“A year after the elections, the new legislative assembly of Sevastopol will be dissolved”

Boris Kolesnikov left the post of chairman of the Sevastopol regional branch of United Russia when Russian State Duma deputy Dmitry Sablin was sent from Moscow to quell the conflict between the legislative assembly, where United Russia had an overwhelming majority, and the governor.

Kolesnikov led a group of deputies that supported the governors: first Sergei Menyailo, then Dmitry Ovsyannikov. This group desperately opposed the supporters of the hero of the Russian Spring, Alexei Chaly, who almost permanently criticized the executive branch.

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By the way, the conflict between “Chaly’s team” and Ovsyannikov was resolved by the resignation of the latter. Kolesnikov is a rare person in Sevastopol who defends the governor even after his departure. At the same time, he criticizes the course of the election campaign for the legislative assembly on the Internet.

Many call him a “downed pilot” and believe that the former party functionary is driven by personal resentment. “PolitNavigator” proceeds from the fact that the position of a professional lawyer, privy to many of the intricacies of city politics, is interesting and should be presented.

“PolitNavigator”: In your blog, you called the elections to the city legislative assembly, which are currently underway, a negotiated deal. Why?

Boris Kolesnikov: The United Russia primaries have passed. A date was set. But then they keep getting put off and put off. And no one hides why. Because the so-called Chaly team did not submit an application. This is fine? The law is very strict; it places very high demands on the collection of signatures and on the collectors. Non-system parties and self-nominated candidates do not comply with them, make mistakes, and the commission rejects them based on the practice of the Supreme Court. But candidates from these parties submit signature sheets and are accepted. These are Chaly's people: Goreloa, Aksenov, Kulagin. Or candidate Dronova. Her signatures were approved by the territorial commission, and she received an official document about this. Then representatives of the city territorial commission arrive; in her absence, some blots appear on Dronova’s sheets, and the signatures turn out to be invalid. For me, this situation undermines confidence in the electoral system as a whole. Personally, I have nothing to do in the elections. I will not cast my vote because that is casting my vote in the ballot box.

If we call a spade a spade, do you think that there is an agreement between the current leadership of the city organization “United Russia” and Alexey Chaly?

I don’t know, maybe not only with Chaly. There are many players. We don't see someone. Moreover, I do not consider Chaly himself an independent figure in this game.

Let me clarify again. Do you think there is an agreement to allow the right candidates into the districts? Can we predict that these people will win the elections?

Yes, there is an agreement. Regarding the victory, there is a complex for automatic processing of ballots, which will produce the result within 15 minutes. The commission will not count ballots all night as before. Therefore, I would like to recommend to those who are interested in the election results that they do not waste money on qualified observers. Only they can ensure transparency and purity of the process.

Do you predict that there will be violations during the voting process and not the counting process?

There may be different violations. Once, in Ukraine, I didn’t find my ballot at five minutes to eight in the evening. It had already been thrown into the trash can. I'm not saying that someone is preparing fraud, I'm calling for observers to be installed. Then there will be at least some legitimacy of the elections. Otherwise, I will not be able to consider the legislative assembly legitimate based on what is happening now.

You wrote that you have a feeling: this is one oligarch putting his eggs in different baskets.

Chaly says frankly: it doesn’t matter to me which party people will join the legislative assembly, it’s important what kind of people they are. His logic is clear. We know that Vyacheslav Gorelov, who comes from the Green party, is Chaly’s team. Deputy Aksenov did not pass the primaries and is running as a self-nominated candidate. Chaly media journalists are walking through the entrance areas. This proves that Chaly is putting his eggs in different baskets and crosses out his words that he is leaving politics. He plans to actively remain in it. And, most likely, this activity will manifest itself in 2021 in the State Duma elections and in 2020 in the gubernatorial elections.

If the nomination of deputies from Chaly’s team is the result of an agreement, then what is the subject of this agreement. Loyalty?

Roan is not a negotiable person. He easily ruins any agreements. People whose names we see on Wikipedia, government officials, directly told me about this. I think United Russia has pure mathematics here. There are various opinion polls, it is clear that Chaly has very decent recognition, and Altabaeva too. And the party’s rating fell due to the decision on pension reform. Most likely, United Russia decided to buckle down to the rating of Chaly’s team. Moreover, the majority of Sevastopol residents draw information from Chaly’s media. I think that somewhere the goal was set that United Russia in Sevastopol should gain 50 percent or more.

This would be understandable if only candidates from United Russia appeared. But they are introducing single-mandate candidates from other parties who will not formally have any obligations to the party in power.

Someone hopes: everyone was fools, and Chaly deceived them, but he won’t deceive us. I heard this phrase from one of the managers.

In the most favorable case for Chaly’s team, how many deputies will it have in the legislative assembly?

