Photo: Itar-Tass Had Sergei Sobyanin been elected Moscow's new mayor by popular vote, it is highly unlikely that he would be occupying the mayoral office he holds today. This because Russia's regional governors – including mayors of the nation’s two major cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg – are not elected by voters but appointed by the President of Russia. Until just recently, only 13% of the Muscovite population had even heard of Sobyanin. Although the public had caught fleeting glimpses of Sobyanin on TV – either appearing in the entourage of high-ranking officials or as a participant in various important meetings – he rarely granted any media interviews. It’s hardly surprising that journalists called Sobyanin one of the most mysterious figures in Russian politics. The mayoral appointment of this obscure figure from somewhere in Siberia therefore begs the logical question, “Just who is Mr Sobyanin?” Sergei Sobyanin has only lived in Moscow for 6 years and can not even lay claim to ties with St. Petersburg – making him a far cry from native Muscovite Luzhkov, the city's former long-standing mayor. The new mayor of Europe's largest city was born in a village called Nyaksimvol in Tyumen Region's Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area. Sobyanin's career began along the same lines as those of many currently prominent Russian officials – by holding posts with the Komsomol and the Communist Party.
Economic and administrative positions soon followed and he eventually became Governor of the oil-rich Tyumen Region. In 2005, Sobyanin was appointed Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation and became Head of Government Staff and Vice-Premier Minister in 2008. In 2007, he was even fingered as a potential successor to Vladimir Putin.
Sobyanin has not yet managed to establish close contacts with Muscovite business circles, although many media observers have already commented on his wife’s business activities. Rumour has it that Irina Sobyanin's company will be granted a multi-million dollar contract to repave Moscow's city centre. In any case, establishing strong relationships with Moscow's business sector is among the new mayor's highest priorities. Yuri Luzhkov's long established system of 'checks and balances' collapsed overnight, demolished like a house of cards by winds blowing from the Kremlin. It is as yet difficult to determine which way the wind will blow next but one thing is patently clear – the new governor's ascension will inevitably lead to a change in Moscow business relations and an overall redistribution of privileges and opportunities.
JUSTIFYING THE STATE'S TRUST Former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov not only ruled the Russian capital for almost 18 years but also created the basic framework of a system generally referred to as 'Moscow capitalism'. The enormous political scandal that surrounded his dismissal led President Medvedev to state that Luzhkov lost “his (the President’s) trust”. But there's one area in which Yuri Luzhkov excelled; he provided the capital with a considerable level of 'political stability' by establishing a climate with practically no opposition presence, thereby engendering loyalty towards the Kremlin. Keeping that loyalty will be Sergei Sobyanin's primary – and perhaps most important – challenge.
During Putin’s presidency, Sobyanin was one of the first politicians to support the idea of appointing, rather than electing, regional leaders. The new mayor will not only have to provide – but also ensure – long term political stability in Russia's capital city. After all, Sobyanin doesn't have to answer to the Muscovites – who had no role in selecting him as their mayor – but to the leadership that appointed him and that entails more than just preventing protests or anticipating social upheavals, Sobyanin must also convince Muscovite voters, who tend to express their grievances, to favour the nation’s current leadership in upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
Sobyanin’s extensive managerial experience must be taken into account here along with – what is by Russian standards – his astoundingly meteoritic rise to power. He went from being mayor of Kogalym (a relatively small city, although it is one of oil giant Lukoil’s strongholds) to governor of the Tyumen Region, which is Russia's oil Klondike. It is noteworthy that although Sobyanin was elected governor of Tyumen by more than 50% of the voting public, his electoral success did not prevent him from quickly and staunchly supporting the concept of Russia's central government gaining the power to directly appoint regional governors. Sobyanin's next post as head of the Russian President's Administration significantly furthered his political career and opened the way to achieving almost any leadership position. Therefore, the appointment of Moscow’s new mayor indicates that the federal government is primarily trying to create a rigid and vertical Kremlin-Moscow power structure.
ESTABLISHING PARTNERSHIP Moscow's new mayor declared that business and government should work together as partners and respect the “general rules of the game”. At the Russia 2011 Economic Forum, Sobyanin stated that, “Whatever we do, the powers will always be criticized. This is normal. Business should not be subordinate to government; we must be partners in the city's development and set common rules that will be respected by both business and government”. Sobyanin believes that the city authorities should base thier interaction with Muscovite businesses on contracts for public works. When questioned about how the capital's civil servants should behave, Sobyanin replied that, “I’m afraid our country will never have civil servants who are both underpaid and honest”. In Sobyanin's opinion, municipal management positions should be held by people who are honest, competent and ambitious. However, there's a sense of nervousness prevailing in Moscow's business sector at this point in time. The policy of actively rotating civil servants had serious consequences on the various sectors they were meant to be supervising – which included Moscow’s real estate, financial, trade and industrial production markets. A heated dispute has already erupted in the construction sector, with various contractors competing for control of vast park areas and sport facilities where commercial or recreational centres can be built. The same conditions prevail in Moscow’s old industrial areas, where factories are planned be torn down and replaced by commercial complexes. The banking sector was affected by a power struggle involving the Bank of Moscow, through which the city government's funds flow.
