relations of property and power, a real transfer of power to the working people, and not to various representatives of various elite groups - this is the way out of the impasse that our country has reached. And, as the 2018 elections show, hopes for the electoral process in this regard are increasingly turning into illusions.
S.V. Slivko ,
First Secretary of the Khabarovsk Regional Committee of the RKRP and ROT FRONT
https://www.rotfront.su/yamy-sergej-furgal/
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