There are candidates that are not obvious, but an observant person can see from the printing of propaganda that they are all made according to the same pattern. I think that there will be an attempt again to seize a controlling stake in the Legislative Assembly. This is 13 mandates. But there is also such a thing as a golden share, without which none of the factions, and there will be three of them: the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and the United Russia, will be able to carry out decisions. This is also a profitable topic. The government and the governor take into account the holders of this golden share and make them subjects of the negotiation process.

You wrote that out of three people whose portraits are printed on the main billboards of United Russia, only one will go to work in the legislative assembly. Who did you mean?

We understand that the Deputy Commander of the Russian Navy will not go, I don’t want to offend anyone, but to the village council. Everyone just really hopes that Vitko will hint to the military: let's vote for United Russia. I don’t know whether Vitko will do this, but he obviously won’t go to the Legislative Assembly. In the same way, State Duma deputy Sablin will not go there.

Let's be honest: Altabaeva, who is third on this poster, is more popular than Sablin.

Her recognition rate is more than 50 percent. At least in the constituency in which she was elected. In my opinion, this is not enough, considering that in recent years the entire press has worked on her image. But there is also such a thing as anti-rating. She is also solid. I don’t want to name a number, it would be a kind of propaganda.

You monitored the situation with the exclusion of non-systemic opposition from elections. Do you think the election commission did everything right?

In terms of withdrawal of parties, everything was done correctly and according to the law. I absolutely agree with them. They didn't even have options. They will win all the cases. The law is tough.

Do you think the parties made mistakes out of ignorance or deliberately? I'll clarify the question. A lawyer defending the rights of a self-nominated candidate in Moscow told me that many made too obvious mistakes. There is a suspicion that they did this deliberately in order to have a reason for rallies. Could such a scenario happen in Sevastopol?

I don't think such a scenario was prepared. But the Rodina party didn’t even have a lawyer. I don't know what they were thinking. Their entire scenario was supposed to be based on the resignation of the governor. They believed that this could unite the city and take 60%. But it didn't happen. All the cards are confused - there is no governor. But he will return with the rank of deputy minister or minister. Putin awarded him, and this is very symbolic.

But Ovsyannikov’s criticism was based on real facts: the missing two billion, the failed reconstruction of Victory Park, Matrossky Boulevard.

As for the two billion, I didn’t delve into this story, but I know that Ovsyannikov also gave a damn about them. This often happens with contractors, as in Victory Park. According to the 44th law, the one who agreed to a smaller amount comes in and then misses the deadline. I don’t agree with Matrossky Boulevard. If a person does something for his own money, this does not mean that he does it the way he wants. As a lawyer, I cannot understand why the contract was concluded under Federal Law 44, as if budget money were involved.

Are you implying that it is not money from the 35th Coastal Battery fund, but some kind of compensation from the budget?

I don't know, I haven't received an answer from anyone. If you are suspicious, you can say all sorts of stupid things. Let’s say you needed to launder money for elections. I do not know that. Maybe Chaly really wanted to leave a memory of himself.

After all, there is already an example of the 35th battery, which proves exactly this motivation.

I would not like to speculate why Chaly needs this. While I have no evidence, I am ready to say: for good purposes. But these good goals must be achieved within the framework of the law.

In the elections to the legislative assembly in 2014, “United Russia was perceived as the team that brought Sevastopol to Russia. That's why they voted for you. Now, who is in this party?

In 14, it was not United Russia that brought Sevastopol to Russia. By the way, there weren’t many people from Chaly’s team there. Remember the podium on February 23: Kazhanov, Melnik, Timofeeva, Igor Solovyov stood. The rest appeared already in March. “United Russia” was formed later, but they voted for it as the team that touched the Russian Spring. Now I think that 6-7 people from this party will enter the Legislative Assembly on the list. There will be three factions in total: United Russia, Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Liberal Democratic Party.

Will representatives of developers get into the legislative assembly?

Developers will try to get closer to the deputies, not realizing that the deputies decide little. The word “developer” has become a dirty word among us. This is not always fair. Here Kabanov built a music school with violations. Ovsyannikov proposed to nationalize it. I came to Kabanov and said: you understand that such violations by law mean demolition. He himself suggested: let me complete the construction, buy “various balalaikas” there and donate them to the city. I don't want anything in return. As a result, the city received the school for 250 million rubles. This is very patriotic, in my opinion.

What would you advise voters to focus on in the upcoming elections?

From the point of view of the average person, one should vote for parliamentary parties. Because they have their own factions in the State Duma, their own curators. It was easy for me to call this or that deputy in Moscow, ask a question, ask for help. When some deputy says: I know the problems of the district and will solve them, this is not true. Issues can only be resolved in contact with the executive branch. The branches of government should not be in conflict. Some say: the Legislative Assembly should become a cudgel for the executive branch. To some extent, yes. But you can only work in contact.

Will the future legislative assembly be comfortable for the governor?

My forecast, alas, is very bad: in a year this legislative assembly will be dissolved. This forecast is based on observations. Unless, of course, our new governor pays special attention to working with the legislative assembly and supervising deputies.