As a result of this conflict, former Bank of Moscow head Andrei Borodin precipitously immigrated to London, where he now lives. In early May, a Muscovite tribunal indicted Borodin in abstentia. The Bank of Moscow subsequently fell under the control of Vneshtorgbank (VTB), which is owned by the State. Sergei Sobyanin’s principal strategy is directed at countering Moscow's legendary traffic jams by rapidly expanding the city’s road network. The capital’s new government has already agreed to finance massive roadworks and has allocated over 3 billion dollars to cover construction costs. An ambitious programme for expanding Moscow’s metro system was announ-ced as well. The obvious question lies in who will control these multi billion-dollar projects. How will their financing be structured? It is unlikely that any of Luzhkov’s former cronies will be involved and it is logical to assume that the businessmen heading these projects will be closely linked to the Kremlin. As far as combating traffic congestion and corruption is concerned, solving these problems has long revealed distinct signs of a nationwide public administration crisis. First and foremost, traffic jams are a problem which is inherently systemic in nature and can not be solved by simple means. Mayor Sobyanin is correct in affirming that the city’s urban infrastructure needs strategic development more than just an expanded road network. Furthermore, corruption has become so perva-sive in Russia that new legislation would be ineffective. Reforming the Russian bureaucracy’s long tradition of mutual protection would entail adopting measures that have an effective psychological impact. According to Sobyanin, the only means to salvage the situation is to create an environment where corruption is unprofitable and any associated risks become unjustifiable as well. It's hard to imagine that Sobyanin will be able to achieve tangible progress in these areas as his integral position within the establishment makes it difficult to fight the system. However, there is no doubt that he has been called upon to ensure congruence between actions undertaken by Moscow’s municipal authorities and the federal government’s decisions. Many have gone so far as to conclude that the new mayor will do no more than protect Moscow from a yet another redistribution of its assets, but this view is clearly erroneous. One of the main reasons behind the change in mayors stems from the fact that powerful Muscovite businesses operate with excessive autonomy and non-accountability to the centre of power. Sobyanin will be striving to adjust policy regarding the vast funds that flow through Moscow's economy along with the city's assets, possibly imposing a shift from its current shadowy state of operations to conditions which are more closely controlled by civil servants and businessmen close to the Kremlin.
SURPASSING HIS PREDECESSOR? In the meantime, the situation in the Russian capital is evolving quite predictably. Sergei Sobyanin made it clear that Luzhkov's dubious legacy needs to be reformed and therefore it is worthwhile to closely examine the new mayor's publicly announced proposals for reform. Sobyanin declared that Moscow's budget “was virtually exhausted” due to “a large amount of inefficient spending” and the city had “begun to deteriorate”. He went on to say that Moscow had made “every urban planning mistake in the world” in its previous attempts to organize the city's traffic. One of the principal – and certainly the most notable – error was building 'Moscow City' complex in the city centre. Sobyanin affirmed that construction on Moscow's underground rail network in recent years “was conducted on the principle of doing as little as possible” despite the fact that laying at least 15 km of new lines per year is required to develop the city's underground system. It has actually already become possible to counter Moscow's traffic issues by tearing down unauthorized buildings along the roadsides, creating additional lanes for public transportation and halting the construction of new offices or shopping centres in central Moscow. Moscow's former city authorities did nothing of the kind and – to cite a case in point – didn't invest a single kopeck in centralizing the municipality's traffic light management system over a 5 year period.
The municipality also plans to get rid of its non-core assets. The activities of various state-owned enterprises such as Metro and Mosgortrans have been reviewed in order to ensure that budgeted funds are properly spent and pertinent personnel changes have been made as well. However, as former Mayor Luzhkov regularly increased municipal funding for federal pensions and social services, Sobyanin likewise announced plans to increase Moscow's minimum wage in 2011 during his first week in office. Moscow's new mayor additionally declared that subsidies for veterans, families with children and other citizens who are at risk will be increased. Using the infamous phrase “for loss of trust” in dismissing Moscow’s former long-term mayor indicates that the Kremlin holds the new mayor responsible for convincing Muscovites that he is not another Luzhkov. Nevertheless, the overall style of mayoral leadership has not significantly changed under Sobyanin. The new mayor has adopted the same behaviour as his predecessor; he regularly goes out among the people, making loud proclamations and generally attracting public attention. It's still too early to affirm that Muscovites truly support their new mayor. The most striking event in the mayor's relations with his citizenry to date occurred at a rally organized by trade unions and the United Russia Party on May 1st of this year. Opposition activists pelted Sergei Sobyanin with eggs to express their frustration with the new municipal authority's policy of not permitting Muscovites to exercise their constitutional right to hold political rallies and meetings. Time will tell how successful this politically intuitive and obviously ambitious native of the remote Tyumen Region will be during his term as mayor of Moscow.
SERGEI SEMENOVICH SOBYANIN – BIOGRAPHY Born June 21, 1958 in the village of Nyaksimvol in Berezovsky District, Tyumen Region. In 1980, Sobyanin graduated from Kostroma Technological Institute. In 1989, he graduated from All- Union Correspondence Institute of Law with a Ph.D. in Legal Sciences. He began his professional career in 1980; initially working as a mechanic and later as a Master Craftsman at Chelyabinsk Pipe Plant. Since 1982, Sobyanin has headed the Organizational Department of the Leninsky District Committee for Chelyabinsk Komsomol. From 1984 to 1990, he was a leading and active Communist Party member in Tyumen Region's Khanty-Mansi autonomous district. Since 1991, Sobyanin has headed Kogalym's city administration. Since 1993, he has held the post of First Deputy Head of Administration for the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area. Since 1994, Sobyanin has been Chairman of the Duma for the Khanty- Mansi Autonomous District, a member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation and Chairman of the Federation Council's Committee on Constitutional Legislation and Judicial Affairs. From 2000, he has been First Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Urals Federal District. From 2001 to 2005, Sobyanin was Governor of the Tyumen region. Since November 2005, he has headed the Russian Presidential Administration. Since 2008, he has held the post of Deputy Prime Minister – Chief of Staff of the Russian Federation. On October 21, 2010, the Moscow City Duma appointed Sobyanin mayor for a 5 year term on the recommendation of Russian Federation President, Dmitry Medvedev. Sobyanin is married and has two daughters.
